The City of Cape Town is once again the Host City Partner of World Travel Market Africa and has been the show’s home, since inception in 2014. Regularly recognized as one of the world’s most beautiful cities, Cape Town is the ideal home for WTM Africa, thanks to its status as a global tourism hotspot. With April being an ideal time in the travel industry’s buying cycle, WTM Africa is the perfect opportunity to connect with the world and do business.
Cape Town welcomed over 5.3 million arrivals via Cape Town International Airport in the year 2017-18 – just over 4 million of them domestic, over 1.1 million, international and over 100 000, regional. The airport’s growing status as an international hub sees it offering excellent connectivity from global destinations, onwards to the rest of Africa. The bulk of international arrivals were from Germany, the United Kingdom and the USA, with visitor numbers from Turkey, Italy, Australia and Denmark showing the greatest year-on-year growth.
The City’s 8 most-visited attractions (Cape Point; Chapman’s Peak Drive; Groot Constantia; Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens; Robben Island Museum; Table Mountain Aerial Cableway; Two Oceans Aquarium and V&A Waterfront) drew nearly 30 million visitors over the course of the year. April is a particularly busy time of year in the Mother City, with scores of events, festivals and celebrations taking place.
These powerful tourism numbers illustrate the fact that the City of Cape Town and WTM Africa’s partnership makes the continent’s only B2B inbound & outbound travel trade show the perfect place to connect with the world. Offering the highest-calibre buyers and quality exhibitors, WTM Africa is the perfect meeting place for the travel industry’s major players to connect with each other. 70 countries were represented at WTM Africa 2018, with nearly 6 000 industry professionals attending and generating $402 545 895 in business deals, with all metrics from attendees to country representation and Hosted Buyer numbers, increasing – and set to do so, once more, at #WTMA19.
Carol Weaving, Managing Director of Reed Exhibitions, says that the show’s partnership with the Host City of Cape Town is as dynamic as the event itself. “We’re proud to have been partners with the City of Cape Town since the inception of World Travel Market Africa in 2014 – and thrilled that their support for the show has grown along with its trajectory,” she says. “World Travel Market Africa gets bigger and better every year, thanks in no small part to the vision and support of the City of Cape Town – and who could wish for a more beautiful or ideal setting for the conclusion of major international travel trade business deals, than the Mother City?”
City of Cape Town’s Executive Mayor Dan Plato, says that the partnership with WTM Africa is a mark of the city’s status amongst the global tourism elite. “We’re delighted to welcome travel industry professionals from around the world to the Mother City, to showcase the best of Africa. Cape Town is an international gateway to the best the continent has to offer and, as home to Africa’s only dedicated B2B travel trade show, the city is well-placed to help showcase the long list of tourism opportunities that await our growing numbers of local, regional and international visitors”.
With just under a month before the show kicks off on 10 April, there’s still time to register as a Buyer, Visitor, Exhibitor or member of the Media, to be part of the continent’s must-visit travel trade event.
