South African president Thabo Mbeki at the weekend launched the country’s major tourism event, Tourism Indaba 2003, by urging the world to visit Africa — and enjoy a “dream sabbatical”.
Mbeki told delegates to the indaba being held at the International Convention Centre in Durban: “I will tell the whole world… please come to Africa.”
There are more than 1 500 exhibitors and almost 2 000 delegates from all over the world participating in the tourism trade show which ends on Tuesday, according to the government news agency, BuaNews.
Next year, he said, celebrations of South Africa’s first decade of democracy will be “a great moment of joy and celebration for tens of millions of people not only in South Africa but across the globe who were invited to join the country in its celebrations.”
“I undertake that as Africans, we will do everything we can to protect our flora and fauna; to protect our rivers and seas; to develop our roads, ports and airports; to protect the great African heritage in the arts, culture and architecture.”
BuaNews reported South African Tourism CEO Cheryl Carolus as saying: “The government has made it very clear that it will support whatever needs to be done to ensure that South Africa becomes a destination of choice,” she said.
“The Indaba has become a well-recognised environment which is extremely conducive to international buyers wanting to expand their global product offering with quality, value for money, world class African experiences by doing real business in the region,” said Carolus.
Tourism has been identified as one of the key growth areas of the South African economy. About 6,4-million tourists visited South Africa last year.
Announcing new tourism figures in Pretoria last week, Tourism Minister Mohammed Valli Moosa said: “Tourist arrivals in South Africa in the first two months of this year totalled nearly 1,1-million which is 8,1% more than in the same period last year.” – I-Net Bridge