South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (above) launched the passionate rallying call when Africa’s Travel Indaba 2026 opened in Durban this morning.
This is one of the biggest shows in the event’s history, with 1,200 exhibitors and 1,000 buyers from 44 countries at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre (Durban ICC). Traveltalk was invited to attend as part of a worldwide media contingent.
Some 22 African countries are exhibiting with 16 national tourism boards represented, under the theme: “Unlimited Africa: Growing Africa’s Tourism Economy.”
The South African president was the guest of honour at the glittering opening ceremony and he wasted no time calling on Africa to unite behind tourism.
“Tourism shapes the way the world looks at our continent. As Africa, as a continent, we can use tourism as a global soft power,” President Ramaphosa said.
The president also called on the assembled tourism leaders to “change the narrative” around Africa.
“Too often, global narratives about Africa tend to focus on all the negative things,” he added.
“What we now need to do now is to change that narrative and tourism is the instrument that we can use.
“It is the colour that we can put to our continent, it is the shine that we can put to our continent to then showcase our continent to the world.”
South Africa welcomed 10.5 million visitors last year but the president is keen for his country to boost that number as part of general growth across Africa.
“Tourism is one of the most strategically important sectors to our continent,” he added.
“Tourism must be seen for many years as a major economic driver as it contributes billions of dollars to many African economies, but those African economies have to create a conducive environment for this treasure trove to be opened.”
As part of this environment, the president said the continent needed to look back into history.
“We are the continent where humanity originated and that’s what we need to showcase. We need to showcase the stories of our continent, the stories of the various kingdoms on our continent.
“Tourists will travel from far afield just to come an listen to stories like that because the world is hungry for beautiful stories.”
Promoting both international and domestic travel within Africa, the president kept his boldest hopes until last.
“Tourism gives us a window on the world but tourism should also give us a mirror against which we can look at ourselves and ask, ‘are we living up to the dream that we have of this African continent’?
“We need to look at what the major challenges are that we need to overcome as a continent to reach this aspiration of being the tourism hub of the whole world.
“All we have to do is be bold and focused and we will have Africa brimming with tourist destinations and the tourists will come in their millions. They will come back to their original home, which is the continent of Africa.”
Africa’s Travel Indaba 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.
