Exhibitors that were planning to attend this year’s Indaba with the Mozambique Tourism Authority (MTA) will still have the opportunity to exhibit at the show, says SA Tourism CEO, Thulani Nzima.
Nzima told Tourism Update that SA Tourism would contact the products that were going to exhibit with MTA directly and offer them the opportunity to still exhibit at the show, adding that this was also in the interest of the buyers attending the show, who would have confirmed appointments with these products’ owners. He said SA Tourism had been informed on Monday that the Mozambique Tourism Authority was withdrawing from the show.
He said Indaba had faced similar challenges in the past where, for example, a local tourism authority had cancelled its attendance at the show due to budget constraints. “We accommodated the products and simply reconfigured the stand.” Nzima added that there were always exhibitors who were waitlisted for the show, and SA Tourism might be able to accommodate them.
Jeremias Manussa, Marketing Manager at MTA, said exhibitors who had paid to exhibit with the authority would be refunded, or they could choose to use the money for the next trade show, such as World Travel Market in London, in which MTA was taking part. He emphasised that while the authority would not participate in Indaba, exhibitors were free to exhibit at the show should they wish to. “Those who want to go as individuals can still go.”
According to Nzima, the Democratic Republic of Congo had also withdrawn from the show. “They haven’t given us the reasons for withdrawal. It may well be a combination of their concerns about xenophobia but there are also some visa-related matters as well as budget constraints,” said Nzima. He added that every year Indaba had had to deal with challenges related to budgets with some of the countries exhibiting at the show.
He said SA Tourism was aware that some of the tourism boards would be concerned about xenophobia. However, he suggested that this was not so much because of xenophobic activities, but rather to make a statement.
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Nzima emphasised that the xenophobic incidents had come to an end. “South Africa has responded very positively. Whatever happened was a small group of people. As a country, we are very clear: this is not us and we condemn it.” He added that messages from President Jacob Zuma as well as from civil society showed that the majority of South Africans did not have a cause to fight against foreigners. “I want to give everybody an assurance that South Africa is safe now. We have been embarrassed enough and we wouldn’t want to see this sort of thing happening again.”
