{"id":292,"date":"2008-10-25T07:54:07","date_gmt":"2008-10-25T05:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=292"},"modified":"2008-10-25T10:26:18","modified_gmt":"2008-10-25T08:26:18","slug":"convention-centre-city-carrot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/convention-centre-city-carrot\/","title":{"rendered":"Convention Centre city carrot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Cape Town International Convention Centre has proven to be a powerful carrot for the local tourism industry, in attracting millions of delegates to Cape Town in its five years of operation.\u00a0 Business tourists are known to extend their visits to add sight-seeing and leisure activities once they come to Cape Town, and also generate a higher spend per capita than do leisure visitors.<\/p>\n

In the past twelve months more than half a million delegates attended conferences at the Convention Centre, and 325 banquets were hosted at the venue.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The current world economic crisis does not appear to have affected bookings, other than in a small reduction of delegates attending in the past month.<\/p>\n

In the past year, the Convention Centre contributed\u00a0R 2,7 billion to the economy of the Western Cape directly and indirectly, according to the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, reports Business<\/strong> Report<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 This will grow to R 3,38\u00a0billion next year, and to R 5,67 billion in five years from now, it is estimated.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Convention Centre is a case study for a successful public\/private partnership, with shares in the holding company Convenco owned by the City of Cape Town (50 %), the Western Cape province (25%) and SunWest International (25%).\u00a0\u00a0 This role model was unable to work for Cape Town Routes Unlimited, previously a joint venture between the City and the Province.\u00a0 Now it is solely funded by the Western Cape government.<\/p>\n

Future growth is constrained until the Convention Centre receives the go-ahead to extend onto the nearby Custom’s House site.\u00a0\u00a0 The planned extension would cost R 1,4 billion, and would be the\u00a0“greenest” and most technologically advanced building in the city.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It will use 40 % less energy and 95% less water and create 25 % less waste than the existing building, reports the Cape Argus<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Wind turbines will be used to generate electricity whilst ventilating the parking garage, and solar energy will be generated.\u00a0\u00a0 It will have a grey and black water treatment\u00a0facility; with rainwater recycled; a seawater cooling system; and have a planted green roof, all\u00a0designed to make the building environmentally responsible.\u00a0\u00a0 The new building has been described as “iconic” by Rashid Toeffy, the CEO of Convenco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, the Convention Centre already has 133 bookings for the next eight years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cape Town International Convention Centre has proven to be a powerful carrot for the local tourism industry, in attracting millions of delegates to Cape Town in its five years of operation.\u00a0 Business tourists are known to extend their visits to add sight-seeing and leisure activities once they come to Cape Town, and also generate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,22],"tags":[32366,256,108,257,259,260,261,263,5,262,258],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t