The Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) has outperformed its targets over the past financial year and contributed R3.1-billion to the gross domestic product in the 2013/14 financial year.

CTICC CEO Julie-May Ellingson said the convention centre had been a catalyst for growth and job creation, when announcing the CTICC’s annual results at a press conference in Cape Town.

From a revenue perspective, the convention centre achieved a net profit before tax of R26-million, with annual revenue reaching R172-million against a target of R160-million.

The convention centre hosted 535 events against an event target of 500 and created and sustained 7 649 direct and indirect jobs in 2014 in the Western Cape and South Africa.

The CTICC had been the venue for international conferences across a range of sectors from the green economy, information and communication technology, and agroprocessing to property development and mining. The Investing in African Mining Indaba, the World Green Building Council Congress and the eighth World Congress of the World Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases had been some of the large-scale events hosted over the past year.

‘We’re not just about filling convention space. We’re about building the knowledge economy. Cape Town is renowned for its medical and scientific fraternities, which are an appealing value proposition for international conferences. These conferences remain one of the pivotal drivers of the knowledge economy,” Ellingson told the briefing.

In addition to international conferences, the CTICC hosted 28 national conferences, 31 trade fairs and exhibitions, 53 banquets, 40 special events and 350 smaller events involving up to 50 delegates.

The CTICC’s calendar for major international conferences is filling up, as it has secured 20 bids until the year 2020, with the International Renewable Energy Conference likely to be one of the highlights. The conference will be held next year and is expected to attract 5 000 delegates.

The CTICC was also currently expanding, with CTICC East expected to be open for business in 2017. Ellingson said the expansion would also allow for the convention centre to hold more dual-purpose events.

She said the CTICC had aligned its interests to growing industries in the city and the Western Cape, but was open to all sectors.

The convention centre, on Cape Town’s Foreshore and close to the V & A Waterfront, has increasingly been used for film shoots and has become popular for airport scenes in particular.

The CTICC has also boosted its energy and water savings, as it has its own on-site water filtration plant. Instead of using plastic bottles for delegates, it uses large glass water bottles. This, together with other initiatives, has resulted in water reduction of 43% a delegate from 2011 to 2014.

Over 85% of the CTICC’s waste is recycled, while it has set up a ‘Waste Champions Team’, comprising staff and service providers.