Africa’s Travel Indaba is on track to meet all its numbers targets, in terms of exhibitors, buyers and media, says Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo, Chief Convention Bureau Officer.  Buyers include a sizeable delegation of 100 from North America.

Some show highlights:

• Some of the luxury product that was lost in recent times to competing shows, returns to Africa’s Travel Indaba this year to exhibit in the Luxury Pavilion, which will be hosted by the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa (TGCSA). There will be 27 exhibitors on show in this pavilion, many of them high-end accommodation facilities.

• The Business Opportunity Networking Day (Bonday) on Monday, May 7, brings delegates together in an environment of learning.  Expected to draw a good audience is an interactive session entitled ‘African stories, your success’.  It will be an opportunity for delegates to exchange notes on marketing and selling.

Bonday will include a domestic and regional travel session, where African countries will share the platform to discuss increasing Africa’s portion of global tourism. Kotze-Nhlapo sees scope to adapt SA Tourism’s 5-in-5 strategy (an additional five million tourists for South Africa in five years) to an African 5-in-5 goal, where Africa as a continent aims to increase its current 5% share of world tourism to 10% in five years.

In the afternoon, We Are Africa, due to hold its own exhibition in Cape Town the week after Africa’s Travel Indaba, will host a mini version of its Conservation Lab, where issues of conservation will be debated by authorities from diverse fields

• Over the rest of the week there will be four panel discussions in the Media Lounge on subjects such as youth development and leadership, transformation and responsible tourism.

• The Welcome Event on Tuesday evening will double up as the start of the South African tourism industry’s commemoration of the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth. SA Tourism has the co-operation of the Nelson Mandela Foundation in this event.