The Council of the City of Cape Town has given the green light for the Events Department to enter into a three-year agreement for the City to support Africa Travel Week, which forms part of WTM Africa, for the 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years.

Africa Travel Week is a gathering of travel professionals across South Africa, the continent and the world and plays host to various shows, conferences and award ceremonies focusing on leisure tourism, luxury travel, LGBTQ+, MICE/business travel, sports tourism and travel technology.

“Entering into a multi-year agreement will allow us to provide stability to an event that has assisted in promoting our tourism sector, to ensure the event organiser has the required support to put together the event for the next three years and in the long term will benefit the local tourism sector post the pandemic,” said Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, James Vos.

Africa Travel Week brings together more than 6 000 industry professionals, about 1000 global buyers, more than 700 exhibitors and hundreds of media in one venue for three days.

“We are thrilled to continue and develop our relationship with the City of Cape Town. Since the inception of WTM Africa in 2014, our partnership has gone from strength to strength, and we’re grateful for the unwavering support the City has shown us – which is clearly demonstrated in our three-year deal.

“As one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Cape Town truly is the ideal destination for travel and tourism industry players to connect and write business. The City’s infrastructure is world-class and 100% of our buyers have chosen Cape Town as their destination of choice for the event,” said RX Global MD, Carol Weaving.

Further to this, Africa Travel Week hosts the African Tourism Investment Summit, which promotes Africa as a key tourism investment destination.

Pre-pandemic, deals worth around US$451bn were signed at that event and more than 3 000 jobs were created as a result of the event.

Africa Travel Week’s two flagship events, ILTM Africa and WTM Africa, are scheduled for March 31-April 2 at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens and April 3-5, 2023 at the CTICC respectively.