Durban - Durban has had its contract extended to host the Indaba tourism show for another year.
The massive show – now hailed as the biggest Pan-African exhibition on the continent – has been staged in Durban for more than two decades.
The current contract ended this year and there were many who had been expecting an announcement about the new contract at Saturday night’s opening of this year’s Indaba.
But the announcement only came on Tuesday, when Thulani Nzima, chief executive of South Africa Tourism – the owners of the 35-year-old event – ended a media briefing at the end of the three-day show by saying that Indaba would “still be here in 2016”.
Asked later why the contract had only been extended for one year, he said that as SA Tourism was in the process of calling for a strategic partner to organise Indaba on its behalf, they wanted to ensure that was done without having the challenge of the venue contract as well.
The next Indaba contract would be for longer than four years, to give the venue investor certainty, Nzima said.
“Maybe there will be a 10-year cycle,” he said.
Nzima told the press briefing that South Africa was only one of two destination marketing agencies that organises its own exhibition. Getting a strategic partner would enable SA Tourism to focus on its core business.
Mike Mabuyakhulu, the KZN MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, said that he appreciated the reasons behind the decision not to award the contract for longer than a year, but they (the city and the province) would remain in contact with the tourism minister, Derek Hanekom, and his doors would remain open to discuss the issue.
“But I want to emphasise that Indaba has been held in Durban for 26 years and is synonymous with KZN and Durban,” he said.
Local tourism bosses have long called for Durban to become the permanent home of Indaba.
Durban, provincial and national tourism authorities had been “in a panic” last month following the unexpected outbreak of xenophobic attacks in the city, wrongly believing that delegates would not turn up, Phillip Sithole, the head of Durban Tourism told the media briefing.
But more than 90 percent of the exhibition space had been occupied at Indaba, which was “remarkable”, Nzima said.
The Mozambique Tourist Board had pulled out – but they have since said they regretted it, realising that Durban was peaceful, Nzima added.
The director-general of the tourist board had attended Indaba, as well as staff from the Mozambique Ministry of Tourism, along with the country’s product owners and journalists.
“They will be back next year,” Nzima said.
“And the broader African environment of exhibitors are demanding more space.”
Abu Dhabi would also exhibit next year, he said.
“They wanted to come this year, but there was not enough time.”
While the number of buyers was down, partly due to mergers, the number of media had increased.
And there had been 6 000 more meetings this year than last year, he said. Some 8 700 had been held compared to last year’s 2 500 figure.
Daily News