NMBT takes Top Ten Icons to Indaba

NELSON Mandela Bay Tourism (NMBT) – together with the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) – will be taking the city’s Top Ten icons to the tourism showcase of the year, Indaba. The city agencies will also be launching Route 67, Nelson Mandela Bay’s incredible new public art route which is also the city’s latest tourism product offering, at Indaba. 

“We are particularly excited for this year’s Indaba as there is so much planned,” said Titus Chuene, NMBT marketing manager. “We are going to launch the MBDA’s Route 67. This is great because the centre-piece of Route 67, the Donkin Reserve, is one of the recently voted for Top Ten city icons. I have a great feeling of synergy when it comes to this year’s Indaba.

“Route 67 is an outstanding tourism product that promotes public art, culture, heritage and also urban space in the city. There is nothing quite like it in South Africa and this means we have a unique selling point to promote the city.”

The “Route 67” arts journey celebrates the 67 years of Nelson Mandela’s political life through a visual collection of works produced by local artists. The result is an incredible tourism route known as the Arts Journey – which includes exhibitions and showcases on the Route 67 and at the refurbished Athenaeum gallery, ArtEC, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, the historic Red Location Museum, South End Museum and Ron Belling Art Gallery. The Route was opened on September 24, 2011, South Africa’s National Heritage Day and has launched a tourist hub which focuses on art, culture and heritage. Route 67 is a unique tourism product for Nelson Mandela Bay, a job creation project for the artists, and an educational tool for both local and international visitors to the city.

NMBT will also be collaborating with the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality tourism unit to bring local tourism small, micro, and medium enterprises (SMMEs) to Indaba.

“We have really seen the impact of this initiative,” said Chuene. “Jeya’s Jazz Tavern is a leading example of the powerful spinoffs bringing SMMEs to Indaba can have. The vibrant township tavern has just won a place on the South African hidden treasures experiences list along with eight other in NMB tourism products – and it is in part due to the profiling it received at expos like Indaba.

South African Hidden Treasures, a local tourism initiative,  identified and developed by the Tourism Enterprise Partnership (TEP), consists of unique small crafts and tourism experiences that provide visitors with an authentic taste of South Africa's rich and varied history and culture.

“Indaba is all about exposure. The success of some of our local SMMEs is testament to this,” said Chuene. “But we are also intending to gain exposure for NMBT and the city itself, particularly in new and developing markets like China and India.”

Chuene said NMBT plans to gather greater insight into the China and India markets at the workshops hosted at Indaba. NMBT has arranged for one-on-one meetings with representatives from these two countries as they represent an “untapped market for Nelson Mandela Bay”.

NMBT will also be part of one-one-one sessions with the country managers for the United Kingdom, United States of America and Netherlands, amongst others.

Indaba, a South African Tourism event, is one of the largest tourism marketing events on the African calendar and one of the top three ‘must visit’ events of its kind on the global calendar attracting over 13 000 delegates from the travel tourism and related industries. It takes place over four days from  May 12 – 15 at the Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban. For two years in a row, INDABA has won the award for Africa’s best travel and tourism show.

The over-riding South African Tourism message at the 2011 Indaba was “Leave Ordinary Behind” and unaudited figures show 11 205 people passed through the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre’s doors over the four exhibition days, with 1610 exhibitors and over 7210 exhibition personnel across all imaginable tourism-related business categories showcasing their products, and 661 local and international media registering to cover Indaba. The 2011 Indaba attendance figures included nearly 3 000 international buyers and visitors, an impressive increase of 11% on the number of international delegates attending in 2010.  The highest number of delegates per country came from the United Kingdom (267), the United States (166), Germany (138), Zimbabwe (102) and the Netherlands (97).

“We are certain the 2012 Indaba will be a repeat success and exceed the above figures – giving NMBT the scope to market, promote and showcase the city to a captive audience,” added Chuene.