​​In its 14^th year running, Meetings Africa – the leading two-day Pan-African business events trade show - has grown and attained competitive strength in the global market.  

Cllr Leah Knott, MMC for Economic Development in the City of Johannesburg, delivered the welcome address on Tuesday, 26 February, at the Sandton Convention Centre.

“As host city, and in collaboration with our industry partners, Johannesburg is thrilled to be providing the platform for not only “Advancing Africa Together", but also spurring “Shared Economies – A Tool for Collaborative African Growth" i​n line with this year's Meetings Africa​ theme," said MMC Knott.

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“Joburg is indeed the right place to be seeking opportunities for networking, identifying future business prospects and collaborative initiatives. We are proud and honoured to be the host city and home of an exhibition of this calibre.

“Meetings Africa has come a long way – and continues its steady growth trajectory. This year we are looking at hosting some 194 international buyers, 55 associations and 55 local corporate buyers – a 10% increase on 2018 figures."

The Department of Economic Development's strategic objective is to promote the City of Joburg to be the number one African destination of choice for both business and leisure in an effort to: 

• Improve seasonality, length of stay and tourist spend during visits to Joburg.
• Improve the diversity of the tourism offering in Joburg.
• Build a positive image / perception for the city among local, national and international audiences. 
  “We are committed to creating an investor- and visitor-friendly city in line with the executive mayor's growth targets, the top 10 mayoral priorities and initiatives like A Re Sebetseng, Buya Mthetho and Diphetogo. As we say: “A Johannesburg that works is a South Africa that works!" said Knott.
   “I would like to remind all our visitors that while Meetings Africa is one the African continent's most significant business tourism lekgotlas, that “There is More to Joburg Than Business and  Joburg is Up There with the Best – not only are we the most visited city in Africa since 2013 (according to the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index), Joburg is also the only city on the continent that has made it into the EUROMONITOR INTERNATIONAL'S TOP 100 CITIES ranking - ranking 37th [January 2017]."
  Other recent accolades for destination Joburg include:
  

• Significantly improved ICCA Rankings [May 2018].  Johannesburg moved from position 186 to 113 globally, while also improving our ranking in Africa from position 5 to 2. 
• Making TripAdvisor's top 10 list in the Travellers' Choice Awards for Best Destinations in Africa [May 2018]
• Maboneng named as one of the World's Coolest Suburbs by Forbes Magazine [9 July 2018]