Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), which after just four years of operations has entered the lists of South Africa’s top 500 companies, this month also received two international awards that take Cape Town’s status as a destination of note to new heights.

CTICC has won the title “Convention and Exhibition Venue of the Year 2007” awarded  by the UK magazine, Business Britain and also this month took the bronze in the Best Overseas Conference Centre category at the prestigious Meetings & Incentives Travel (M&IT) awards announced this month in London.  The silver award in the same category went to CCIB Barcelona and the gold to Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum.  CTICC won the bronze against other finalists, Dubai World Trade Centre and Spain’s luxury resort, Dolce Sitges.

In the Business Britain award, eight key categories are reviewed following extensive research into selected nominees.  Criteria for CTICC included the number of delegates accommodated in 2007, additional services, customer relations, location, cultural/leisure-based pursuits offered, marketing and promotion and its appropriateness to Business Britain’s readers.

CTICC managing director Dirk Elzinga, said he was delighted with the new accolades. “International conferences are important for the CTICC because of their economic spin-off for Cape Town and the Western Cape.  Last year CTICC hosted 46 of these events, collectively good for 45 000 delegates.”                    
                                                                                                                                                  
CTICC’s inclusion in the list of  South Africa’s top 500 companies comes after a year in which the centre experienced further growth, with turnover rising above R100 million and a significant contribution made to both direct and indirect job creation. The Top 500 identifies SA’s leading businesses according to best practice benchmarks, performance and operational excellence human resource excellence, triple bottom line practice and financial success.

The capacity of the centre for large conferences has seen Cape Town rise as a congress destination to 29th position in the world from its rank* of 47th in 2003 when CTICC first opened its doors.  *International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) rankings 2006.

In 2006/07, its fourth year in business, CTICC accommodated, for the first time, more than 500 events.

Next week will see an influx of 6,000 anesthesiologists descend on Cape Town - for another city-wide international congress at CTICC.