The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) will, for the first time, host its Association Meeting Programme (AMP) in Durban next year.

The AMP will take place at the Durban International Convention Centre, between June 18 and 20. The event is attended by both ICCA member-suppliers and association clients, and provides an opportunity for international meetings stakeholders in Africa improve their knowledge about association meetings research, bidding, sales, and marketing.

Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo, Chief Convention Bureau Officer for the South Africa National Convention Bureau made the announcement during a press conference in Barcelona last week, during the IBTM World MICE trade show. “We are thrilled to welcome back our ICCA family to South Africa after we hosted a very successful ICCA annual congress in 2004 in Cape Town,” Kotze-Nhlapo said. “This time we have the opportunity to showcase another very iconic city in South Africa. Durban is a diverse African city that is focused on investment and growing the economy. It is therefore not a coincidence that the city attracts such important meetings,” said Kotze-Nhlapo.

ICCA president, James Rees, added that ICCA's statistics on international association meetings showed that the number of meetings in the African region had more than tripled in the last 20 years, saying that it was a clear sign of the region's growing importance in the global meetings market.