Exchanging business cards via new technology
Going paperless - uploading brochures
Encouraging delegates to help save rhinos 1 signature at a time
South African Tourism's David DiGregorio, Marketing & Communications Manager & Judy Pillay, Operations Manager, with SA's Elizabeth Ninomiya, Director - Marketing Communications, North America & Damion Rose, Special Markets Manager
Delegates were treated to many ad hoc cultural performances
Canadians are certainly keen on South Africa. At this year’s edition of Indaba, the main travel trade show for Africa, up to 30 Canadian buyers were in attendance. At the same time, 100 travel agents from Canada and the U.S. were visiting on a Mega-FAM that allowed them to sample cultural offerings and meet with leading suppliers in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Mpumalanga.
The 24th edition of Indaba was held at the Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban and for the 1st time in its history, technology ruled. Using "Indaba Connect," participants did away with the usual business cards exchange routine. All one needed to do was to touch one's small hand-shaped USB contraption with the contraption of whomever you were interested to exchange cards with ─ they carried the contact details for each individual. In addition, brochures could be collected via this same gadget using a “digital brochureware” feature found at each exhibitor’s booth. As a result, over 14,000 paper documents were eliminated on the 1st day of the conference, amounting to about 61 trees saved. A clever and novel way to help save the planet!
The focus at this year’s show was on culture and heritage. Among the highlights were local fashion icons who designed collections inspired by the country’s 8 UNESCO sites. South African Tourism’s (SAT) CEO, Thulani Nzima said, “We want to let people know that we are more than just a safari destination. We want visitors to relate to our people and our culture.” Indeed, during the Opening Ceremony, delegates had no problem relating to the musical talents of popular South African afro pop singers Malaika and Zakes Bantwini. Singing both in Zulu and English, they had the audience on their feet and dancing.
Exotik Tours’ Janice Tozer, Product Manager, South America & Africa found Indaba a good place to discover new product offerings from the wide range of exhibitors. Plus, Tozer is taking this opportunity to renew face-to-face relationships with Exotik’s African suppliers.
Last year, South Africa enjoyed a 15.6% rise in Canadian arrivals, representing 66,802 visitors. As such, SAT plans to (finally) have a trade relations representative based in Canada sometime later this year.
