South African Tourism North America celebrates Mandela Centenary Celebrations at Africa's Travel Indaba with 100

OOne hundred travel agents, media and trade partners will travel from North America to be a part of Africa’s Travel Indaba which kicks off in Durban, next week. 

The delegates will join in the Mandela Centenary Celebrations set to take center stage at this year’s Africa Travel Indaba.

South Africa attracted more than 370 000 arrivals from North America last year, and to further tap into this important source market, South African Tourism is currently hosting the 100 travel agents, trade partners and media from the region.

“We are proud to mark this important milestone in history alongside our top travel and media partners as we take time to reflect on Mandela’s legacy and his positive impact on the world,” said Bangu Masisi, President of South African Tourism’s North America Hub. “We invite our delegation and visitors from around the world to make 2018 the year they discover South Africa and follow in the footsteps of one of the world’s most exceptional human rights advocates”.

The annual travel trade show takes place from 8-10 May in South Africa’s vibrant coastal city of Durban, bringing together tourism stakeholders, thought leaders & speakers, buyers, media and exhibitors from across the continent to promote travel to Africa to the international travel industry community. This year’s theme is Africa’s Stories, Your Success and focuses on a united goal to deliver authentic stories to increase tourism to Africa sustainably.

With Mandela-inspired stories and celebrations getting underway at Africa’s Travel Indaba, South African Tourism will then lead the delegation from North America on a Mandela-inspired journey, spotlighting important landmarks and sites that inspired the activist’s life, such as the Nelson Mandela Capture Site in KwaZulu-Natal, the Parliament building from where Mandela’s release from prison was historically announced in 1990, and the Mandela House in Soweto where he lived many years and today is a museum. 

As part of the Nelson Mandela Centenary celebrations, South African Tourism has identified 100 experiences, attractions and destinations around South Africa that have strong historical and social ties to his life and which have become familiar to the global community.

This showcase of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s memory can be found on the Madiba’s Journey App, which allows users to view the attractions on a map, build their itineraries and share their own journeys on social media. Visitors can also experience the emotion and relevance of each location through audio, text and image galleries. The app also offers real-time weather information, distances and details of nearby attractions.

If you’d like to follow the happenings at Africa’s Travel Indaba – log onto the Facebook site www.facebook.com/travelindaba or feel free to tweet us @travel_indaba or tag us on Instagram under travelindaba.

-ENDS -

Issued by South African Tourism

For further information, contact:

Monde Mateza           

Tel: +2711 895 3135  

Email: monde@southafrica.net

Website www.southafrica.net

Owned and managed by South African Tourism, Africa’s Travel Indaba has established itself as the world’s leading African tourism trade show. Africa’s Travel Indaba attracts about 7 000 delegates from all over the world. In 2017 more than 1 000 exhibiting businesses from 18 African countries showcased an array of travel and tourism offerings to almost1 500 local and international travel buyers and shared stories with over 700 media platforms. More than 20 000 business meetings were held over the three-day period, making this one of the most successful business platforms for African tourism.

The 2018, Africa’s Tourism Indaba trade exhibition will be held from Tuesday 8 to Thursday 10 May in South Africa at the Durban Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre. Monday 7 May is BONDay for exhibitor business networking and engagement.