Durban is gearing up to host the annual Sports & Events Tourism Exchange (Sete) Exhibition and Conference at the International Convention Centre from October 22–24.
This comes hot on the heels of Durban’s hosting another successful Soccerex African Forum exhibition and conference at Moses Mabhida Stadium last week.
The Sports & Events Tourism Exchange, organised by Thebe Exhibitions and Projects and supported by the city and province, provides a platform to bring together businesses from the sports and tourism industries and to encourage collaboration between the two sectors.
The event will take place at the ICC for the third time and will include a two-day conference, an exhibition and networking events. More than 1 000 delegates will attend the conference.
“With the past tourism focus having been on the leisure and business sectors, the introduction of the Sete Exhibition and Conference now plays a fundamental role in promoting the new ‘sports’ trend within the industry,” said Sugen Pillay, the director for business development at Thebe Exhibitions.
“Sport tourism is one of the fastest growing areas of the global travel and tourism industry. Quite obvious are the links between the hospitality, leisure, sport and tourism networks, which spotlight the interplay between these markets and the economies of the driving countries.”
Pillay said this year’s event would attract about 60 “international hosted buyers” from the US, France, India, Brazil, the UK, Spain, Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria and Italy. They would include international sport federations that were interested in bringing their events to South Africa, sport and leisure tour operators looking for new products in South Africa, event rights holders and marketing companies that wanted to explore South Africa as a host destination, and sport tourism media buyers.
“It is encouraging to see previous exhibitors returning and new exhibitors coming on board for Sete 2013. And with the new buyers attending this year to meet the exhibitors, we are certain it will be a great business-to-business event,” said Pillay.
The SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) has once again thrown its weight behind the event.
“More than 60 national sporting federations are affiliated to Sascoc, so we will have the presence of all those federations at our conference,” said Pillay.
“It is very exciting to get Sascoc on board again, because it is a key partner when it comes to bidding and hosting international events. This partnership demonstrates the government’s commitment to growing the sports tourism industry,” he added.
Pillay said a highlight of last year’s conference was the adoption of Sascoc’s 17-year bidding and hosting strategic framework. The strategy identified the key international events that South Africa should bid for, as well as the domestic events that needed government support to develop the country’s sport tourism industry. The conference would focus on the key interventions required by Sascoc and its partners to bid and host international events, such as the Olympics.
“This year, delegates will assess the progress that has been made in the implementation of the strategy,” Pillay said.
James Seymour, the chief executive of the Durban KwaZulu-Natal Convention Bureau, said: “We are extremely proud to host the Sete event again as it is of tremendous value to us and is the only event of its kind on the continent.
“It promotes South Africa as a top sporting destination and our aim is to showcase Durban and KZN as a premier event destination not only in South Africa, but worldwide too.”
* For more information, visit www.sportsandevents.co.za, www.Facebook.com/SETE.ZA on Facebook, follow @SETE_ZA on Twitter or phone René Staack at 011 549 8300.