South Africa’s rich heritage and culture tourist offerings will take centre stage with the new Heritage Pavilion in Durban’s Exhibition Centre during Indaba 2013.
The Pavilion is a collaboration between the National Department of Tourism and South African Tourism that have joined forces with the Moja Heritage Collection to make lifestyle, heritage and culture tourism experiences more easily accessible to the global traveller.
The Tourism Indaba will take place at the iNkosi Albert Luthuli ICC and the Durban Exhibition Centre and run from 11-14 May. More than 1 100 main and sharing exhibitors and 2 000 international and local buyers – 250 of them top international buyers hosted by South African Tourism – are expected to attend. The total number of visitors during the four-day period, is expected to exceed 10 000.
Ndabo Khoza, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal’s Chief Executive Officer said the Indaba remains a flagship marketing platform for creating awareness of KwaZulu-Natal as a unique and diverse tourism destination.
Twenty Moja products will be represented in the Pavilion which will be a networking space space for international buyers to meet and do business with those showcasing South Africa’s heritage and culture tourism products.
Indaba 2013 is designed to unlock the potential of our rich, diverse, fascinating and warm hospitable culture, our intriguing stories, our history and peoples that together make South Africa an extraordinary and unique destination, says South African Tourism Chief Executive Officer, Thulani Nzima. “South Africa is one of the fastest growing and most popular holiday destinations in the world today,”
The Pavilion will be a celebration of South Africa’s eight UNESCO World Heritage sites and will epitomise the wealth of lifestyle and culture experiences that South Africa offers. Currently,the United Nations World Tourism Organisation estimates that about 40% of all global tourists are people in search of culture and heritage experiences.
The Pavilion will offer some exciting fascinating things and events, such as a huge tree under which exhibitors and buyers will gather to meet and enjoy a sample of South Africa’s food and wine. It will also be a place where some of the country’s most celebrated fashion designers will showccase designs inspired by South Africa’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites. South African artists will also be present at the Pavilion working interactively on pieces inspired by the destination.
Delegates entering the Pavilion will be met first with street and beach art sculpture that resonates with the spirit of the destination.
South Africa’s eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites are: Cradle of Humankind (bestowed its status in 1999), Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape (2003), Robben Island (1999), Cape Floral Region (2004), Isimangaliso Wetland Park (1999), Vredefort Dome (2005) and the uKhahlamba/Drakensberg Park (2000) and the Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape (2007).
More than 1165 main and sharing exhibitors and 2 000 international and local buyers – 250 of them top international buyers hosted by South African Tourism – have already confirmed their attendance at Indaba 2013, with that number growing daily.
The Indaba event this year is expecting more thanr 500 journalists , more than 100 of them top trade and leisure journalists hosted by our Country offices at Indaba and on a number of pre- and post-tours all across South Africa.
Another exciting innovation at Indaba 2013 is the introduction of Live Host Radio and Television broadcasts. We are busy finalizing arrangements with a top information and business radio station and the country’s top national broadcasters to interview, broadcast and disseminate daily news from Indaba 2013.
For the tourism industry, there is the opportunity to interact and forge strong business links with some of the world’s top travel buyers. Indaba remains the premier regional African tourism platform for global buyers to gain easy access to the widest possible cross-section of the South African tourism industry – all under one roof – and we are very excited about the show this year.
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Already have let them know.my grandfather Guglielmo Martinagla discovered the Sterkfontein Caves(Cradle of Mankind) in 1896.The Italians have been very active in ”Kwa Zulu/Natal, since 1902, building 70% of the railways, tunnels, bridges, the Shongweni Dam (1922-1927) and the most difficult pass ever undertaken , namely ”Mike’s Pass. Salvatore Borsei, who travelled by desert caravan from Tunisia to the Niger Delta, and from there walked to South Africa (1930-1932) finally received work as a railway foreman in that province. Gregorio Fiascanaro, Pilot and Opera Singer, detained at Pietermaritzburg as a ”Prisoner of War”, became known after his release and further studies at UCT Cape Town, where he became a Professor of Music, as the ”Father of Opera” in South Africa.The bridges built in Kwa Zulu/Natal stand firm as a rock to-day, despite the floods through the years, some of their foundations were layed at up to 59 meters deep, to prevent them from collapsing.