Tourism Business Council of South Africa joins forces with Bench

THE Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) has joined forces with UK-based Bench Events to organise and convene the annual Hospitality Investment Conference Africa (HICA) from 2011 onwards.  As part of the partnership agreement, the event will be renamed the Hotel Investment Conference Africa.

HICA 2010 is scheduled to take place at the Sandton Sun Hotel, in Johannesburg, from October 31 to November 2 and the main theme for this year’s conference is ‘Sustainable Growth of Africa’s Hotel Market Share’.

In 2011 the conference will be hosted in Casablanca, Morocco, from September 26 and 27, with the event returning back to South Africa in 2012.

TBCSA chief executive officer Mmatšatši Marobe says the objective of the partnership is to grow the HICA platform to cover the rest of Africa, thereby helping to develop the hotel and hospitality sector on the continent.

“The partnership with Bench Events will help grow HICA into one of the foremost hospitality investment conferences in the world, as it brings considerable expertise and valuable industry networks to the event”.

HICA joins a list of prestigious hotel investment conferences managed by Bench Events and its partners, namely the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) in Berlin, the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) in Dubai, the Russian & CIS Hotel Investment Conference (RHIC) in Moscow as well as the Central Asia and Turkey Hotel Investment Conference (CATHIC) in Istanbul.  

Over the past 12 years Bench Events has become a key player in the international hotel investment arena staging conferences in Russia, Turkey, Germany and Dubai on an annual basis.  These conferences are attended by leaders and decision-makers representing the hotel and investment community from across the world.

Marobe says Bench Events will bring international hospitality brands that are keen to spread their footprint in Africa to HICA. “We have a wealth of knowledge and this can only go further if we continue to partner with others in the world to maintain continuity and growth,” he said.

In terms of the agreement the TBCSA, as the founder of HICA, will remain an active partner of the event, even when it takes place outside South Africa.

Bench Events will take over the management and organisation of the conference, while the TBCSA will convene and chair the HICA advisory board and work on programme/ topics to be discussed and speakers to be invited.