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Karin Sieberhagen Fouche • 5 years ago

Tell them to move the elections !! Sounds like the date not set in stone yet . He was after all talking about how much tourism means for the country . Come on Mr Hanekom ... talk to C.

Fred Koch • 5 years ago

Why not set up a poling station at the ICC or allow for postal votes

Sharon Gilbert-Rivett • 5 years ago

This has been done many times before. I have been at a conference in Durban where the ICC has run buses for delegates to a special polling station catering for voters voting away from their home.

Andrea • 5 years ago

Being an international TO we do have lot´s of other things planned around Indaba. Depending on the new dates non from our company can attend this year. Will make producing a brochure much more difficult. Eventually this will be the final death blow for Indaba!

Louis-THE-lawyer • 5 years ago

'Final death blow' it may well be ... sadly!!

Sharon Gilbert-Rivett • 5 years ago

I agree. This is not something you can quickly rearrange. It has HUGE repercussions across the South African and African industry.

Lyn • 5 years ago

Traditionally and historically, elections have been held on the second Wednesday in May. This was always a possibility, and the solution is tourism to work with the IEC and arrange for special votes - it will only affect South Africans. would be a disaster to cancel INDABA, a solution must be possible.

Deborah Smook • 5 years ago

Flight tickets bought, accommodation booked, post Indaba fam trip organised... Nice!

Sharon Gilbert-Rivett • 5 years ago

Absolutely. It's completely unacceptable.

Greg McManus • 5 years ago

Aren't we jumping the gun here? The date is not confirmed and there is an opportunity to change it through discussions and lobbying with the Minister and the various regional Premiers. This announcement should not have been made by SA Tourism until the final date was promulgated. Own goal material!

Sharon Gilbert-Rivett • 5 years ago

Not exactly the first time SAT has scored an own goal.

ZOTTEN • 5 years ago

I smelled a rat before the news broke. Shows how political coloured Indaba is. The economical impact for Durban and the region must be huge. Sounds like an overhast decision as a plan can be made in this time and era to set up electronic voting/online or a voting kiosk at Indaba.
The face of South Africa is damaged, the financial implements for companies, hotels and anybody in the travel industry must be huge! Any new date they come up with will have an impact too, people plan these things not overnight. As a result the new date (if any) will be an Indaba with little interest from overseas visitors. WTM Cape Town is smiling I guess! Over the years Indaba has lost already many of its feathers, this won't benefit them in any ways...

Sharon Gilbert-Rivett • 5 years ago

WTM Africa will be laughing all the way to the bank on this one. What about We Are Africa which is organised with SAT to take place just before Indaba? All of its delegates then move on directly from Cape Town to Indaba. Not this year, evidently.

tourismZA • 5 years ago

If the ICC is used as the elections HQ for KZN - SURELY there were high level discussions to ensure that provincial voting HQ's were in fact available for the proposed dates.

tourismZA • 5 years ago

The date for the elections has not yet been proclaimed! I quote from the presidents speech as published by Times Live "I have engaged with the Independent Electoral Commission and also with the premiers of all provinces and intend to proclaim the 8th of May 2019 as the date of the election."

Maybe SA Tourism CEO, Sisa Ntshona and interested parties should be discussing options and/or waiting for the election dates to be proclaimed before announcing date changes to the Indaba

fred koch • 5 years ago

Elections are normally around the 1st / 2nd week of May.
The issue is that SAT has announced that the date of Indaba may be moved and this has set the cat amongst the pigeons. Their only response is that they will discuss and inform the trade of the new dates. The result will inevitably be cancellation of attendance because of uncertainty. Even if they eventually keep the dates there certainly will have been cancelations in anticipation of the possible change. Bad planning, bad issue management and incredibly bad PR by SAT.

Andre Van Kets • 5 years ago

Surely it makes more sense to keep the date and find a new location?

Would be a great way to trial the event in a new city. Spread the business to a less known/visited location.

Exactly what SA Tourism is trying to get us to do, right?

Sharon Gilbert-Rivett • 5 years ago

No way can they change the venue. People have already booked air tickets and accommodation. You cannot expect the operators to just rearrange their packed schedules and move to another city. And which city? Cape Town? CTICC is not big enough to host Indaba in its current format. And at such short notice.

Angus Begg • 5 years ago

Good thinking - opportunity in percieved adversity?

Alan Roxton Wiggill • 5 years ago

Gotta say that this is a disaster for anyone involved in tourism - particularly if you go to Indaba. The costs and impossible task of moving everyones diary is just not going to work. So the president sits at tourism meetings for two weeks prioritising travel to and in SA, before SONAP, and then drops this bomb shell. Its not that I am critical of the date but hell it seems the attention to detail is missed when we put brand SA on the international and local map and the elections fall on the same day.
Please Mr SA Tourism CEO - do not postpone - lets make a plan and use this election time to our advantage: Invite all to come see the incredible democracy first hand that is SA. It is going to be a real life live experience and all travel professionals can see us at work doing what we do so well - running peaceful democratic elections.
Cape Town Day Zero is a place we MUST learn from - if we had adopted the marketing campaign there of positive innovative copping mechanisms of survival (which did embarked on and won - look how a world top destination is so capable of surviving and then thriving on terrible disasters) then you know that SA has incredible resilience and innovative spirit. Lets show this off at Indaba. We can do it so lets not go hide under a bush. Call an emergency meeting to make this date and election work for us with bright lateral thinkers who can use this to our advantage - not to our eternal death knell.
We can put out positive messages of how proud we are of SA democracy and draw even more international visitors to "experience" SA and the miracle it is. Isn't travel all about experience and perception. Lets use this as an opportunity NOT a setback.
Call me now and lets get started promoting SA now.
Alan Roxton Wiggill Talking Maps 083 486 1308

Patrick Maina Kamanga • 5 years ago

This is the worst disaster,my visa was for those date ,the hassle of another plus costs is just not rosy,will have to cancel and only attend wtm

Sharon Gilbert-Rivett • 5 years ago

Another valid point. How many other visitors already have visas that cannot be changed without serious inconvenience and uncalled-for costs?

Louis-THE-lawyer • 5 years ago

Suggest SAT broker deals with ALL hotels & airlines to deal with this as force majeure & refund 100% those who have booked & paid!

Tom V • 5 years ago

The issue is not one of voting, its that the ICC is used as the elections HQ for KZN.

Surely there are other venues in and around Durban which can be used by the IEC as Election Central.

Move the Indaba date and venue and it will be the death knell of Indaba! People have paid for their stands, booked their accommodation and made their travel arrangements. The new dates may not be convenient for exhibitors and buyers.

At SONA last night, President Ramophosa had this to say about tourism:

"Our concerted efforts to market South Africa as a prime destination for tourists has yielded positive results, with significant annual growth in the number of foreign visitors.

In the past year we had 10 million tourists who came to our country.

We intend to raise this to 21 million by 2030, targeting, among others, the largest and fastest growing markets of India and China, as well as strong markets on our continent."

If we change the dates of our premier travel trade event, we will never achieve those numbers.

Pieter Kerkhof • 5 years ago

Quite right Tom, bought ticket, registered, accommodation sorted…. Just as I thought that it is going better again with INDABA. If this goes with a bang, will INDABA see me again?? And this is just me! What about pre- post tours, and all other planning? But then, are we suprised?

Louis-THE-lawyer • 5 years ago

Another question is 'How long has SAT known about this possibilty? If 'for some time' surely they should have issued a 'cautionary'?

Luc Herman • 5 years ago

Very bad idea to reschedule...
Just allow for early votes for those involved in the Indaba.
You can't just mess up with international players. We have already seen many tours cancellations so far in 2019 and now the " brains" behind our industry are messing around with the international players we need so much!

Louis-THE-lawyer • 5 years ago

Absolutely!

Karen • 5 years ago

By law, you can apply for a special vote if you:
can’t travel to your voting station because you are physically infirm, disabled or pregnant; or
can’t vote at your voting station on election day.

Louis-THE-lawyer • 5 years ago

Agree

Karen • 5 years ago

Surely as mentioned below, all international buyers have already made their arrangements for attending Trade Shows. The Government should take that into account and allow all those attending Indaba to have a Special Early Vote.

Louis-THE-lawyer • 5 years ago

Agree - even us locals have booked & paid for flights & accommodation!

Faniso C Zimunya • 5 years ago

Oh my word. It would be better to move the elections, no?

Sharon Gilbert-Rivett • 5 years ago

Especially as the election date has not yet been set.

Louis-THE-lawyer • 5 years ago

Agree

Eva Wagner • 5 years ago

Oh damn. Plane tickets have been bought, accommodation has been booked... .. What a disaster!

Louis-THE-lawyer • 5 years ago

Agree - has SAT even thought this thru?

Jan Jenkins • 5 years ago

Why not have 2 days - 6th and 7th - and perhaps move to Johannesburg so that it is close to the International airport. Indaba isn't the only show for Africa and the last few years have proved that.