South African President Jacob Zuma officially opened Indaba, the African continent's travel trade show held May 16-18 at the Durban International Convention Center in Durban, South Africa.
During his opening address, Zuma said that tourism would create a "diversification of opportunities" to help offset the shock sustained by many of the "traditional sectors of the economy that are experiencing challenges."
"In South Africa," he said, "we believe tourism is everybody's business. We do tourism."
It was not just a slogan. Tourism represents 9 percent of the South African GDP and is responsible for 700,000 jobs, Zuma said. Tourism is the industry that best reaches through to all levels of society and helps to give a leg up to the less affluent South African citizens who have yet to be lifted economically by Nelson Mandela's movement 20 years ago to democratize the country and free it from the constraints of apartheid.
Tourism, Zuma said, reaches "into the townships, mountains, forests and coasts. We want tourism to support 2.2 million jobs by 2026."
Tourism is the industry most able to "correct the painful history of our country," he added.
Presenting Africa to the World
Zuma called Indaba "this home-grown trade show where Africa markets herself to the world", and twenty-two African countries were represented.
In recent years, Indaba has faced challenges in adapting to the entrance of new travel trade shows in South Africa, including We Are Africa, World Travel Market Africa and ILTM (International Luxury Travel Market) Africa. They all take place around the same time as Indaba-during South Africa's autumn, (the spring of Europe and North America). Their location in Cape Town, South Africa's top tourism city, inevitably enables them to pull attendees from Indaba as well.
The new trade shows, which are operated for a profit, are ultimately not seen by the government as competition for Indaba, but rather as evidence that South Africa's tourism market is growing vigorously enough to support several new shows. Indaba, on the other hand, is not a for-profit show but a production of South African Tourism, the tourism development agency of the South African government. Its mandate is to support the growth of tourism, not to genr
Indaba has adapted to the emergence of these new trade shows by re-positioning itself as the travel trade show of the entire continent.
Its success can be measured in the fact that South Africa's international arrivals grew by 13 percent during 2016, in contrast to an 8 percent growth for the African continent and a 4 percent growth globally. Zuma quoted the United Nations World Tourism Organization, saying that tourism around the world recorded its seventh straight year of sustained growth since the global financial crisis.
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More than a billion people travel globally now, he said. Africa's tourism arrivals have reached 58 million, a mere half of one percent of the total-the potential for growth is obvious.
"We are determined to move Africa forward in this business of tourism," he said.
The government is putting its money behind Zuma's commitment. According to Bangu Masisi, president of South African Tourism North America, the government has chosen to increase funding to the sector during the last two years.
New for 2017
The trade show floor had two new sections this year: A Luxury Pavilion for gathering high-end product in a central location, and a section called Hidden Gems, which was part of a program by which the government helps tourism entrepreneurs and new small businesses get a start in the industry.
Under the Hidden Gems program, South African tourism entrepreneurs are given space at the trade show to present their offerings. They are also given training and mentoring through The Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA), a member-driven travel trade association dedicated to building quality in inbound tourism services companies.
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'Out of This World'
The tourism attractions of South Africa, Zuma said, are "out of this world."
By the end of his speech-after having generated momentum, and lifting himself beyond the formal niceties and slogans of politics and the numerical evaluations of the business-the President went off script with a story. Zuma described his own visit to Uganda as he toured the Virunga Massif-the hyper-fertile volcanic region in the boundaries of present-day Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Dazzled by the beauty of the region-with its tall mountain peaks in cloudy shrouds, crystal clear lakes, and blindingly colorful vegetation-Zuma found himself remarking, "How could a place be so beautiful?"
His Ugandan host had an explanation: It was the last place God made, and when He finished, He had a lot of material left over. So He put everything He had left into Uganda.
Zuma nodded and replied: "And when God was finished creating the world, He went to stay in Cape Town."
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