KwaZulu gets a cash injection from Indaba

Moeketsi Mosola, CEO of South African Tourism, confirmed the exhibition had indeed gone down as one of the biggest and best in its 23-year history, with a total of 1 583 exhibiting companies drawn from throughout the Southern African Development Community region.

The colourful diversity of products attracted an additional 41% of buyers over 2004, of which 632 were new international delegates and 939 Indaba Club members (defined as those who had attended Indaba more than once).

Matola said early indications were that about R11.5 million was generated in the accommodation industry; delegate and exhibitor direct spend accounted for about R33.5 million and other expenditure such as the construction of exhibition stands and functions contributed to a further R10 million.

Highlights of this year's show included the launch of the BEE Scorecard aimed at promoting Black Economic Empowerment, the new Business Tourism 'Businessunusual' strategy and implementation toolkits and the Welcome Awards which are aimed at meeting the 7 million foreign visitor arrivals mark in the upcoming year set down by the Minister during the opening ceremony.

"Indaba 2005 has generated a number of positive leads for both us as an organisation but importantly for a number of the SMMEs that we support. We will pursue these in the next few months in the hope of growing international arrivals into the Zulu Kingdom.

"The ICC Durban Arena will be complete for Indaba 2006 and the massive expansion will be finalised at the end of next year."

Matola said while the tender process would invite robust competition, the province was confident of presenting a formidable bid backed by major demonstrable and proven capabilities of successfully hosting international conferences.