INDABA 2014 offered a platform to Twenty four African tourist destinations to work with quality buyers, in an environment accustomed to the outstanding incoming tourist increase of a continent.
This was the trademark of the most innovative, business-focused as well as tech-savvy INDABA up to now that existed up to its concept: Plugging into Africa’s Development.
At the close of the show on 12th May 12, nearly 8,706 delegates had gone to the 2014 INDABA.
As many as 281 of the delegates were hosted-buyers (making up 35.7% over the total hosted buyer in 2013); then 788 of the delegates were buyers from South Africa; while 1,069 of the delegates were international buyers – not hosted.
As many as 1,198 various products, services plus experiences where exhibited at the 2014 NDABA. Considerably there was a total 15.5% increase in regional African products exhibited at INDABA.
INDABA has taken rank as an exceptionally useful, Pan-African business platform, making use of the effectiveness of technology to generate an empowering environment for individuals to network as well as conduct business. INDABA Connect system in 2014 proved its worth.
229,191 connections were made with the help of this system within the 3 days of this tradeshow.
The 8,305 Connect users of INDABA at this 2014 show electronically swapped 35,019 documents, a remarkable 150% high on the 14,007 documents which were exchanged during the INDABA 2013.
More notably, as many as 19,399 meetings were held between the exhibitors and the buyers through the electronic diary Match-making system of INDABA. 18,044 logins were made into the system by the 4,316 users.
Thulani Nzima the Chief Executive Officer of South African Tourism said that this is a crucial focus for South Africa Tourism as they start preparing for the INDABA 2015, guaranteeing improved user-friendliness as well as automatic intelligence which maximizes the need for the electronic paring system.
The Tech-Zone, a new release at INDABA 2014 exhibited travel as well as technology trends.
It hosted a large number of delegates each day that came to build relationships with top travel technology companies and also listen to the great INDABA Tech-Talks by international experts among which were representatives from Google, Facebook and TripAdvisor as well as local technology advisors.
Nzima went on to say that It was an effective INDABA and that South African Tourism is positive that its firmer buyer selection standards, that ended in a slightly reduced volume of buyers in 2014, was successful in providing improved top quality buyers for the exhibitors at INDABA.
Acquiring the attendance of superior buyer delegates was a main concern at the INDABA for a long time. they are positive that their efforts to spark purposeful engagements among the buyers plus exhibitors at the 2014 INDABA was successful and that it will result in the creation of countless Rands within the tourism sector, plus tourists, which will significantly play a role in the long-term development of tourism on the African continent.
In conclusion Nzima said that Registrations for the INDABA 2015 will soon commence. by now, there’s strong interest as well as exhilaration for the coming year. They look forward to yet another successful year in the tourism business 2015.
