Events and Conferences

• Mopani Rest Camp in the Kruger National Park has built a new conference facility

Limpopo’s conference industry was firmly in the spotlight when the African National Congress held its historic 52nd National Congress in the city of Polokwane in December 2007. The venue for this massive event  (with 4 000 voting delegates and at least as many observers and supporters) was the University of Limpopo. The event also served as a catalyst for provincial planners to place plans for the establishment of an International Conference Centre (ICC) on the agenda for the future when economic conditions improve.

Private investors will be a key component of the planned ICC, comprising a convention hall capable of hosting up to 2 800 delegates, with multiple meeting rooms and an adjacent three-star hotel. The provincial government has identified business tourism as a key driver for Polokwane in particular, with anchor projects being the planned ICC, the sports complex and the city’s upgraded airport.

Limpopo has several distinct advantages within the MICE sector (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions). Many venues are within one-and-a-half and three hours of the major metropolitan areas of Pretoria and Johannesburg and the range of venues is wide: leisure centres and spas, hot-mineral springs, golf estates, hotels, casinos, private game reserves and bird sanctuaries.

Khoroni Hotel, Casino and Convention Resort offers four conference rooms catering for up to 150 people and offering the full range of facilities. The Meropa Casino and Entertainment World, just outside Polokwane, is one of the bigger conference venues in the province. The Protea Hotel The Ranch can accommodate up to 900 delegates and has its own landing strip. Conference venues linked to game lodges and reserves include those at Ingwe Game Lodge, Etango Game Lodge, Mabalingwe Nature Reserve, Zebula Country Club and Tzaneen Country Lodge.

Venues within the Kruger National Park require slightly longer journeys or air transfers but are certainly worth it for delegates who want to combine business with unwinding in the company of wild animals. Most of the park’s official rest camps have conference facilities, as do the private lodges that operate on the park’s edge.

In June 2009, the Mopani Rest Camp in central Kruger National Park opened a R5.2-million conference facility that can accommodate up to 300 guests.

Team building is proving to be a popular subsector of the MICE industry. Whether it be teams of quad-bikers or paint-ball shottists, the province’s specialist companies operating in the great outdoors are well equipped to cater for every need.

ONLINE RESOURCES
Conference Venues South Africa:
www.conference-venues.co.za
Exhibition Association of Southern Africa: www.exsa.co.za
Limpopo Tourism & Parks: www.golimpopo.com
SA Venues.com: www.sa-venues.com
Southern African Association for the Conference
Industry: www.saaci.co.za

















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