Africa’s Eden has concluded its latest Africa Edition trade show in Victoria Falls where 50 buyers and 48 exhibitors gathered from across the region.
The event connected participants from Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi, Uganda and Kenya.
During the event, Africa’s Eden launched its Community and Conservation Partnership Programme aimed at connecting tourism businesses with locally led NGOs and impact initiatives. The programme focuses on transparency, third-party verification and long-term collaboration.
Under this framework, a new SMME incubator programme was introduced in partnership with Sigma International, building on the SATSA Tourism Incubator. A sustainability certification pathway was also launched to guide operators towards internationally recognised schemes.
“This edition demonstrated exactly why Africa’s Eden exists,” said Jillian Blackbeard, Africa’s Eden Tourism CEO. “When African buyers and products come together in one room, the quality of conversation is completely different.”
The smaller, regional format enabled more strategic engagement with exhibitors reporting that discussions moved beyond introductory destination training.
“I don’t have to focus on basic destination training. Instead, we have proper, strategic discussions,” said Andrea Shaffner, Sales Manager at Zambezi Queen Collection. “I’m not just running through the same presentation repeatedly. The real benefit is having everyone under one roof, allowing us to build and strengthen great connections.”
From a buyer perspective, face-to-face engagement is key.
“It is invaluable to learn about different products face-to-face. It builds a level of trust that reading a brochure or an email simply cannot achieve,” said Tapiwa Mayuni from Crafted Africa.
Industry players also highlighted the realities of operating in the region.
“For a long time, we viewed the trade as a standard customer-supplier relationship but we are now both integral parts of the same supply chain,” said Illana Clayton, Travel Smart Crew CEO. “The true customer is the guest overseas. We are not just here to buy. We are here to align our strategies because we share exactly the same challenges.”
“If you lose revenue, so do we,” Clayton added. “Everybody in this chain is fighting hard and our livelihoods depend entirely on Southern Africa.”
Despite global disruptions, exhibitors reported stable demand.
“In many ways, we have ostrich syndrome in Southern Africa: we put our heads in the sand and carry on,” Clayton said. “But this actually makes us incredibly resilient. We don’t dwell on the negative; we just look at how to keep our beds full.”
