For the very first time being nominated, iSimangaliso Wetland Park scooped the Platinum Award in the Green Stands Exhibitors Awards small stand category on the Africa Travel Indaba(ATI) Event. The award honors innovation, freshness, professionalism, use of natural resources and product knowledge amongst others. This year the award also honored those tourism businesses and organizations that have advanced tourism during a time of unprecedented technological and industry change.
The Winning of this award comes after iSimangaliso joined hundreds of tourism exhibitors at the Africa’s Travel Indaba 2023 which was hosted in Durban this Month (May). It is a great platform and time to showcase the best of the African continent on this event especially as Africa celebrate the Africa month. Africa Travel Indaba is the largest tourism marketing event on the African calendar and one of the top three events of its kind on the globe. The event is owned by South African Tourism, with a specific objective of creating market access for the vast array of Africa’s tourism products.
iSimangaliso Tourism and Business Development team took up the opportunities to network with the industry leaders from around the world during the 3 days of the ATI. Inspiring meetings were held with buyers and various media houses. Connections were also made with co-exhibitors looking at opportunities to link up efforts on various development programs and how to learn from one another.
iSimangaliso’s Marketing and Brand Manager Thandi Shabalala said ‘’Winning this award at an event of this magnitude means a lot to us as iSimangaliso and we appreciate all the organizations and individuals involved in staging this prominent event”.
The trade show takes place in the Province of KwaZulu –Natal. The Province is renowned for its beauty, its warm and inviting coastline, naturally diverse eco-systems and tourism offerings of areas like iSimangaliso Wetland Park. The 3-day trade show attracts international buyers, media, industry specialists from across the world. Africa Tourism Indaba 2023 was a phenomenal success, it was attended by many people compared to the one held in 2022. On this year’s event, there were 8 629 delegates that attended, 1023 exhibitors and 1 737 tourism buyers. The CEO of iSimangaliso Wetland Park Mr. Sibusiso Bukhosini said “The Africa’s Travel Indaba does not only underline the resilience of our product but reinforces our recovery after a difficult time due to the devastating Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in the slow growth of our domestic and global economy particularly after the ban on international travel due to lockdown. Having events of this nature assist in rebuilding tourism and businesses in South Africa and Africa at large”.
Pre and Post-Indaba familiarization tours to iSimangaliso are not taken lightly as these give tourism buyers the experience and perspective they need over and above the verbal discussions at the meetings held. iSimangaliso wishes to send greatest appreciation to the South African Tourism, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal and the local tourism businesses in iSimangaliso who continue to contribute to ensuring these tours are a success representing the entire region.
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