Row after row after row, all packed with assorted paraphernalia and eager faces. Each of them offering their own slice of African happiness, and each promising that their guides were amongst the best in Africa. Row after row of grand exhibits, and those operating on shoestring budgets, row after row of gimmicks and khaki.Welcome to Africa’s Travel Indaba 2024, which recently took place in May in Durban, South Africa.

Indaba may not be a word you are familiar with. The word itself comes from the Zulu and Xhosa people and means ‘business’ or ‘meeting’. There are different sorts of Indaba’s all across the conference calendar of South Africa, covering anything from mining to technology development. But this Indaba, Africa’s Travel Indaba, is devoted to those in the African travel business. It’s a place for people specialising in travel to come together and share ideas, opportunities and of course, too many drinks over too many parties. There are other conferences, but Indaba remains the original and the most iconic Africa travel show. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

It might be hard to picture what it all looks like. If you have ever been to a conference or a trade show before (like a Wedding or Lifestyle Expo), then the basics look sort of similar. There is a large conference hall with individual booths, each devoted to a product or offering. Some companies might have a large custom-made area, complete with designer furniture and bespoke touches. Others may simply have a basic table and two chairs, a small part in a larger collection of individual operators. In only one small section of the hall, you can find a luxury game lodge in South Africa, a mobile tented safari in Botswana, a hot air balloon company in the Masai Mara; ultimately, all the elements we need to make your dream trip into a reality. However at Indaba, with over 1,200 African suppliers onboard, the conference is so large that it sprawls outside, across the lawns and into the neighbouring conference centre, also fully packed.

To give you an idea of how it all unfolds, the first day of the conference begins at around 8 am with official speeches and talks from various government tourism officials. These are typically sparse in attendance, as government speeches aren’t a big drawcard. But, from 10 am to 6 pm each day, the conference is packed with exhibitors promoting their wares and buyers finding out the latest from across the continent. These buyers typically include trip planners from various worldwide travel companies, as well as product managers and owners of companies large and small. Name a travel company that deals with Africa, and you will find a representative of theirs in attendance. Other delegates have been brought in and hosted by South African Tourism from around the world in key markets as trusted suppliers (as were The Explorer Society).

These sorts of conferences aren’t too uncommon in an industry of this size. There are large shows in Europe devoted to many continents, including the famous ITB in Berlin and the World Travel Market in London. We ourselves were hosted at an event last year in Lima by the Peru Tourism Board, and we were also invited to a specialist retreat in Chile later this year for a gathering of innovative industry leaders. As we said, it’s a tough job. We don’t attend many of them that we are invited to, but always try to make sure that in the ones we do attend that we are going for a specific reason (otherwise we’d rather be travelling!). One of the reasons we attend Indaba, above all the others, is because of what is on display and who attends.

The range of products is quite incredible. Walking from one conference hall to another, you walk past luxury rail companies like the Rovos Rail and amazing lodges in the Greater Kruger like Sabi Sabi. You head out past the much-needed coffee stations and past the vehicle displays, with Ineos Grenadier this year bringing along their custom safari vehicle conversions for their brand new 4x4 vehicle. So brand new in fact, that it was completed and driven from Botswana to the event only 2 days prior. On the other side of the display, you have overland trucks in full camp mode, kitchens out and tents set up. And speaking of tents, if you are in the market to outfit your own camp then several custom canvas companies have set up examples of their tented camp styles, fitted out by interior designers (also on site). There are the self-drive camping options, located right next to a market displaying handmade African art and fashion, adjoining the live performances, right before entering into the second conference hall. This hall is devoted to countries and regions (rather than individual companies), so it is here that you will find the regional government bodies of Cape Town, Johannesburg and more. Each country has their own large stand, then subsequently filled in with camps, lodges and safari operators that operate within it. You will find hop-on bus companies sitting alongside seaside lodges across the way from safari outfitters and bush tents. There are even technology companies that run the software companies use to manage their hotels, and the transfers to hotels are run by other companies hoping to show off how good their transfers are.

From a business perspective, we also attend to meet up with our trusted partners in person and go through the year that was and the year that will be. We work on improvements, find out what is new and coming down the pipeline and what might suit our travellers. We also search for new ideas to improve our range, gauging a salesperson for their passion and looking for potential offerings. This could be anything from a series of guided hikes in Cape Town or a 55-day tour navigating West Africa, from Morocco to Ghana. Each day we spend our time on the conference floor, taking notes and asking questions, a new meeting every 20 minutes or so. Each evening is then spent at various functions hosted by supplier partners, mixing with close friends we see once or twice a year. Each night is spent writing up thoughts and plans and ideas and inspirations for the rest of the team not in attendance, before crashing after midnight into a dead sleep and repeating it all the following morning. And then, ultimately, coming home exhausted to have everyone ask how our holiday was!

Some people choose to extend their trip to visit areas of Africa and see what the new hotels and lodges look like, or what has changed since their last visit. We typically prefer to do that exploration on our own time, away from the crowds and with real-world conditions. But, in this case, our co-founder Cameron did spend a few days at a lodge on the Wild Coast of South Africa (still under construction) to see what it could be when it is finished and to give advice on any needed changes. There’ll be more on that in future.

So, with this year's Travel Indaba finished, we have spent the past few weeks reaching back out to everyone we met to get more information, discussing options with the team and looking at how we can incorporate some improvements into what we do. We prefer to try it all ourselves as guinea pigs, but if for some reason we can’t or just need a second opinion from our Society members, you might hear from us with the opportunity for a ‘recce trip’. We’ll organise it all for you, and all we want is your honest feedback. So, if your trip coincides with something we need testing, we will reach out!

We are biased of course, but it is a nice feeling to walk the floors of a show like Indaba and see so many companies with their main focus on bringing improvement to people’s lives, be it the travellers or the local communities serviced. The travel industry is a business, with some companies far more corporate than others, but at the end of the day the thing they are selling is a moment, be it a day or a week of happiness and contentment. That’s a nice business to be in, and we are happy to be a part of it.

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