Africa’s Travel Indaba 2023 Recap

South African Tourism celebrates the successful return of Africa’s Travel Indaba 2023, which took place May 8-11 in Durban, South Africa. Africa’s Travel Indaba remains one of the largest tourism marketing events on the African calendar and one of the top three ‘must visit’ events of its kind on the global calendar. Each year, Africa’s Travel Indaba showcases and delivers the widest variety of Africa's best tourism products and attracts buyers and media from across the world. 

This year, Africa’s Travel Indaba came back under a new theme of “Unlimited Africa,” which spoke directly to the continent’s uncapped potential. The show is truly Pan-African, and this year, Africa’s Travel Indaba proudly surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

Here’s a recap of Africa’s Travel Indaba 2023 in numbers:
 

Unlocking Africa’s Potential

One of the key takeaways from Africa’s Travel Indaba is that Africa is a continent with immense potential for tourism, and the industry has been steadily growing over the years. In recent times, there have been several travel trends and insights that highlight the continent’s unique offerings and opportunities for businesses and leisure travelers alike.

One of the emerging markets in African travel is sustainable tourism. With the global push towards eco-tourism and responsible travel, many African destinations are capitalizing on their natural resources to attract visitors. Traveler behaviors in Africa have also seen a shift, with a growing preference for experiential travel. Visitors are looking for unique and immersive experiences that allow them to connect with the local culture and environment. This has led to an increase in community-based tourism, where visitors can stay with local families, participate in cultural activities, and learn about traditional ways of life.

Connect with your tour operator or DMC to ensure these trending experiences are included in your clients’ South Africa itineraries and stay tuned for an upcoming webinar from South African Tourism that will bring you new, exciting, and up-and-coming, community-based tourism experiences and suppliers that need to be on your radar.
 
 

New US Market Insights Unveiled

South African Tourism’s North America team organized a USA Market Access Workshop at Africa’s Travel Indaba to help small businesses and exhibitors break into the fast-growing US travel market. The session featured industry experts who provided valuable insights on the US traveler and American travel trade landscape, including how to engage with the travel trade to reach consumers.

The US is South Africa’s fastest-growing international market, delivering 262,183 arrivals into South Africa in 2022, representing a 220% increase over 2021. The top five source cities for outbound travel from the US are New York, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Increased airlift was a major contributor to the recent growth in arrivals with new direct routes to South Africa being offered by US-based carriers United and Delta.

More than 50% of American travelers are motivated by exploring new cultures, history, and beautiful scenery, all of which are abundant in South Africa. Key travel trends from the US indicate that value is king (money and time), and the current strength of the American dollar makes travel to South Africa an incredible value, especially when taking into consideration its incredibly diverse variety of world-class tourism offerings. It is anticipated that arrivals from the US will rebound to 2019 pre-pandemic levels by 2024.

A major takeaway from the workshop was that there is a great deal of interest from a wide variety of South African suppliers to connect with North American-based travel trade and build and maintain new relationships. They are ready equip you with the knowledge to stand out by showcasing new, diverse, off-the-beaten-track, meaningful and unique travel experiences and products to your clients, whether they are first-time travelers to South Africa or multi-repeat visitors. If you are interested in being placed on a contact list for South African suppliers looking to break into the US market, please send us an email with your name, company name, title, email address and city/state.
 
 
 

South African Tourism NA Hosts Multiple Educational Journeys for Travel Trade Around Indaba

South African Tourism North America proudly hosted 50 buyers from North America to this year’s Africa’s Travel Indaba from a wider mix of business models and market segments than ever before. In addition, three pre and post Indaba educational journeys were conducted so that the trade attendees could dive deeper into South Africa to connect and/or reconnect by experiencing the country in new ways. This year’s Indaba hosting was intended to help accelerate tourism recovery from North America while introducing key trade to new experiences, product, and partners.

All three itineraries focused on top city lifestyle and cultural experiences in Johannesburg.  New sides of the city that haven’t historically received as much attention from the North American travel trade were showcased, including a walking tour of the up-and-coming neighborhood of Maboneng, vibrant with street art and inner city charm. Two groups traveled about an hour outside the city and into the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site to learn about the development of humans and our ancestors over the past few million years. While out in the Cradle, they experienced a game drive on a vast reserve filled with stunning landscapes, then visited the Nirox Sculpture Park and view the incredible art in a serene setting that feels a million miles away from the bustling city of Johannesburg. The groups stayed in the lively and buzzing neighborhood of Rosebank and toured Soweto by open air bus.

Other highlights experienced by the groups included the Nelson Mandela Capture site in Kwa-Zulu Natal, Zulu Culture and the Valley of 1,000 Hills, big five safari experiences at stunning lodges in the Greater Kruger National Park, an overnight stay on Rovos Rail to take in all the scenic beauty between Pretoria and Durban, a tour of UNESCO site Robben Island led by a former political prisoner, and scenic helicopter flights over Cape Town.