City Showcases Cape Town’s Holistic Offering at WTM Africa
5 April 2022
World Travel Market (WTM) Africa is back! The globally-renowned travel and trade show takes place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 11-13 April 2022.
The flagship show, part of Africa Travel Week, offers a unique platform for industry players who wish to increase their visibility, enter new markets, launch new products, assess the current industry landscape, generate sales leads, and network. This opportunity to meet with fellow members of the travel and tourism industry is highly anticipated because it is the first time the event has been hosted in person since the start of the pandemic.
“This year’s event promises to be highly informative; a truly useful platform for all industry members,” says Martin Hiller, Creative + Content Director: Travel, Tourism and Creative Industries at RX Africa. “We’ve carefully designed our programme with an eye to shining the spotlight on opportunities for travel to Africa. Against this backdrop, our various activities are geared to inspire, educate and help rebuild the travel and tourism industry.”
In line with this objective, a wide range of topics has been slated for discussion, including a look at new types of tourism, such as culinary tourism, and where, how and why to travel in 2022 and beyond. Other issues that will be examined include diversity in the industry, with a look at the rise of female rangers in Africa, regenerative tourism practices, and the current and future challenges facing Africa’s industry.
The City of Cape Town pavilion, located in the centre of the main exhibition area (Stand E05), is based on the City’s destination campaign position of wide open spaces.
Surrounded by nature, Cape Town offers vast open spaces, fresh clean air and breath-taking beauty.
The City is actively positioning Cape Town as the ultimate destination in Africa to Visit, Live, Work, Study, Play and Invest. In addition to tourism, Cape Town is an ideal destination for events, business, arts and culture, and so much more.
The City’s six-pillar destination marketing approach shines the international spotlight on the city’s successes, its people, places and the region’s limitless opportunities to help stimulate long-term economic growth for residents.
The six categories of Visit, Live, Work, Study, Play and Invest are utilised to holistically market the different attributes of Cape Town to the world. Each of these six elements contributes to the overall attractiveness of the destination with many of them reinforcing the offering of the other elements.
Partners on the City of Cape Town pavilion, representing each of the six pillars, include: Cape Town Tourism, Made in Cape Town, the City’s Smart Living initiative, the University of Cape Town (UCT), the City’s Events Department, and Invest Cape Town.
Speakers at this year’s event include tourism industry heavyweights such as Jon Howell, Holly Budge, Maggie Mutangiri, Beks Ndlovu and Septi Bukula. For a full overview of the content programme, click here. A comprehensive overview of the speakers can be found here.
The content sessions hosted by experts and speakers are to be augmented by several bolt-on conferences, including EQUAL Africa, the African Tourism Investment Summit (ATIS), the Responsible Tourism Africa Conference, Travel Forward and IBTM Africa.
A 2021 survey by Booking.com revealed that more than half (53%) of LGBTQ+ travellers have had less-than-welcoming or uncomfortable experiences at a property where they were staying, making the EQUAL Africa conference pivotal to the industry. Designed to deliver a dynamic range of inspirational speakers telling personal stories, giving advice on marketing best practices, and explaining case studies presenting a real opportunity for the industry to switch up its business strategies.
Taking place on Monday, 11 April, this conference is free of charge, but it is advised to reserve your spot as places are limited due to COVID restrictions. Book your seat here.
The 2022 edition of the African Tourism Investment Summit (ATIS) in partnership with the International Tourism and Investment Summit (ITIC) will take place on Tuesday, 12 April as part of WTM Africa. Themed, “Investing in the Future of African Tourism”, the conference will deliver key insights highlighting investment trends, opportunities, and challenges in the value chain of tourism, encourage finance initiatives and explore Africa’s innovative tourism sector for growth.
The African Tourism Investment Summit is a paying event that can be booked here.
This year’s theme is “New Business, New Tech, New World” and has been expertly designed to provide all IBTM Africa attendees with the insights and knowledge they need to recover and grow in 2022 and beyond. Taking place on Wednesday, 13 April, this conference is free of charge, but it is advised to reserve your spot as places are limited due to COVID restrictions. Book your seat here.
