A delegation from Tourism KwaZulu-Natal and Durban Tourism attended the New York Times Travel Show 2020 from 24-26 January, hoping to lure dollar-spending tourists by showcasing KwaZulu-Natal’s tourist attractions.
The New York Times Travel Show 2020 is the largest travel trade and consumer show in North America and is the destination for the travel industry to meet and for travel enthusiasts to explore global and domestic destinations. The 2019 show brought together 35 500 participants including 11 750 travel trade and 22 000 consumers with 750 exhibiting organisations from 175 countries.
Phindile Makwakwa, Acting CEO of Tourism KZN, said: “The Americas are among the top three long haul international markets for us and we’ve seen a constant steady growth from there over the years. With our global connectivity getting better, we see this a huge growth potential for our international tourist’s arrivals.“
The New York Times Show attracts over 35 000 potential travellers searching for the next bucket list destination to explore.
“We’ve been working very closely with the US office of South African Tourism to get better insights of this market and we believe that KZN with all its natural wonders including our wildlife, rich cultural heritage, warm Indian Ocean, vibrant nightlife and unrivalled hospitality, is exactly what this market is looking for,” said Makwakwa.
Through an initiative spearheaded by the National Department of Tourism, two emerging tourism entrepreneurs from KwaZulu-Natal had been selected to exhibit at the New York Times Show.
“Transformation of the tourism sector is a top focus for us and we work very closely with our partners to give some of our emerging tourism entrepreneurs an opportunity to forge strategic relationships with international tour operators, so they too can begin to be active players within the sector,” concluded Makwakwa
The New York Times Show is also attended by more than 1 200 accredited media journalists from around the world, making this a great platform to position KZN as a top of mind travel destination.
