Africa’s Travel Indaba 2023 places KZN, SA and Africa top of global investment map

MARYANNE ISAAC AND GUGULETHU SHINGA

AFRICA’s Travel Indaba (ATI) is one of the largest and most exciting tourism marketing events on the African calendar; giving businesses the chance to market their tourism offerings to international, intercontinental and national buyers and investors.

This intercontinental event, which took place from May 8 to 11 at the Durban ICC, is of major significance to KwaZulu-Natal as it shines the spotlight of the world on the host province, while also bringing a much-needed boost to the gross domestic product.

This year’s Indaba saw more than 350 tourism products being showcased. The event was attended by more than 8 000 registered delegates, including 1 000 buyers from across the tourism ecosystem and just under 1 000 exhibitors. The attendees also included destination marketing bodies, hotel groups, airlines, tour operators, and 10 African Tourism Boards representing 21 African countries.

As part of Tourism KwaZulu-Natal’s Business Development programme, 15 small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) showcased the splendour of the province’s tourism sector at the Tourism KwaZulu-Natal (TKZN) Indaba stand.

Each SMME had endeavoured to catch the eye of international buyers and media from across the world, and were able to access global markets that they would not have considered prior to the Travel Indaba.

Some of the SMMEs that showcased their products and services at the Indaba included Khubs Tours, The Southern Explorer, Midlands Meander, The Drakensberg Experience, Dynamic Safari Tours, The Battlefields Route, The KwaZulu-Natal Freedom Routes, Ibuyile Africa Tours and Travel, among others.

Tourism sector reignited

TKZN hosted a Buyer Breakfast for international and intercontinental delegates on the opening morning of ATI. Siboniso Duma, KZN MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, said that despite challenges faced by the province, during and post Covid-19, the tourism sector has not just survived, it had reignited and bounced back with vigour.

“Our domestic figures recently released by SA Tourism show that KwaZulu-Natal is the country’s favourite holiday destination, and has attracted 7.6 million tourists. Through collective efforts between the government, TKZN, investors and local communities, we have nine major tourism projects in the pipeline. These are spread across the province to areas where the socio-economic impact of tourism is most needed, and where it will have the biggest developmental impact,” said Duma.

Speaking at the official opening of ATI, Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille said that Africa’s tourism sector was open and thriving; offering various products and experiences catered to travellers’ needs and preferences.

“For South Africa, we have seen encouraging growth in our tourist arrival number between January and December 2022, where it reached nearly 5.8 million with over 4 million of those arrivals from African countries. This represents an overall inbound increase of 152.6% for South Africa, compared to January to December 2021.

“After a stronger than expected recovery in 2022, this year could see international tourist arrivals to South Africa return to pre-pandemic levels in Europe and the Middle East. These numbers demonstrate the immense potential of tourism in Africa, not only as a revenue generator but also as a job creator and a catalyst for faster economic growth.”

KZN is synonymous with its warm and friendly beaches, spectacular cultural and heritage sites, safari parks, rolling green hills and vast sugar cane and banana plantations – a tourist’s delight and a worthy host province.

Rebuilding KZN for Africa and the globe

At the Indaba wrap-up briefing, Phindile Makwakwa, COO of Tourism KwaZulu-Natal, highlighted the value of the Indaba. She said that the government of KZN wasn’t suggesting that the Indaba be held in KZN just because it is a well-known place, but because it believes that TKZN continues to work strongly as a tourism partner with SA Tourism, and it takes a team effort to make the Indaba a “true African show”.

“From our perspective as host, and selling Africa to our international buyers, we put our best foot forward for international media as well. We understand that as the host province for Africa, the Indaba gives us an opportunity to show our abilities to host major global events; it gives us an opportunity to tell the experience of what we have to offer to the buyer.

“There are those markets where we need to make more inroads. We see our numbers from India improving not only because of the tours, market work and trade shows we do, but because the Indaba gives us an opportunity to say ‘you've been at the ICC for four days; prior to that and post that, see the rest of the province and see how to package KZN for your clients’.”

Makwakwa added that the team was working closely with the European travel sector, and that progress was being made in the Chinese market.

“We have various African partnerships, for instance with Eswatini and Mozambique, in which we work together in packaging Africa. We are a long-haul destination, and understand the smartness that comes with us ‘hunting in packs’ and not going it alone. It remains important for us to enhance these partnerships.”

Makwakwa concluded by highlighting the improved numbers from this year’s event. “The year 2023 has been absolutely amazing. We thank the SA Tourism team that put the Indaba together. This year shows the potential of the trade show growing even further, and we remain committed to working to make it an even greater success. We also welcome feedback from a destination point of view, so that we can improve as a destination and help keep the Indaba in KZN.”

Zinhle Nzama, Acting Chief Convention Bureau Officer of SA Tourism, said ATI had been quite a journey since the pandemic.

“If you look at our past Indabas, we had to miss two editions due to the pandemic and this was a tough time for the industry. Fast forward to 2023, if I look at what was expected from us and what we’ve delivered, I can confirm that we have reached the expectations of the industry.

“For ATI 2022, which was staged under uncertain times and restrictions due to Covid-19, we had just over 6 000 delegates who attended the Indaba. I am happy to report that this year we registered more than 8 000 delegates.”