The 2022 Africa Travel Week headlined by WTM Africa and ILTM Africa has opened in Cape Town, South Africa with great enthusiasm, 2 years after the event was put on hold due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The in-person event which took place from 11-13 April 2022 was preceded by a 2-day virtual event from 4-5 April 2022.
Opening the event, the Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, said “ It’s an absolute pleasure to welcome this event back to Cape Town. It’s been exactly three years since we last hosted this event. Nobody could have predicted what would happen.
The benefits of hosting an event like ATW is immense. It provides opportunity for tourism businesses globally.
Despite resuming with COVID-19 restrictions in place, this year’s WTM Africa, has an increase in participation, indicating the relevance and demand for the event.
As Carol Weaving, Managing Director, RX Africa explained, a platform such as this is critical to reignite the economy. We have over 500 buyers,400 exhibitors and 7000 meetings – which is more than in 2019.
“We have been craving this face-to-face interaction. We have new hosted buyers from Japan and Malaysia. 87% of buyers are new buyers. We have 20 countries here from Africa, 12 international countries including first-time participant, Korea. We are showing that we are recovering.”
As part of the opening, the WTM Industry report was also presented by Kojo Bentum-Williams, Managing Editor, Voyages Afriq, and Gillian Sanders-Travel and Tourism Consultant , highlighting key trends such as sustainability, wellness, flexcation, workation, bleisure, slow tourism intra-africa travel and diversity.
Click here to view images from the show
