Around Africa | The Impact Imbizo will connect African and Indian Ocean tourism suppliers with global buyers through flexible, one-to-one meetings across four Global Pop-Up weeks
“Around Africa | The Impact Imbizo is about giving smaller, independent African and Indian Ocean tourism operators the same opportunities as the larger players to be seen, heard and ultimately booked. When local businesses thrive, entire communities benefit.” — Thabang Rapotu, co-founder of Around Africa | The Impact Imbizo
Buyers and tourism suppliers will have a new way to reconnect, share news and continue relationships formed at in-person trade shows when Around Africa | The Impact Imbizo launches its first global virtual pop-up activation from 24 August to 25 September 2026.
Rather than asking participants to commit to several consecutive days of back-to-back appointments, Around Africa will unfold across four Global Pop-Up weeks.
During each week, the platform will open and close through dedicated regional activation windows as the virtual showroom floor moves around the globe, allowing buyers and exhibitors to join the source markets and time zones most relevant to them.
Buyers and exhibitors will meet through pre-scheduled, 20-minute, one-to-one video appointments, with dedicated meeting windows for Australia and New Zealand; Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Africa; North America and Canada; Latin America and the Caribbean; as well as an additional Open Time window for greater flexibility.
Meeting calendars officially open on 3 August 2026.
According to co-founder Rudi Wagenaar, Around Africa was designed to fit around the industry calendar, rather than compete with it.
“We know people are exhausted,” said Wagenaar. “The large trade shows can have you on your feet from early morning until late at night, and the industry does not need another intensive meeting marathon.
“But there is still a gap for smaller businesses that have not managed to attend even one international trade show, whether because of time, cost or operational capacity. There is also a gap for those who simply want to reconnect with buyers or suppliers before the high season begins.”
Rather than simply digitising a traditional trade-show floor, Around Africa takes the African tourism buying journey beyond one city, one exhibition hall, one source market or one intensive week.
Rapotu said the platform was developed around the reality that neither tourism operators nor buyers have empty diaries.
“No one in tourism has space for another intensive week of meetings,” she said. “But even one focused, 20-minute conversation can be woven into an ordinary working day.
“Participants choose the Global Pop-Up weeks and regional meeting windows that work for them, without leaving their businesses, their teams, their families or their guests behind.”
Where a buyer or exhibitor is unable to attend a scheduled meeting, the platform enables the participants to reconnect and arrange another suitable time.
A shared-economy approach
Affordability was one of the most important considerations in developing Around Africa | The Impact Imbizo.
A Standard Exhibitor Booth costs R7,400 and includes a showroom profile, one meeting calendar, discovery and search visibility, access across all four Global Pop-Up weeks and participation in the event feed.
Through the Shared Economy Exhibitor Booth, businesses that invite a minimum of 10 qualified buyers can participate for R4,700.
No VAT is added to either participation fee.
The founders are also encouraging larger industry players to sponsor showroom spaces for smaller tourism businesses that may not otherwise have the resources to participate.
“If you have a strong team and a healthy budget, we genuinely want you to join us,” said Wagenaar. “But you can also help shift the needle by opening a door for a small guesthouse, an independent experience provider or an owner-led tourism business that deserves access to the global market.”
Rapotu added that the model was designed to create fairer access without excluding established tourism brands.
“A larger, well-known business and a small, emerging operator can stand alongside one another on the same searchable showroom floor,” she said.
“Buyers can discover businesses according to their interests, rather than only encountering those able to afford the largest or most prominent physical exhibition stands.”
Built around the way the tourism industry works
The concept has roots in virtual tourism collaboration work dating back to 2020 and was further tested through a series of workshops hosted in 2025 by four boutique tourism representatives.
These workshops connected participating tourism businesses with approximately 700 buyers in their respective time zones, but coordinating the process manually was extremely time-consuming.
Wagenaar and Rapotu have since invested in dedicated Brandlive event technology to streamline the process and create a professional, searchable tourism showroom floor capable of supporting a substantial volume of one-to-one meetings across different markets and time zones.
Brandlive technology has powered high-profile virtual events for major global organisations, including Google, and has hosted events featuring Harvard Business School leadership.
The browser-based platform requires no additional software download or separate meeting links.
Participants enter the virtual showroom floor, discover the people, places and businesses that interest them, and arrange focused video meetings around their existing working schedules.
“We wanted to create something more manageable and respectful of how busy this industry already is,” said Wagenaar.
“It runs across four Global Pop-Up weeks, but nobody is expected to remain online for four weeks. The platform opens and closes as the showroom floor moves between global regions.
“Even if someone can offer only 40 minutes for two meetings during one of the regional activations, that still matters. It is still an investment in their relationships, their brand and the future of their business.”
Rapotu said technology was not being positioned as a replacement for human relationships.
“Physical trade shows still matter,” she said. “Relationships are strengthened when we sit across a table, share a meal, experience a destination together and meet beyond a screen.
“But the physical trade-show model cannot be the only doorway into the global tourism market. Technology can make those relationships more accessible and allow a small tourism business in Africa to meet an advisor on the other side of the world without either party leaving their office.”
More than 200 tourism names already represented
The response to the first activation has already exceeded the founders’ expectations, with more than 200 tourism properties, brands, experiences, collections and industry partners represented on the first showroom floor.
“We are honestly overwhelmed by the calibre and diversity of the businesses buyers will already discover,” said Rapotu.
“It is one extraordinary gathering of lodges, hotels, experiences, tourism brands, storytellers and industry partners from across Africa and the Indian Ocean.”
Names already represented include Airlink, Asilia Africa, The Zanzibar Collection, Xigera Safari Lodge, Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Hemingways Collection, Makanyi Private Game Lodge, Mosaic Lagoon Lodge, Labotessa Luxury Boutique Hotel, Mhondoro Safari Lodge & Villa, Babylonstoren Farm Hotel, ENVI Lodges, Zanzibar White Sand Luxury Villas & Spa, Feline Fields, Zomerlust Boutique Hotel, Extraordinary, Transfrontier Parks Destinations, African Safari Collective, Wild Frontiers Travel Africa, Wetu, Nansi Rail, Nyati Safari Lodge, O’Leleshwa Retreat in Naivasha Kenya and Le Jadis Beach Resort & Wellness Mauritius.
The complete first-round showroom-floor list is available from the Around Africa press office.
“Africa does not need another show that asks an exhausted industry to do more of the same,” said Rapotu.
“It needs more doors more flexible, affordable and inclusive ways for African tourism businesses to enter the global conversation.”
Wagenaar agreed: “We are not asking the industry to choose between one floor and another. We are simply creating more doors.”
