The Sports & Events Tourism Exchange (SETE) aims to promote Africa to the World by positioning Africa as a sports and events tourism destination. By Myra Rego.
SETE further aims to encourage collaboration between the sports, events and tourism industries that will showcase their product offerings to the attending International Hosted Buyers and local corporates, specializing in these sectors, who are interested in bringing business to South Africa.
Now in its fourth year, SETE will be taking place at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban from 28 to 30 October 2014 together with third year Conference Sponsor, the Culture, Arts, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Sector Education and Training Authority (CATHSSETA).
Following the success of the previous three conferences, this year’s conference is aimed at celebrating the successes and achievements of the events tourism industry over the past 20 years. This year the focus has been expanded to include Arts, Cultural and Lifestyle events with sports events as part of the Events Tourism sector.
Organised by Thebe Reed Exhibitions, SETE is backed by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development and Tourism and the region’s marketing body, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal are also giving the event their full support.
Sugen Pillay, Business Development Director Thebe Reed Exhibitions says, “The SETE platform created four years ago has grown to become an annual calendar event in the sports and event tourism industry. Over the past 4 years we have seen high profile international rights owners of events and sports tour operators who have used SETE to bring more events and tour groups into the country.”
“During SETE 2013 it was good to meet fellow hosted buyers from other countries and many good contacts were made there. As specialists in South Africa and a major provider of sports tours I found this a very useful forum,” says Richard Latham Zeta Tours.
This year the conference will not only assess the progress achieved in the implementation of the strategy set in place in 2013, but will also examine the role of local government in supporting major events, understand global sponsorship trends and accessing finance for major events.
For more information, visit www.sportsandevents.co.za or contact Rene Staack on +27 (0) 11 549 8300, email [email protected]
About the Author: Myra Rego is an account executive at LloydOrr Communications. www.lloydorr.com
