..

South Africa Story
New SA Brand
South African Airways
Personalities
Indaba 2008
Tourism Workshops
Skills

Regions
Cape Town
Gauteng
Map- Provinces
Mpumalanga
Soweto

About SA
Photos 1-12
Adventures
Attractions
Airports
Background
Bank- Financial
Big 5 Reserve
Blue Train
Cape Technikon
Contacts, SA
Cultural Tours
Cultures - Zulu
Did You Know?
Excerpts A
Excerpts B
Flying Times
Golfing
Government
Indaba
Kagga Kamma
Love Notes
Rovos Rail Story
Safety
Shopping
Working Holiday
Record High for Tourism

Food and Wine
Cape Dining
Cape Gourmet Festival
Cape Wines
Conservator
Dutch Festival
Five Flies
Wine Country
Wine Tours

Hotels, Resorts
Astron Resort
Caesar's Emperor Cape Hotels
Exeter Lodge
Lord Charles
Sandton Towers
Singita
Sun International
Tulbagh Hotels

Tour Operators
Canada Contacts
USTOA


May 14, 2014

INDABA 2014: CAPE TOWN SUSTAINING THE NEW TOURISM

The Africa Travel Association (ATA) is the world's leading travel trade association promoting travel and tourism to Africa and strengthening intra-Africa partnerships to make it happen. ATA is registered as a non-profit trade association with headquarters in New York and chapters around the world

Cape Town Tourism has returned from a successful Indaba 2014, which saw the Western Cape’s Gold Award-winning stand showcasing various facets from across the region, in partnership with Wesgro.

Enver Duminy, Cape Town Tourism CEO, was among the panelists at the Tourism Cities at Indaba Conference - attended by tourism businesses, authorities and academics. Consistent with South African Tourism’s theme for Indaba 2014, “Twenty Years of Freedom,” the event examined the explosive growth in tourism over the past two decades.

Says, Enver Duminy; “Demand in tourism has increased exponentially. For much of the first decade of the last twenty years we were just responding to the market but tourism has since gone from reactive to proactive. In particular, the FIFA World Cup in 2010 had shaped tourism to Cape Town and South Africa, both in terms of perception and by harnessing the potential of industry collaboration and cross sector partnerships.”

At the opening address for Indaba 2014 Minister for Tourism, Martinus van Schalkwyk said that “in 1994 international arrivals to South Africa stood at just 3.6-million.” Twenty years on, arrivals have grown by more than 300% to reach nearly 15-million last year, 9.6-million of which were tourist arrivals. Minister Van Schalkwyk added that “in 1994 South Africa's tourism budget was just R81-million, accounting for just 1.7% of GDP (R9-billion). There were just 230 000 direct jobs in the tourism sector. Today, the national government invests in excess of R1.6-billion in tourism every year and has a fully-fledged tourism ministry with the industry now accounting for R93-billion, or 3% of GDP, and 610 000 direct jobs in the sector.”

Looking at travel trends will shape the next twenty years in tourism and Duminy noted that social and mobile continue to shape tourism’s future. The popular Indaba Tech Zone showcased plenty of exciting innovation and ideas that signaled the importance of innovation.

Says Velma Corcoran, Executive for Marketing at Cape Town Tourism; “One of the biggest trends to watch in travel is mobile - and the potential for mobile in Africa is staggering as mobile has enabled Africa to leapfrog many other technologies. Harnessing mobility is a way of thinking which extends beyond a mobisite or travel app. It means placing visitors at the center and can also be an approach to a physical space; like Cape Town Tourism’s new mobile Visitor Info Centre.”

A study by Grant Thornton and the City of Cape Town (2013) revealed that the economic value of tourism in Cape Town for 2012/13 was around R11.9 billion and that, at the time, there were around 34 600 permanent employees and 15 000 temporary employees employed in Cape Town’s tourism industry.

Cape Town is committed to ensuring that the next twenty years will also mark an even greater shift towards economic equity for tourism.

REED TRAVEL EXHIBITIONS BRINGS ALL-ENCOMPASSING TRAVEL WEEK TO AFRICA

Jun 12, 2013

Global leader Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) has announced that it will launch “Africa Travel Week” at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) to run from April 28 to May 3, 2014.

The event will comprise three co-located shows – WTM Africa, IBTM Africa, and ILTM Africa - encompassing Africa’s inbound and outbound markets for general leisure travel, luxury tourism, and the MICE/business travel sector under RTE’s established portfolios of WTM (World Travel Market), ILTM (International Luxury Travel Market), and IBTM (Incentives, Business Travel & Meetings).

Following the successful launch of ILTM Africa earlier this year, the decision to create an all-encompassing travel week will ensure Africa Travel Week is the leading global event for Africa’s travel industry. Richard Mortimore, Managing Director, Reed Travel Exhibitions commented:

“Reed has been exploring opportunities in Africa for some time, and the success of our first launch event, ILTM Africa, has given us the platform to now introduce two more of our global industry brands to create ‘Africa Travel Week’ and make it the leading global event for the continent’s travel industry.

“Because of the sheer size of the continent and diversity of its travel offering, all three brands will help bring the world to Africa and promote Africa to the world’s leading source markets. RTE is committed to the African continent and its future as a global player in the leisure, business, and luxury tourism sectors.”

WTM Africa will attract exhibitors from all categories of the leisure travel industry within sub-Sahara Africa as well as North African destinations, aligning itself with sister events, WTM, WTM Latin America, Arabian Travel Market, and International French Travel Market – Top Resa.

IBTM Africa will be a table-top summit located in the West Ballroom, adjacent to the exhibition hall in the CTICC. It will target the inbound and outbound meetings, events, incentives, and business travel sectors of sub-Sahara Africa, with suppliers from the MICE sector including hotels, venues, convention bureaus, DMCs, technology providers, and suppliers of services. IBTM will reflect the brand values of its sister events CIBTM (China), EIBTM (Europe), GIBTM (Middle East), AIME (Australia), AIBTM (US), and IBTM India.

ILTM Africa will be the second edition. A table-top summit located in the East Ballroom of CTICC will, in line with its successful launch, target Africa’s inbound luxury travel market. ILTM Africa is part of a global portfolio of luxury travel events that include ILTM (Cannes), ILTM Americas, ILTM Asia, ILTM Japan, and ILTM Spa.

Both ILTM Africa and IBTM Africa will operate with a pre-qualified Hosted Buyer program and a pre-scheduled appointment system. WTM Africa will combine a Hosted Buyer and appointment system with a trade visitor program.

Africa Travel Week will be supported by Thebe Exhibitions Group, based out of Johannesburg. "We will be working with Thebe as our local management services contractor to provide logistics, operations, and local sales and marketing services," added Mortimore.

Arthur Gillis, CEO of the Protea Hospitality Group, the largest hotel group on the African continent with some 130 hotels in 10 countries said:

“Africa Travel Week is the sort of event that exposes the best of the continent to a global audience that covers the entire travel spectrum from leisure to luxury, business to conferencing. Cape Town, arguably one of the most beautiful cities in the world, will be the perfect backdrop to a travel showcase of this magnitude. The Protea Hospitality Group firmly supports collaborative efforts of this nature in which tourism players work together for the greater good of growing travel and investment in Africa by creating infrastructure and permanent jobs in a market sector that I believe will continue to show steady growth in the long term.”

Dates for the events are:

ILTM Africa: April 28–30
IBTM Africa: April 28– 30
WTM Africa: May 2–3

Source: reedexpo.com

 

TABLE MOUNTAIN OFFICIALLY INAUGURATED AS NEW 7 WONDER OF NATURE

Dec 03, 2012
 

It was a proud moment for all South Africans when the official inauguration of Table Mountain as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature took place at a ceremony held at the foot of the mountain on Sunday, December 2, 2012.

Patricia de Lille, the Executive Mayor of Cape Town, unveiled the New 7 Wonders of Nature plaque in front of 41 international delegates and said the title would bring tremendous direct economic and socio-economic benefits to South Africa and the Mother City.

“Table Mountain’s inauguration as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature is a worthy recognition of this symbol that we all own and cherish,” said De Lille, “While it defines our city, it is much greater than it. It is a natural heritage that belongs to all South Africans and, we believe, the world. I would like to thank everyone who voted for Table Mountain to win this precious accolade.”

Bernard Weber, Founder-President of the New 7 Wonders Foundation, said the inauguration marked the culmination of an inspiring campaign of which all South Africans could be proud.

“Table Mountain is not only a spectacular backdrop for Cape Town, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, it also offer visitors the unique experience to actually walk on top of the mountain and enjoy the most awesome panoramic views,” said Weber.

Global wide voting in the New 7 Wonders of Nature closed on November 11, 2011 when the provisional New 7 Wonders sites were announced. The inauguration follows an international audit which confirmed the voting results.

Sabine Lehmann, Cableway MD and Chairperson of the Table Mountain Official Supporters Committee, said the economic impact of the accolade was already being felt by the Cableway.

“We have had a record November, the best in ten years,” she said.

The African icon was the sixth site to host its inauguration ceremony following the Puerto Princesa Underground River, the Amazon, Jeju Island, Halong Bay, and Iguazu Falls. The seventh site, Komodo, will host its inauguration ceremony in 2013.

For more information about Table Mountain’s official inauguration as a New 7 Wonder of Nature, visit www.tablemountain.net or follow @tablemountainca on twitter.

Source: capetown.travel


Cape Town, South Africa's Tourism Attractions

On this and a growing number pages in this section on South Africa, we will bring our members and visitors items of interest and provide useful links in planning your trip to South Africa. If you are a Travel Agent, we will mention some of ther great local personalities you should connect with, such as Selwyn Davidowitz, a professional travel guide who has written some great items of interest about the city called " I Love Cape Town.” You'll find a selection of Selwyn's love notes on its own special page and at random locations throughout this site.

THE FLYING GOURMET VISITS CAPE WINE COUNTRY

Be sure to sample the nation's award winning wines during your stay. South Africa's vintages are among the world's best. Some specialties include lovely Chardonnays, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cinsault, Riesling, Shiraz,Sauvignon Blanc, Caberbet Sauvignon and Pinotage varietals. You will find that one of the most pleasant ways to enjoy South African wine is on a visit to the scenic wineland of the Western Cape. Few places in the world are as stunning as these lush valleys. Towering mountains are a dramatic backdrop for the rows of grapevines and giant oaks.

Take a leisurely drive through one of the many wine routes just minutes out of Cape Town. Winemakers welcome you for cellar tours and tastings. You will see historic wine towns graced with lovely Cape Dutch and Victorian buildings, charming guest houses, top-notch restaurants and interesting museums and shops. The Constantia wine route is popular for both beauty and historical significance. Established more than 300 years ago Groot Constantia is a superb example of a Cape Dutch manor house. (continued)

Important Links for Information on Booking Travel to South Africa

South African National Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism -
www.deat.gov.za

South African Tourism - www.southafrica.net

South African National Parks - www.sanparks.org

International Marketing Council - www.sanparks.org.za

Edwin Sipho Rihlamvu
Tourism International Liaison

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM SOUTH AFRICA

Tel: 27 (12) 310 3940, Fax: 27 (12) 322 5754
Mobile: 073 902 4504

E-mail: erihlamvu@deat.gov.za

Many more items to appear on this page
Namibia Pre & Post Congress Tours
Botswana
Pre & Post Congress Tour