Pretoria, South Africa – The Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) is gearing itself to participate in the upcoming WTM Africa which takes place from 19 to 21 April, as well as the Tourism Indaba scheduled to take place from 16 to 18 May. The Council has released an outline of its programme for the two trade shows, which has a strong emphasis on member engagement and strategic projects.
As the apex organisation for business in the travel and tourism industry, the Council attends and participates in different local and international trade shows throughout the year as a means to engage face to face with members, TOMSA (Tourism Marketing Levy South Africa) levy contributors, the media and industry stakeholders. Furthermore, trade shows provide the Council with the ideal opportunity to keep abreast of industry developments and to update the industry on its strategic initiatives.
Focus on face to face engagement at WTM Africa
TBCSA representation at WTM Africa will include the organisation’s General Manager for Policy Analysis and Strategic Projects, Tebogo Umanah, and Member Relations Manager, Boitumelo Moleleki, whose focus will be on face to face engagement with members and TOMSA levy contributors.
“Being a national organisation, we do not always have the opportunity to meet with all our members. Thus, the key focus for us at WTM Africa will be on face to face meetings with current and prospective members, particularly the ones based in the Cape regions. Furthermore, we will be conducting sales calls on current and prospective TOMSA levy contributors and leverage the WTM Africa platform to meet and engage with our counterparts who will be attending the trade show, coming from all parts of the African continent,” says Umanah.
In addition, the Council will be meeting with relevant members and industry-role-players to update them on the work done around the Tourism Safety Initiative (Tsi), and to solicit trade support for the piloting of the soon to be launched Tsi visitor support mobile application.
Business performance in the spotlight at Tourism Indaba
Against the backdrop of recent socio-political and economic developments in the country, the Council also plans to present first quarter results of the TBCSA Tourism Business Index (TBI) during the annual Tourism Indaba. “We will be hosting a media briefing during the Indaba to present our Q1 2017 TBI report, reviewing how business has performed overall in this quarter. This will be followed by an expanded panel discussion with industry business leaders to provide context to the outcomes of the TBI report and to engage on the likely impact of the current downgrade on tourism business performance in the short to medium term” Umanah explains.
Other activities planned for Indaba include the hosting of trade events for Tsi and TOMSA. Further details regarding these events will be communicated in due course.
For more information visit www.tbcsa.travel
