Rivania Govender, research specialist at Niche Partners, shares a snapshot of some key client and supplier trends that have emerged in the annual African Perspectives on the MICE Industry Report for 2023.

Two years after the start of Covid-19, the business events industry was given the green light to open its doors and welcome the return of significant annual events in many countries on the continent. A reflection of the recovery of key industry events such as Meetings Africa, Africa’s Travel Indaba and World Travel Market is worth reviewing to assess the economic recovery in 2022.

After two years of stagnation, the leisure and business tourism industry in Africa is attempting to bring back its foreign visitors with the most recent destination marketing efforts. Numerous African countries have developed campaigns to break free from clichés and reposition the continent as a modern, adventurous, business-savvy and market-ready destination.

On 16 March 2021, Niche Partners, together with Meeting magazines, hosted the first of its African Perspectives Stakeholder Roundtable series. Londi Khumalo shares some of the highlights.

With the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in the pipeline, Londi Khumalo, managing director of research consultancy Niche Partners, feels this can lead to exciting prospects for the continent’s MICE stakeholders and overall growth.

The African MICE industry has been hard at work during the lockdown in its bid to consider new ways to collaborate and remain resilient post-pandemic.

Two recent conferences focused on Africa working together i.e. the Global MICE Summit and the African Society of Association Executives Summit (Afsae), which underscored the opportunity of the African continent to grow its MICE industry from the current 3% contribution to the global figure of association meetings.

With recent findings from our 2020 African Perspectives Report on the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions Industry revealing that the leading concerns for businesses along this supply chain were financial stability and future recovery, it highlights two important areas of focus: business continuity and sustainability.

Niche Partners has issued a report titled African Perspectives on the MICE Industry that details its findings across a continent-wide survey and gives insights into where the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) industry is currently most challenged.

“More than three-quarters (78%) of our respondents cite the leading concern for the MICE industry in Africa as revenue generation as well as financial sustainability,” says Londi Khumalo, managing director of Niche Partners.