Africa’s Travel Indaba (ATI) ended on a high note and was a resounding success for KwaZulu-Natal and Durban which can expect an economic boost of well over the expected R130 million. Initial figures indicate that the Indaba significantly beat expectations, 2022’s figures and marginally topped its 2019 pre-Covid high.
Statistics released by ATI Bid Partners show that as many as 8,629 delegates attended compared to 8000 in 2019, 22 African countries participated with 1023 exhibitors, 1000 international buyers attended and had 21,000 meaningful meetings with exhibitors and the Durban ICC prepared 6000 meals a day.
As the first Indaba without any restrictions since COVID-19, this year’s event had seen a stronger gathering of African countries, but there was work to be done to make Africa’s travel Indaba a truly Pan-African event.
“There are 54 countries in Africa and is important for Tourism KwaZulu-Natal (TKZN) to make Africa’s Travel Indaba a truly Pan-African event in collaboration with SA Tourism and other partners,” said Mr. Nhlanhla Khumalo Acting Chief Executive Officer TKZN.
Khumalo also pointed to the post ATI tours which took place this weekend. “A strong element of Indaba is the hosting of buyers and media on tours to various destinations so they can experience what our province offers for themselves and package KwaZulu-Natal for their clients.
As an example, he indicated that a group of some 50 buyers from SADC - Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and Namibia - visited the Drakensberg and Midlands. Among their activities they went quad biking, did the Karkloof Canopy tour, visited the Nelson Mandela Capture Site and the Midlands Meander. Another group went to the South Coast and a third tour went to the North Coast.
“We say KZN has it all! Believe it! But people need to experience the culture, the adventure, the mountains, the tranquility, the history for themselves so they transfer their experience to their clients in their travel packages,” said Khumalo.
Similarly, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, which manages KZN’s parks and game reserves hosted a post Indaba tour for a group of UK travel buyers and the Richards Bay Destination Marketing Company to Isimangaliso Wetland Park where they visited the Crocodile Centre, went to the Game Capture Museum showing how game used to be caught, Centenary craft centre run by local women and then to the Hlulhluwe area where they enjoyed umleqwa chicken.
“We are very pleased that as many as 400 travel buyers participated in our seven wonders of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg World Heritage Park virtual reality experience,” said Mr. Sihle Mkhize Acting Chief Executive Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.
“By making our travel experiences tangible we are able to sell our story to international markets, which has played a part in our exponential increase in visitors to our protected areas”, he said.
Year on year to April 2023 the number of visitors increased by 65% from 39 958 to 66 091, which also beats their pre-Covid 2019 figures of 56 385.
“While domestic visitors make up the lions-share of the visitors to the parks at 88,4%, international visitors made up 11,6% of the total. Translated into number this is 7499 visitors which is 150% higher than 2022, which is a wonderful recovery and our post Indaba tours are aimed at maintain these numbers while attracting more visitors,” he said.
The most visited game park was Hluhluwe-iMfolozi with 26% of the total visitors, followed by Midmar 20% and Royal Natal National Park 9%. Each of the remaining parks received less than 5% each of the total visitors.
The 15 KwaZulu-Natal Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) hosted on the TKZN exhibition went all out to sell their products and services to international travel buyers. And early indications are that they all achieved good results..
These SMMEs were all first timers to Indaba, and it is really encouraging that they made the most of the opportunity. From what I saw most of them were busy on all three days with pre-arranged meetings in addition to walk-ins, and taking part in the speed marketing opportunities,” said Khumalo.
Msizeni Mngadi founder and director of Indlondlo Cultural Village in the Valley of 1000 Hills said: ”Africa’s Travel Indaba is a game changer for us. This is a very exciting platform and I want to thank to the Mkambathini Municipality for their support enabling us to attend this event.”
Mngadi was certain that their meetings with US, UK, German and African travel buyers would result in at least six sales with more to come. “It has put us in a space where the world can recognise us under the flag of South African Tourism, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal and government.”
Tour operators Amabanda Tourism, which arranges tours for locals and international visitors across KwaZulu-Natal said they had secured a large tour from Kenya that would take place later this month.
Pictured here: The UK destination marketing company was given a truly authentic African experience in the Hluhluwe area a chicken feast or umleqwa. Left to right: Karin Mawani (UK-DMC) Sphelele Luthuli and Eric Hadebe from Ezemvelo Marketing leave with take-aways from their feast.
Supplied.