Durban to add Arena by 2007
"Since opening in 1997, 115 international conferences have been held here, 140,000 delegates have been welcomed, 850,000 nights of accommodation have been booked, 1.62 billion rand ( EUR 209 million) have been spent directly on the conferences," says managing director Alec Gilbert. He is especially proud of 2005 in which a record number of international events were and are being hosted in the ICC Durban. In the two exhibition halls of the ICC, the Durban Exhibition Centre (DEC), for example, a DIY show, India in Style, a children's exhibition, and the Durban Getaway Show, a public show about outdoor activities, were all staged in October. The two halls together provide around 9,600 m2 of exhibition space.
When fully opened, the ICC provides 7,000 m2 for about 5,000 delegates. If you include the exhibition facilities, around 10,000 people can conference here. And as if that were not enough: the ICC Arena is now being planned. Its baptism of fire will be as early as May next year when Gilbert wants to use the extra space for Africa's most important tourism event, Indaba. They will be air-conditioned, but the foyers will be finished off laterin the year. In February 2007 the EUR 251 million ICC Arena will officially open.
m+a report Nr.7 / 2005 vom 27.10.2005
m+a report vom 27. Oktober 2005