The 2019 Africa’s Travel Indaba will take place from May 2-4, 2019 at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in Durban.
This means that Indaba has been brought forward by four days.Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa, announced in his State of the Nation (SONA) Address that the national election will take place on May 8, which would have coincided with Indaba.
A task team was set up by the CEO of South African Tourism (SA Tourism), Sisa Ntshona, to explore all available options and it was decided that moving Indaba forward was the best possible option.
The task team took into account various factors and permutations in reaching the new date.
Ntshona said the national election is the cornerstone of democracy and is a celebration of our freedom in South Africa.
“It’s an important date and occasion for all South Africans and we need to acknowledge and respect the date.”
“At the same time, I must express my heartfelt gratitude to the Tourism industry for their understanding of the situation, I have received many calls, emails and texts with advice and support. I am really impressed to experience how the tourism sector gets together. I also want to thank the Indaba Organising Committee involved with Africa’s Indaba Travel – they are Tourism KwaZulu Natal, ICC and eThekwini (Durban Tourism) – for being accommodating with regards to the change,” said Ntshona.
Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO at TBCSA, said the key thing for them was to get a new date as quickly as possible.
“We will now work with all our trade partners to ensure that there is smooth transition into the new date as many would’ve had plans in place already for the previous date. We still have a key role to play in achieving Indaba’s objectives of selling South Africa and the continent to the rest of the world.”
Indaba is the African continent’s biggest travel exhibition show. Last year over 7 000 delegates attended from 80 countries.
Registrations for buyers and exhibitors are still open. For more information, visit www.indaba-southafrica.co.za