Synergy Business Events pulls off a successful Africa’s Travel Indaba
Following a strategic appointment to oversee the smooth running of two of Africa’s largest travel and business trade shows more than a year ago, Synergy Business Events is proud to have pulled off another successful Africa’s Travel Indaba for the second year running.
Hosted just months after the grand success of Meetings Africa in February this year (2019), the recently concluded edition of Africa’s Travel Indaba left an indelible mark in the minds of South Africans as it took place just a few days before the country’s historic 2019 national polls.
This once again highlights the importance of timing of an event of this nature, concerned not only with showcasing the colourful diversity of our country and Africa as a whole, but is ascribed to helping facilitate citizen participation in the tourism sector.
Africa’s Travel Indaba, hosted yet again at the Durban ICC attracted over 1000 exhibitors and 1500 buyers from all over the world.
Renowned for managing and coordinating a variety of events including large scale events and conferences, this Travel Indaba was organised around Synergy Business Events’ greening principles which were evident throughout the 3-day programme of events.
Introduced for the first time this year to recognise exhibitors who go the extra “green” mile to build and design exhibition stands that are environmentally and socially sustainable, the Green Stand Award was first awarded at Meetings Africa in February, before being introduced amid much fanfare at Africa’s Travel Indaba.
This one of kind awards programme was invented as part of the on-going initiative to encourage eco-friendliness in the tourism events sector, perfectly tying in with wider tourism efforts to promote and sell South Africa as a major tourist and business event destination.
The event had an organised eco-friendly waste system throughout its entire running. Instead of typical-conference practices of giving everyone water in plastic bottles, Synergy Business Events had water tanks and paper cups instead.
Commenting on Synergy Business Event’ ongoing commitment to turning clients’ ideas into reality by providing an integrated solution to exhibition management, Tisetso Tau, Managing Director of Synergy Business Events, had this to say: “It means a great deal to us all to be able to pull off an event of this magnitude. As a team, we always push ourselves to innovate and evolve to meet changing business demands, and the team works really hard to ensure we achieve this.” He further attributes the success of the events to the company’s diversified team of qualified experts, “made up of creative designers, skilled craftsmen and highly competent project managers.”
Economic Development and Job Creation at the heart of Synergy Business Events’ operations
The company understands all too well the importance of recognising tourism as one of the key drivers of employment and economic growth. As such, the event provided temporary employment to over 100 tourism students in KwaZulu-Natal, thus enabling them to participate in one of Africa’s biggest travel and trade shows.
Through the Sustainability Village, Synergy Business Events gave local crafters the chance to sell and showcase their products to international tourists, businesses and media.
As part of their delegate pack, buyers at Africa’s Travel Indaba received a R450 voucher to spend at the Sustainability Village, a smart attempt to ensure that all the international tourists and visitors left with at least one locally produced artefact to showcase in their countries.
Says Tau: “The Sustainability Village was largely created using raw wood structures, recycled and “up-cycled” African materials. Entirely created by South African SMMEs, a large majority of them were re-used from the Meetings Africa show earlier this year, and they will be re-used in many of our future projects.”
Other highlights included the South African Tourism launching the Travel Week campaign for the very first time at Africa’s Travel Indaba, a campaign which started last year and is geared towards promoting local travel through travel discounts.
Launching the campaign at the Travel Indaba, increased their chances of getting more service providers to sign up for offering discounts.
As if the above-mentioned accomplishments weren’t good enough, for the duration of the show, Synergy Business Events had an efficient mobile application that offered delegates information about the programme, list of exhibitors, hidden gems and was also used to communicate through notifications and event reminders in real-time.
This not only put the firm at the forefront of one of the dominant conversations at Africa’s Travel Indaba 2019: it also facilitated discussions around ways the tourism sector is responding to disruptive technologies, in particular, the 4th Industrial Revolution.