Limpopo Tourism Authority officials, tourism products owners with the former Minister of Tourism, Lindiwe Sisulu at Meetings Africa 2023.
Limpopo tourism Agency took with 15 tourism products to represent the province at the Meetings Africa 2023 held at Sandton International Convention Centre from27 February to 1 March 2023.
According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Limpopo Tourism Agency (LTA), Moses Ngobeni, who led a delegation of tourism stakeholders, the aim of taking tourism products owners to the Meetings Africa was to provide them with a platform to showcase their offerings to International and local buyers, African associations and corporate planners.
Meetings Africa is the most formidable platform on the continent for tourism products owners to meet face-to-face with the most influential buyers in the world, and to be part of Africa’s growth.
Products owners told Mopani Times that they had fruitful meeting with local and international buyers and other tourism and business stakeholders throughout the duration of the event.
Ngobeni said that LTA efforts this year at Meetings Africa succeeded in helping tourism and business event industry partners build a broader and stronger network, both locally and globally.
“It was a great place for connecting with a global network of decision-makers, and executives or simply booking a vacation trip in the travel industry. This event strives to foster a healthy environment for business-to-client or business-to-business organizations all across the globe,” he said
Distinguished features refer to key tourism icons and attractions requiring promotion and sustained exposure in these regions.
Buyers can develop packages for international visitors in their respective countries.
In recent years, the Global meetings industry has begun to recognize Africa as a sought-after destination. Meetings Africa showcased Africa’s diverse offering of services and products where African associations and African meetings industry professionals can partner to help transform the continent.
The Agency used Meetings Africa as a platform to highlight Heritage and Culture cluster as the main strategic focus for marketing under the theme “Limpopo is open for business” after being negatively affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The province is on the path to full recovery becoming geared to hosting tourism business meetings and conventions.
“Our daunting task was about converting our high number of visiting friends and relatives (VFRs) into real tourists, and this will always keep us awake as we embark on this journey. More work will be done to better understand our target markets and core markets to ensure our initiatives are well targeted. The purpose for our participation at Meetings Africa this year, was also to increase tourist volumes, spend and length of stay as well as arrivals into Limpopo Province as a favourable business events and sports tourism destination through pursuing, bidding and hosting for major, local and international events”.
Exhibitors included airlines, conference, event and exhibition management companies, convention bureaus, destination management companies, destination marketing organizations, hotels, venues and incentive travel specialists.
Meetings Africa enjoys the support of all representative business tourism associations including the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI) and the Exhibition and Event Association of Southern Africa (EXSA).
Shaun Boyd and Anele Makhubalo of AM Lodge at Meetings Africa 2023.
