Africa: Kigali Remains Africa's Second Most Preferred City for Hosting Meetings

DIRCO / GovernmentZA / Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)
The Second African Union (AU) – European Union (EU) Ministerial Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda in October 2021.
30 May 2023
The New Times (Kigali)
By Alice Kagina

Rwanda's capital, Kigali, remains the second preferred city for hosting global events in Africa, as ranked by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), the global meetings industry network.

The 2022 ranking comes at a time when the global organization observed that approximately 85 percent of meetings were held in-person, after halting the survey for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The ICCA represents the world's leading suppliers in handling, transporting, and accommodating international meetings and events. Kigali ranked as the second most preferred destination for meetings in Africa after Cape Town, in South Africa. The organization counted 21 in-person meetings hosted in the city in 2022.

This shows the efforts embarked on by the government to market the country as a Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) destination are paying off.

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While on the recovery journey from the pandemic, as a service-based economy with tourism industry being the first largest income earner of the country, it has hosted thousands of people attending one conference after another.

Rwanda which just hosted the 2023 Basketball Africa League (BAL) that attracted not only Rwandans but also foreigners from all walks of life, has been positioning itself as a sports tourism destination.

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According to Rwanda Convention Bureau (RCB), Kigali hosted 31 events from January to May 2021, and it is expected to host another 31 upcoming events until November.

Among these will be the 2023 GYA Annual General Meeting (AGM), the first in-person AGM since 2019; the Corps Africa All-Country Conference 2023; the Kigali International Peace Marathon 2023; and the launch of the Annual Global Inclusive FinTech Forum, all of which are scheduled to take place in June.

The FIBA Women's AfroBasket, the top women's basketball tournament in Africa; Women Deliver Conference 2023; Segal Family Foundation meeting 2023; and the Society for Conservation Biology's International Congress for Conservation Biology, are some of the events already scheduled for July.

August's list of events coming up in Kigali includes the Giants of Africa Festival, a week-long celebration of basketball, education, culture, and entertainment uniting youth from the continent; FESPAD Rwanda 2023, the 11th edition of the Pan-African Dance Festival; and Golden Business Forum which serves as a catalyst for business development in Africa and beyond.

Read the original article on New Times.

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