CAPE Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) in theory could bid to hold South Africa's annual tourism Indaba once it has completed a major expansion in June 2010, says md, Dirk Elzinga.

Construction will start early next year on a R700m 10 000 sqm extension on the adjoining old customs house site on the Foreshore. This will virtually double the CTICC's exhibition space to 20 600 sqm, excluding additional public space. However, Elzinga said, Indaba had been a success for Durban and most delegates visited Cape Town anyway. “The host city has to provide all the facilities for Indaba and I'm not sure if the City of Cape Town would be prepared to go as far as the City of Durban,” he said. Meanwhile, the Department of Public Works, which owns the customs house site, wants to become a strategic partner of Convenco, the joint public/private sector company that owns CTICC. Convenco chairman, Andrew Boraine, told a Cape Town media briefing this would create a pioneering business model combining three government spheres and private business to generate an additional R1bn annual economic spin-off for the province. Expansion of CTICC has become necessary to accommodate high demand for international conventions and simultaneous repeat business in annual exhibitions. The size of the current venue is inhibiting this growth, especially when international congresses have an exhibition component. The extension will be a near-mirror image of the existing complex on the other side of the Eastern Boulevard highway. It will be accessible from the existing centre via a direct link under the freeway.  It will comprise 9 400 sqm of additional exhibition space divided into four halls; offices; parking; a major new 350-room hotel linked directly to the exhibition space; and a new banqueting hall on the first floor with views over Table Bay. During the 2006/7 financial year, 1 200 sqm of exhibition space was added as part of a new Convention Tower office block at the eastern end of CTICC.