With Africa Travel Week (ATW) 2022 offered as a hybrid event – with virtual meetings held last week for buyers who could not attend the in person event in Cape Town this week – over 7 000 meetings were booked.
“This is more meetings than during the 2019 event,” said Carol Weaving, Managing Director of RX Africa, during the opening of the three-day event which includes headline shows, World Travel Market Africa, and International Luxury Travel Market Africa (ILTM).
She said over 87% of the over 500 hosted buyers were new, representing 20 international companies and 12 African countries. Countries represented at WTM for the first time were Japan, Croatia and Korea.
Feedback from the over 400 exhibitors at the show was overwhelmingly positive and after day 1, hopes were high that good business deals would be signed up for well into 2023.
One exhibitor told Tourism Update: ‘It really is beginning to look like recovery is not too far off.” Many in the industry elected not to exhibit but, as one visitor put it, “show face and support”.
Many exhibitors have also scaled down their presence due to costs but noted it was important to reconnect and re-establish relationships.
