Africa’s Travel Indaba 2023 is expected to almost double in size, drawing growing revenue and attracting thousands of delegates and international buyers to the Durban International Convention Centre from May 9-11.

This is the forecast business and government tourism leaders, including Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille, gave of the continent’s upcoming premier tourism and travel business event, speaking to industry leaders at a media launch in the city on Tuesday. The theme for Africa’s Travel Indaba 2023, which will showcase tourism products from across the continent is ‘Shaping Africa’s Tomorrow through Connecting Today’.

“We are excited to be back in Durban, the home of Africa’s Travel Indaba. The show continues to be a critical platform for the continent, contributing to Africa’s economic growth.” De Lille said.

She said last year the show drew more than 5 500 delegates, including local travel and tourism businesses and buyers from across the globe, which contributed R120.7 million (€6.13m)  to South Africa’s GDP  – a number that is expected to almost double this year.

De Lille said Indaba followed the success of Meetings Africa in Johannesburg in February, which attracted 352 exhibitors from 22 African countries, and more than 250 quality buyers from across the globe to experience business events, products, and services.

According to her, the COVID-19 pandemic had changed business and travel and it was important to reposition Africa’s Travel Indaba under the theme ‘Shaping Africa’s tomorrow, through connection today’ to ensure it remained relevant.  

“This positioning speaks to the essence of Africa’s Travel Indaba, bringing the world to Africa in an effort to positively influence the continent’s trajectory,” she said.

‘Great strides made’

De Lille said that through private- and public-sector collaboration and partnerships, the tourism industry in South Africa had made “great strides” in its ongoing recovery from the impact of the pandemic that led to many business closures and job losses.

“This is evidenced through the tourism performance numbers over the last year. During the period January-December 2022, South Africa welcomed 5.7 million tourists. This is a sharp increase of 152% when compared with the same period in the previous year.”

She said just over four million of these arrivals were from Africa.

“Africa’s Travel Indaba seeks to ensure that we, as the African continent, grow together collectively.”                                                                                                      

De Lille said that to return to pre-pandemic performance levels in terms of the Tourism Sector Recovery Plan passed by Cabinet in 2021, the focus had to be on all target markets, on airlift recovery, public- and private-sector collaboration, and on continental growth.       

Market access

“In this spirit, Africa’s Travel Indaba has an objective to create market access for our vast array of African leisure tourism products. As part of our commitment to the success of the tourism industry, we continue to support SMMEs to attend this proudly Pan African trade show.” She said 120 SMMEs would participate at the show’s ‘Hidden Gems’ pavilion.                 

Tourism KwaZulu-Natal Acting CEO, Nhlanhla Khumalo, said of the 5 500 people who attended in 2022, 29% were international visitors, 48% were domestic overnight visitors, and 23% were local residents.

The total direct spend generated was R41.5 million (€2.11m).

 “This year we anticipate that the Indaba will attract pre-COVID numbers, which were around 8 000 delegates. So, we are looking forward to a far greater economic impact and a wider geographic spread of this impact.

Khumalo assured visitors that the city is ready to safely host the event.

“We continue to engage with law enforcement agencies and security providers to ensure that visitors the city and the province feel safe, and we engage local communities to also play their part in ensuring that visitors are met with warmth and the hospitality the people of KZN are known for,” Khumalo said.

Hotel occupancy is expected to exceed 90% and more than 350 jobs will be created.

‘Seminal trade show’

SATSA CEO David Frost said Indaba was “the seminal trade show” on the annual calendar for its 1 400 tourism company members.

“At Indaba we can see each other and look at the veracity of the products and contract together. It is what its name sounds like – an indaba where we can all come and do business together.”

He said the sector was still in a recovery phase but there had been “a lot of interest” in attending the show the renewed interest at last year’s hybrid event.

“Our key challenge is to get our mid-market back from our key source markets. The upper market has come back but the mid-market in the US and the UK are still struggling. Our counterparts in Australia and New Zealand are also struggling to resuscitate those key segments,” Frost said.

African Travel and Tourism Association (ATTA) Executive Director, Chris Mears, said the event was a platform for tourism businesses of all sizes from the high end to the lower segment of the market.

“This is the largest platform in Africa that brings together key buyers from around the world, and it is the only platform that does that,” he said.

Small Tourism Enterprises Association CEO, Sonto Mbonambi, said Indaba was a crucial platform for SMME businesses that did not have the means to travel to meet buyers abroad.