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At next year’s show, WTM Africa will provide small tourism businesses with the opportunity to showcase their offering to the international travel trade, while also hosting workshops during the run-up, dedicated events at WTM Africa 2018 and post-show training.
GM of Africa Travel Week, Chardonnay Marchesi, added that the show’s SMME programmes would again be supported through the City of Cape Town, Satsa, Fedhasa and the Department of Tourism.
Hosted panels during the show will include discussions around how smaller businesses are better off than they were in previous years and how certain technologies have resulted in better market access.
“As the demand for experiential tourism grows in source markets, there is an increasing need for destinations to provide a rich diversity of products and experiences. Disintermediation with the growth of sites like TripAdvisor, Airbnb and Viator has eased market access,” says Harold Goodwin, WTM Responsible Tourism Adviser.
Goodwin will lead a panel discussion centred on various ways in which small tourism businesses can market their unique experiential offerings, as well as the challenges that currently face businesses like these, including co-operation between the formal and emerging sectors of tourism, should there be a level of certification in place, and what role tourism offices play in the quest to spread business evenly between large and small businesses.
CEO of Satsa, David Frost says: “Over the past couple of years, Satsa has partnered with WTM Africa to expose credible black-owned members to new markets through exhibiting on the Satsa pavilion at the exhibition. Ten exhibition spaces are reserved specifically for these businesses, which is provided at a greatly reduced price through subsidy from WTM Africa.”
Sоurсе: tourismupdate.co.za
