ECPTA FLYING THE EC FLAG INTERNATIONALLY

WTM Africa – World Travel Market Africa took place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 11 to 13 April 2022. One of the key objectives of participating at World Travel Market Africa for ECPTA is to meet and connect with travel trade representatives and showcase EC as a credible destination of choice. WTM Africa delivers the leading global events for the travel industry with over 6 000 travel industry professionals, and a business to business (B2B) exhibition for both the inbound and outbound African travel and tourism markets.  Mirrored on WTM flagship events like WTM London and the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, WTM Africa delivers a proven mix of hosted buyers, buyers’ club members, media representatives, pre-schedule appointments, networking, evening functions and invited travel trade visitors. ECPTA participated at this event to help EC drive commercial success with year-round access to personal and business opportunities, quality contacts, content, and communities.

Africa Travel Indaba – After a two-year absence during Covid, the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency, together with its stakeholders, participated in the annual Africa’s Travel Indaba which took place from 3 to 5 May 2022 at the Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban. ECPTA CEO Vuyani Dayimani said promoting the province at various destination marketing platforms, especially where there are international buyers, involved a lot of focus and effort. “When buyers find a product, establishment or experience within a provincial location in South Africa, that becomes a job half done for the exhibitors, and product owners are able to focus on promoting the actual products and other surrounding experiences,” said Dayimani. As a tourism Agency wanting to grow the tourism sector of the province, there is immense value in SMMEs hence we train and prepare them for trade shows like Indaba so that they are able to proactively engage and sell their establishments and surrounding offerings for sustainable businesses. Indaba is a key international trade show where destinations are cost effectively marketed collectively. Our Indaba platform enables product owners to market experiences and tourism opportunities directly to international travel trade partners. This is critical for the international tourism recovery process, and we need to demonstrate that we are a safe destination with ample to offer to a broad spectrum of travellers.

IMEX – IMEX Frankfurt is amongst the leading Trade shows in the global MICE industry and in the years has managed to attract more than 4 000 hosted buyers from 80 different countries and over 1 200 independent visitor buyers from 55 countries. Year 2022 was the first year IMEX was hosted after the two difficult years of the pandemic and as a result the hosted buyers were about 60% of the previous year attendance and the independent buyers were only 655 as compared to 1 200 in 2019.

While the South African business events industry, like many countries across the world, was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, the country was keen to showcase, at IMEX Frankfurt, its variety of business events products and services now geared up to host safe events. ECPTA representing EC was part of the 23 South African exhibitors, led by Deputy Minister of Tourism Fish Mahlalela at the show, which ran from 31 May to 2 June at Messe Frankfurt.

“Given the scale and importance of IMEX Frankfurt, it is the ideal platform to provide the most updated information about destination South Africa. We wanted to reassure our partners from across the world that they can come to South Africa and have safe and successful events. South Africa is a vibrant business events destination. On the back of our rich heritage, natural beauty, and our vibrant people, we have an opportunity to reclaim our share of big global events and of course, international arrivals,” said Mahlalela who attended the IMEX Frankfurt Policy Forum.

“As clearly articulated at the Policy Forum, now more than ever, it is important that events return in physical form as they provide much-needed revenue injection and economic boost for the cities and the countries that host these events,” Mahlalela added.

A key component of South Africa’s business events strategy is to ensure that demand is met by adequate, diverse, and unique tourism products and services and, to this end, tour operators, hotels, provincial and city tourism authorities were among the exhibitors at IMEX Frankfurt. Also attending were small tourism businesses, (SMMEs), whose presence at IMEX Frankfurt was subsidised by the South African government to give them access to the international market.

“As a government, we remain committed to providing meaningful support to the operations of the sector that has seen so much loss,” added Mahlalela.