When Africa’s Travel Indaba (ATI) 2025 closed on Thursday, May 15, the host city, Durban, had set its sights on securing the bid to host the event again over the next five years. Durban’s contract to host the event ended when the event closed this year. South African Tourism will soon assess bids for the next contract, covering the years until 2030.
“It’s important to note that the hosting of ATI is a competitive procurement and bidding process. We are soon going to initiate the formal bidding process that gives the opportunity for all provinces to bid to host the event,” said South African Tourism Chief Marketing Officer Thembisile Sehloho at the Host Party Wrap-Up on the final day of the event.
Winile Mntungwa, Deputy Head of Durban Tourism, said the city’s hosting of several major events, over and above ATI, over the past week illustrates Durban’s capabilities as a host city.
“Regardless of how many parallel or back-to-back events are taking place, we pride ourselves on ensuring that the necessary logistics and safety measures are in place,” said Mntungwa.
Healthy attendance
Sehloho said over 10 000 delegates attended this year’s ATI, which saw a 6% increase in exhibitor numbers to over 1 300. Non-hosted buyers grew by 12% year-on-year to 723 while hosted buyers totalled 314.
“We’ve almost doubled the number of exhibitors at the show over the past three or four years. Our engagements with the private-sector advisory panel and the bid parties helped us in terms of improving the quality of buyers.”
She said South African Tourism is aiming to further grow the private-sector advisory panel, which will begin working on next year’s event in June, to incorporate members of township tourism associations such as the South African Township & Village Tourism Association.
ATI 2025 is expected to generate R200 million (€9.9 million) in direct spend with a total GDP contribution of over R500 million (€24.7 million).
“These numbers reflect the power, the value and the expertise that the province of KwaZulu-Natal possesses. We are excited that, while Indaba is held in the city of Durban, its benefits expand to the entire province,” said Sibusiso Gumbi, Acting CEO of the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism and Film Authority.
Sehloho said the official opening of ATI 2025 by South Africa’s Deputy President Paul Mashatile was a token of the emphasis government places on tourism as an economic stimulator. The sector contributes approximately 9% to South Africa’s GDP.
“Tourism is a key sector in driving growth for the economy and driving employment. We can only drive that if we drive visitors coming to our country – and trade shows ensure that we have an opportunity to showcase our attractions to drive this,” said Sehloho.
South African Tourism is aware of the planning challenges – including late registration dates and failure to have several exhibitor stands ready for the first day of the show – that affected this year’s event, she added.
“It’s not something that we are proud of and we’ve put the systems in place to ensure we don’t have a repeat. We will announce the dates of next year’s show soon. We want to create the right channels in terms of ensuring that people can register on time and feel comfortable that they’re going to have an excellent show,” said Sehloho.
