Bright prospects for Johannesburg Tourism in 2006

Eddy Khosa - CEO of The Johannesburg Tourism Company

"We have recently been given a mandate by the Johannesburg City Council to add leisure tourism to our commitment to boosting business tourism to Destination Johannesburg," says Khosa. "We are putting into place a dynamic new marketing strategy this year." The JTC is run by a private sector board with financial support from the City Council.

Khosa says there is an impressive list of major international and local conferences that have been booked for venues in Johannesburg into the next decade, one of them being the 2007 Junior Delphic Games, and that there will be a greater reaching out to local communities this year through the support of the eight regional tourism associations that are driven by local business.

"In Soweto, for example, we will be officially opening the Soweto Tourism Information Centre that will be tasked with further building tourism in Soweto, which is already the South African township most visited by foreign tourists," says Khosa. "Our marketing plans will also be targeting domestic tourism growth in Soweto."

These plans, he says, include aggressively selling and raising the occupancy rate of bed and breakfasts and related tourist sectors in Soweto, Alexandra and other townships. In addition, the Park Station Tourism Information Centre is to be opened soon.

Central to the marketing strategy is the inner city, which has undergone dramatic rejuvenation in the past ten years in its cultural and night life and is attracting increasing numbers of business and leisure tourists, both foreign and local.

On a broader canvas, The Johannesburg Tourism Company is to strengthen its interaction with other stakeholders in the tourism industry. Khosa himself has been appointed by the Minister of Tourism for a three year period to represent the business tourism industry on the Black Economic Empowerment Charter Council; he also sits on the boards of the bodies that act as the voice of the meeting and conference industries.

Similarly, regular contact is maintained with international conference and exhibition organisations through attendance at their meetings or events by Khosa or members of his management team.

"A major part of our responsibilities in terms of our mandate is to identify opportunities for bringing major international events to our city," Khosa explains. "We form partnerships with local organisations when they prepare bid documents and, if a bid is successful, we provide logistic support to conference organisers."