Scheduled for 27 and 28 July 2023, the 6th edition of the Africa Business Tourism and MICE Masterclass will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Participants of the MICE Masterclass include Ministers, policymakers, directors of tourism, tourism departments, development Agencies, principal and permanent secretaries, meeting planners, professional conference organisers, professional event organisers, destination marketing companies, MICE industry suppliers, youth and women in tourism, students, SMEs, entrepreneurs and start-ups in travel and tourism.
Themed, “Igniting Post Covid-19 African Business Tourism & MICE Transformation for Global Market Place”, the MICE Masterclass is a professional development and refresher programme for Africa Industry stakeholders which has grown from strength to strength since inception in 2018, including the 2020 (hybrid Format) 2021 and 2022 editions. Africa Tourism Partners (ATP) has delivered this programme since 2018 in collaboration with BDO and with the support of the Southern Africa Association of Conference Industry (SAACI), UNWTO and SITE Africa, South African Tourism, and many other partners.
The World Tourism Organisation acknowledges that the MICE sector is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the global tourism industry, with a value of US7 trillion, with Africa accounting for not more than 2%. Evidently, Africa’s MICE industry has the potential to grow. It is therefore against this background that ATP has designed and delivered the annual Africa Business Tourism and MICE Masterclass. This year’s diverse and comprehensive Masterclass will be presented by a faculty comprising some of the world’s most experienced leaders and experts in the MICE industry. The course will be presented over 2 days and the faculty is selected from ATP’s global pool of experts.
The Masterclass aims to offer focused Business Tourism & MICE capacity building for SMEs and youth as a critical component of their MICE development programme and to bridge the skills shortage and refresher gap in Business Tourism and MICE travel in post-pandemic recovery. The course is also meant to inspire and demonstrate how destinations and Africa MICE and Tourism leaders and professionals should develop a roadmap for the future of the industry as well as to present an opportunity for Convention Bureau staff, seasoned and young professionals to learn from ATP’s pool of over 40 global and continental MICE/Business experts for career development and Continuing Professional Development. The Masterclass fosters peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and business/MICE tourism leadership development.
Thematic areas include:
• The building block of devolving and marketing a world class MICE destination.
• Technological innovation and digitalisation in MICE & Hospitality.
• Contemporary Sales and Marketing Lessons in MICE, Hospitality & Convention Centres/Venues.
• Conference & Meetings Venue Management – Applying innovative yield & revenue management.
• Becoming a skilled MICE professional – Understanding the career path of a MICE professional and growth opportunities.
• Spotlight on innovative technology and digital platforms for profit optimisation – MICE Perspective.
• What Boomers, Millennials and Gen Z look for in a MICE trip
Participants will get the opportunity to participate in pre-arranged and on spot One-to-One” Business to Business sessions. Desktop exhibition space is available on first come first serve basis.
