An increasing number of medical conferences are being held in Cape Town, in the Cape Town International Convention Centre in particular.  The City has just won two major bids for medical conferences in the next three years, expected to generate R48 million in revenue for the city, and 16500 ‘delegate days’, reports Cape Business News.

The ‘16th International Congress of Infectious Diseases’ will take place in 2014, and the Convention Centre beat Melbourne for the honour of hosting the conference.  Cape Town beat Vancouver in its bid to host the ‘International Urogynecological Association 2016′ conference.   The conferences will follow on the 10000 delegate ‘International Conference on AIDS and STI in Africa’, to be held in Cape Town in December.  The ‘Investing in Africa Mining Indaba’, hosting 7500 delegates last week, had a tremendous revenue benefit for Cape Town.

The planned doubling in the size of the Cape Town International Convention Centre is expected to lead to 40 or more international conferences being hosted in the city from 2016, a doubling in the current conference number, making Cape Town ‘one of the world’s top long-haul conference destinations’, said Rashid Toefy, the CEO of the Cape Town International Convention Centre.  This is excellent news for Cape Town’s tourist industry, as there is no doubt that large international conferences are good for the accommodation, restaurant, taxi, and airline business!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage

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