ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the theme of business tourism in urban Africa by examining key issues in the evolution and growth of conference and exhibition tourism within South Africa. It analyses business tourism in South Africa, the growing local supply of conference and exhibition facilities, and to highlight the increasing competition that is emerging between South Africa's leading cities for dominance of the lucrative market of conference and exhibition tourism. The chapter discusses the development and characteristics of conference and exhibition tourism in apartheid South Africa. It reviews the growth and changing features of conference and exhibition tourism in the post-apartheid period highlighting the expanded levels of competition for attraction of conferences and exhibitions especially between South Africa's three largest cities. Tourism scholarship concerning conferences and exhibitions is dominated by writings concerned with developed countries. An examination of the South African experience provides useful complement to the existing writings and reveals certain parallel themes, particularly concerning issues of local development.
