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Figures released by SA Tourism reveal that the number of international buyers attending this year’s Indaba trade show declined by 43%, with 900 international buyers at this year’s show, compared with 1 595 international buyers at last year’s show. In 2013, 1 904 international buyers attended the show.
When asked for comment on the decline, SA Tourism said total buyers had dropped only slightly, with a total of 1 531 attending this year compared with 1 595 in 2015. The 4% decline was attributed to a focus on quality.
While the number of international buyers has declined, the number of exhibiting companies is slightly up on last year’s figure, following a decline since 2013. This year there were 1 049 exhibiting companies at Indaba, up just under 2% on last year’s 1 029 companies. In 2015, the number dropped 14% compared with the previous year.
The number of exhibiting companies this year was boosted by the debut of a Hidden Gems Zone, where 70 South African SMMEs exhibited in a collaboration between the Tourism Enterprise Partnership and the Department of Tourism, funded by the department’s incentive programme.
Without the 70 SMMEs, the number of exhibiting companies would have declined just under 5%.
A trend eating into exhibitor numbers is the amount of previous exhibitors attending the show as visitors and ‘walking the floor’ as opposed to exhibiting – something that affects trade shows globally. In a recent trade show survey on Tourism Update, respondents who did this included property representatives and South African DMCs
WTM Africa, which Thebe Reed Exhibitions hoped to combine with the Indaba show has grown exhibitor numbers from just over 570 in 2015 to roughly 680 this year.
WTM Africa differs from Indaba in that it is both an inbound and an outbound show. At this year’s show, according to Thebe Reed, there were 413 exhibitors from SA, 196 from the rest of the continent and 83 overseas exhibitors. There were also 271 international buyers, of which 173 were hosted.
At this year’s niche luxury show, We Are Africa, there were 263 buyers and 255 exhibitors.
Source: tourismupdate.co.za