This September, leaders from across the tourism industry will meet in Sun City for the 2025 Tourism Leadership Conference. Organised by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), the event arrives at a time when honest conversations and real solutions are more important than ever.
The global environment is shifting. Travellers are changing how, why and where they move. Economies are tightening. Technology is transforming how we promote destinations and engage with visitors. And across Africa, we continue to wrestle with longstanding challenges around access, infrastructure and policy alignment.
This year’s conference has been reshaped with that in mind. It opens with a focused tourism marketing workshop in partnership with South African Tourism on 17 September. The session is designed to give practical tools for positioning South Africa more competitively in the global market. It will also challenge us to think beyond borders. If we want to grow Africa’s tourism pie, we must begin working as a region. Not as fragmented competitors but as collaborators with a shared story to tell.
The rest of the continent is already playing a bigger role in South Africa’s tourism performance. More and more travellers from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and beyond are coming for business, family, leisure and shopping. These visitors are vital, not just in terms of numbers, but in building stronger cultural and commercial ties within the continent. We need to do more to welcome them, understand them and remove the barriers that make intra-African travel harder than it should be.
That is why regional integration must be more than a talking point. It means coordinating marketing efforts, investing in air routes, harmonising visa regimes and actively promoting cross-border tourism experiences. The more we align, the more powerful our message becomes. Africa is open, connected and full of possibility.
Day two of the conference will widen the lens. Speakers will tackle key issues like air access, safety, digital transformation and sector policy. TBCSA will also share progress on promises made last year, allowing the industry to check in on what has been achieved and what still needs attention.
One of the strengths of this year’s agenda is its willingness to confront issues that do not always make it onto the main stage. From regulating short-term rentals to unlocking investment in smaller towns and communities, the conversations will be grounded in what it really takes to build a fairer, more inclusive tourism economy.
Of course, no single gathering can fix everything. But moments like these can shift the tone, set the direction and spark momentum. What matters is what we do with them.
If we want Africa’s tourism sector to thrive, we will need more collaboration, more courage and more connection. Within countries and across the continent. The 2025 Tourism Leadership Conference is one place to start.
For more information about the conference, visit www.tbcsa.travel.
By Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, Chief Executive Officer of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa
