If you weren’t one of the lucky visitors to experience throngs of product owners and travel journalists, fantastic tourism exhibitions (and some mediocre ones), aching feet, too many cocktail parties and wall-to-wall networking sessions, then you missed out on this year’s Travel Indaba at the ICC in Durban. Here is the condensed version of some of the major highlights and news that came from South Africa’s most visited travel show:
St Lucia Wetland Park renamed: From November 1, South Africa’s 220 000-hectare Greater St Lucia Wetland Park will be called iSimangaliso Wetland Park. The name change, said South African Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, was as a result of the park having outgrown its name, linked to the town and lake of the same name.
Gauteng, Mpumalanga opt for co-tourism development: Mpumalanga’s Cultural Heartland and Gauteng’s new Dinokeng Blue IQ project will, in future, be working together to promote tourism development. Several joint ventures will be adopted, including combined marketing campaigns, the establishment of themed routes and cross-boundary big five game reserves and product expansion. It must be noted that, to date, Dinokeng has been exceptionally well marketed and continues to maintain its media presence on an ongoing basis.
Indaba celebrates Welcome Award winners: The second Welcome Awards was held during the recent Indaba, with Velile Ndlumbini, a freelance tourist guide, won with the R50 000 prize. In the accommodation category, Tumie’s Bed and Breakfast in the Eastern Cape walked away with the honours, while the best tour operator was Africa 2000 Tours, otherwise known as Gallivanter 2000 Tours, and the best travel agent Travel with Flair. The aim of the Welcome Awards (a South African Tourism Initiative) is to inspire and acknowledge outstanding contributions to the local industry in an attempt to create role models who strive for excellence.
As South African Tourism CEO Moeketsi Mosola said at Indaba: “One of the most exciting and revealing aspects of this year’s judging process was the mystery tourist programme, whereby all the semi-finalists were, during March and April, visited by a mystery tourist who experienced their product and services first-hand. This initiative emphasised the invaluable role that ‘human interaction’ has to play in the overall quality of any tourism experience.”
Sights and sounds of Indaba online: Indaba 2007 saw the launch of Indaba Diaries, a quirky new take on eventing. Designed as a video blog, the Indaba Diaries concept saw over 50 event visitors and exhibitors record a short 30-second video comment on the show and other relevant tourism issues for broadcast over a specially designed Indaba Diaries Internet site, www.indabadiaries.co.za. Also available online are the official opening ceremony and the press conference.
Wild Card for local operators: SANParks has launched a Wild Card for tour operators to eliminate paper vouchers and risks such as theft and fraud. Operators will electronically purchase the required number of electronic vouchers from SANParks prior to arrival, and will load these on to tourist guide or drivers’ Wild Cards. A reconciliation of these vouchers will be sent to operators every month as part of the new system.
Tourism sites lag behind: A key focus at this year’s Indaba was an e-Business seminar which revealed that tourism websites in South Africa had some way to go before they reach the sophistication of their overseas counterparts. At least 100 sites were assessed on their content, ease of use, functionality and interactivity, among other features.
South African Tourism believes there is a huge opportunity for the travel and tourism industry to make better use of social media to get customers to share their authentic experiences and build a sense of community around that experience. The organisation itself is pulling out all the stops to serve the industry in this manner.
“South African Tourism is committed to uplifting the entire tourism and travel industry in the online space to increase the awareness of South Africa as a destination,” said Fiona Buchner, South African Tourism’s e-Business Manager. Look out for South African Tourism’s new 2010 website aimed at creating awareness of the event long in advance (complete with extensive information on all the host cities as well as suggested itineraries for pre- and post-2010 holidays).
Cross-border packaging in the future: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia could soon encourage cross-border packages, following the signing of an agreement at Indaba to share the tourism spin-offs of the 2010 World Cup. The Limpopo-Zambezi destination agreement will see these destinations undertake joint tourism research and develop package tours between the four countries.
Exhibition time
Meetings Africa 2008 is Africa’s biggest tourism exhibition and definitely one to look out for if you’re in the travel trade. Arranged by Thebe Exhibitions & Events from February 27 to 29 at the Sandton Convention Centre. For more info, visit: www.meetingsafrica.co.za