Delegates at this year’s Africa’s Travel Indaba (May 8-10 in Durban) will benefit from strategic changes aimed at making the exhibition environment all the more conducive to the conclusion of business deals.
So advises Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo, Chief Convention Bureau Officer at South African Tourism, who along with recently appointed exhibition organiser, Synergy, has begun injecting more business-like notes into the tourism boards’ two annual trade shows, Meetings Africa and Africa’s Travel Indaba.
To start, Africa’s Travel Indaba participants will notice a ‘cleaner’ floor layout in Durban this May, with a more logical grouping of exhibitors. Buyers and sellers will be able to negotiate their way around with greater ease.
The show is staged in two buildings, the Durban International Convention Centre and the Durban Exhibition Centre, and visitors this year will note an increased integration between the two locations so that they appear to be under one roof and flow is enhanced.
Positioned between the two, serving as the ‘glue’ as Kotze-Nhlapo describes it, will be the hosted buyers lounge. In addition, the east lawn which was previously used as exhibition space, will now serve as an outdoor networking point. Additionally, a pathway will be created to link the two structures. This could, in future, give rise to a skybridge, which SA Tourism may construct as its legacy to the two venues, which have hosted Africa’s Travel Indaba for over three decades. (The ICC, by the by, is now celebrating its 21st anniversary).
Only the ICC’s main entrance will admit visitors this year, and side entrances will be closed. This will direct visitor feet to the Hidden Gems stand, which will be positioned close to the entrance. This stand houses SMMEs and emerging entrepreneurs, giving them international exposure. Last year’s 90 ‘hidden gems’ will be back this year, with the addition of another 45, all of whom have been coached and qualified. As part of a wider development course that they are undergoing under the auspices of the National Department of Tourism and SA Tourism, these businesses will be trained on Sunday, May 6, ahead of opening, to ready them for the exhibition.
This year, meetings will not be scheduled between 13h00 and 14h00, so that delegates have a lunch hour to walk around, see the show and network. They will be able to grab a bite at food hubs, which the organisers will take advantage of to showcase local cuisine.
African crafts, too, get a chance to shine at Africa’s Travel Indaba. Once again, SA Tourism will replace corporate gifts for selected delegates with a voucher that can be exchanged in the exhibition’s Sustainability Village, where high-quality local crafts will be on display. Kotze-Nhlapo says delegates tend to spend amounts above their vouchers on the impressive items and goods are usually sold out by the event’s end.
She says as an indicator of business generated, last year’s Africa’s Travel Indaba recorded a total of 2 000 meetings between sellers and buyers. “When we started diary appointments in 2012, the average number of daily appointments for each participant was 2.4. In 2017, the average had climbed to 9.8,” she said, illustrating Africa’s Travel Indaba’s increasing value to the travel industry.
Delegates will remember that last year’s show unveiled a new show branding. Kotze-Nhlapo says that this year “we will paint the town Africa’s Travel Indaba”.
Successful meetings will be the test
Some weeks ahead of Africa’s Travel Indaba, SA Tourism completed a programme of round-the-country briefings for South African exhibitors, repeated in online format for sellers beyond South African borders.
Said a tour operator who attended one of the sessions: “It seems like the organisers are trying to get Africa’s Travel Indaba aligned with global standards. They have changed the layout of the stands to improve flow of visitors, introducing more opportunity for SMMEs on the Hidden Gems stand and apparently SA Tourism will also have a smaller stand this year to make more space for other exhibitors. They are also pushing to get more hosted buyers from new destinations for this year.
“I am not sure if all of this will actually resolve problems the trade experienced in the past and, in the end, it will depend on how successful the meetings are and how big the return on investment is. No use in bringing hundreds of new buyers that simply do not have the capacity to send clients like our core markets do.
“In the past, Africa’s Travel Indaba was the only show we attended. However, with the additional shows available now we are forced to attend events like WTM Africa, which is expensive in comparison. But if we do not attend we miss out on meeting with some of our key partners that cannot attend two shows a year and prefer going to Cape Town now that they have a choice.
“Time will tell, however SA Tourism seems positive that they are on the right track.”
