By Staff Reporter
15/10/2015
The City of Tshwane will be the Host City partner for the Sports and Events Tourism Exchange (SETE), for the next three years. The SETE now in its fifth year will be taking place from 27 to 29 October 2015, at the Protea Hotel Fire and Ice Menlyn.
The City Manager of Tshwane, Mr Jason Ngobeni, said as part of the Tshwane Vision 2055 the Sports & Events Tourism Exchange fits perfectly into the City’s objectives of ensuring that Tshwane can be positioned as a premier events destination. “This initiative will assist us to grow the local economy that is inclusive, diversified, and competitive,” he said.
During the Tshwane Open, the City of Tshwane presented golf enthusiasts with high-calibre national and international golfers who competed for world ranking. Co-sanctioned by the European Tour and Sunshine Tour, and one of the six founding professional golf tours that make up the International Federation of PGA Tours, ties into one of SETE’s main themes this year – that of Golf Tourism. The annual Sports and Events Tourism Exchange is the only event of its kind in Africa and provides a platform that brings together businesses from the Sports, Events and Tourism industries, and encourages collaboration between these sectors, consisting of a two-day conference, table top exhibition and networking events. International buyers from over 20 countries were hosted over the past three years resulting in estimated business-worth of over R30 million, for the South African economy.
The partnership with the KZN Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs; SASCOC and Cathsseta over the past three years, has also yielded positive results. A key milestone achieved at last year’s conference was agreement by the Sports and Events and Tourism industries, to support the City of Durban’s for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
This year the debate on how to grow Sports and Events Tourism in South Africa will continue and key topics like Golf Tourism in SA, The Business of Sport, Trends in the sports and events tourism industry, will feature as part of the SETE Conference Programme.
“We welcome the City of Tshwane as Host City partner for the fifth edition of the annual SETE event. Over the past few years Tshwane has hosted numerous major events and there is no doubt that SETE will contribute to the City’s objective of being recognized as the country’s premier events destination. We look forward to this partnership and thank the City for having the vision to invest in this event” said Commercial Director, Thebe Reed Exhibitions, Sugen Pillay.
