Durban is ready to host the largest tourism trade show in the southern hemisphere, the Africa Travel Indaba.
The annual event, which starts on Tuesday, aims to promote Africa as a preferred tourist destination for both leisure and business.
KwaZulu-Natal will be the home of the travel trade show for the next three years.
VIDEO: Africa Travel Indaba promotes Africa as a preferred tourist destination:
More than 20 African countries are expected to showcase more than 350 tourism products. From small B&Bs to tour operators and travel products, the four-day meeting is a working business platform for Africa’s tourism industry to sign some deals to generate revenue.
Acting CEO at Tourism KZN, Nhlanhla Khumalo says over 6 000 delegates are expected.
Khumalo says, “Africa Travel Indaba is the largest travel and trade show in our continent Africa. There is a large number of people who will be coming from across the continent and also across the world who will be coming here as exhibitors and also as buyers. We will be showcasing our offerings as a province to the delegates that will be in attendance. There are more than 6 000 delegates that are in attendance who in the mixture of them some are buyers some are sellers.”
He adds that the industry is slowly recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that forced travel bans on several countries at various times.
Khumalo says, “We are recovering faster than we had expected, if you look at the performance of the Tourism industry last year, we will realise that as the province of KwaZulu-Natal we became number one in terms of domestic tourism, in fact, we were able to receive 7.1 million visitors in our country from the domestic front by implication, it means that we have even surpassed the figures of 2019, which is 6.2 million. We are above that we have recovered very faster in terms of domestic tourism, we are still recovering in terms of international tourism arrival.”
KwaZulu-Natal recently launched international flights from Durban to Zambia, Eswatini and Mozambique. This is expected to boost intra-Africa travel.
KZN will host Africa Travel Indaba for 3 years: Mxolisi Kaunda
