The Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (ECPTA) together with provincial stakeholders that include Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCM), Sarah Baartman District Municipality and Umzimvubu Local Municipality are collaborating to uniformly showcase the best the Eastern Cape Province has to offer under its tourism sector brand – Adventure Province. This will occur at the Tourism Indaba Tradeshow to be held in Durban from the 16th to 18th of May 2017.
This year’s focus for ECPTA and the province is to ensure that Eastern Cape tourism stakeholders continue to work as a united front towards a responsive and inclusive marketing approach that effectively promotes numerous elements of the province and its tourism offerings, from nature-based experiences, authentic cultural interactions and gems like the seven wonders of the Sarah Baartman region, and BCM’s official launch of East London as a golf destination amongst others.
The importance of exposing provincial tourism products at the Indaba is unparalleled as the show is one of the largest tourism networking platforms on the African calendar and is able to unlock doors for tourism players.
Indaba attracts international buyers and media from across the globe who are all interested in the widest variety of Southern Africa's best tourism products, ECPTA together with its partners are using the platform as a direct link between trade and businesses. As such, the entity is also providing 14 Small Macro Medium Enterprises (SMMEs) with the opportunity to attend Indaba through a variety of partnership programs.
“As tourism is a vehicle that provides about two out of every three private sector jobs yet often faced with difficulties in trading, SMMEs are ECPTA’s significant partners in promoting the Eastern Cape. ECPTA as a tourism authority wanting to grow the tourism sector of the province, we partner with SMMEs by providing training and support for effectiveness at tradeshows like Indaba so that they are able to proactively engage and promote their establishments and surrounding tourism offerings for a sustainable tourism industry,” explains Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency’s Chief Executive Officer, Vuyani Dayimani.
SMMEs from the sector who amongst others include accommodation, tour operators, tourist attractions and tourist activities hosted by ECPTA were chosen through a set criteria that showcase excellence. The SMMEs are:
The following Eastern Cape products (SMME’s) will therefore be hosted by ECPTA during Indaba:
Further information on Indaba 2017:
Issued by ECPTA
