ORTIA – I’ve got my bags packed, my slip-slops and board shorts at the ready and my party hat to hand… Yes – it’s that time of the year again when anyone who is anybody in tourism goes off to Durbs by the sea for the jol of all jols – Indaba….The very name makes me quiver with excitement and anticipation at the prospect of another rip-roaring time at the ICC where South Africa shows the rest of the world how a tourism expo really should be done.
Take note, you up-tight World Travel Market ouens… Take note, you Getaway wannabes… because the vibiest, hippest, fun-est, happening-est, if not greatest show in the world is about to kick your backsides all the way home. As per usual.
Yup. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a bit of an Indaba fan. Why? Because I just love the fact that at Indaba you get to do business while having a ball. It demonstrates to me every year that people in the business world tend to take themselves far too seriously, having meetings in suits and ties around stuffy boardroom tables trying to fathom out ways to shaft the opposition. When, in fact, all you need to get ahead is let your hair down and start to enjoy what you do for a living.
Yes. It sounds flippant. Especially at a time when the world is in the midst of an economic meltdown and people are losing their jobs. And at a time when this wonderful industry of ours is biting a very trembly lower lip because of credit crunches and swine flu I may be coming across as insensitive. But let me ask you this much, oh colleagues in tourism – when did a miserable, worried and altogether desperate businessperson ever sell anything to anyone who mattered? Rats flee sinking ships – they don’t embark on a world cruise.
So, my contention is that it’s all about attitude… All about the band playing on, even if the old Titanic is up to her gunwhales in brine. And attitude is something which Indaba has aplenty. And most of it is good. The reason for this is that our tourism industry, by and large, is packed with people who really enjoy what they do for a living. Even when the financial breakfast cereal is hitting the fan and the Mexicans spawn a dread disease, South Africa’s tourism afficionados always rise to the occasion, and pull out all the stops.
It gives us a great advantage over our other, long-haul competitors. And having witnessed first-hand the dreary, dull and oh-so serious nature of WTM and its grumpy, self-important executives and exhibitors who expect you to ask permission to even look as if you want to step onto their stand, I think it safe to say that we do it better than the rest.
By all accounts, this year’s Indaba is set to be the biggest, and best-est yet. I say “by all accounts” because I actually am interested to see how crunches and flu are going to affect the world’s enthusiasm to come and buy holidays in Africa.
In recent days the daily newspaper posters have been sending out worrying vibes over how swine flu looks set to hit the upcoming Fifa Confederations Cup (that “other” not-so-large soccer tournament which is acting as a prequel to the “other” rather large soccer tournament happening next year). Which leads me to ask whether swine flu is any different to SARS? (The disease, not the tax collection agency – although some would say the two are hard to distinguish between.) There are some in our industry who will tell you that SARS did us a favour as the rest of the world stopped travelling to Asia and looked at Africa as an alternative. Personally, I think that anyone who picks up their petticoats and takes to the hills because of swine flu is falling prey to the same panic mongers who were so insistent that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But then, that’s me. Mr and Mrs Average Joe tend to believe everything they see on TV and read in the newspapers. Which admittedly sounds a little rich coming from a person who makes things for Mr and Mrs A to watch on TV and writes things they read in newspapers, but hey – no-one’s perfect!
The point I am trying to make is this – on the eve of Indaba, the greatest tourism show on earth, should we be focussing on viral pandemics and not-so-large/rather large soccer tournaments or should we be doing what we always do and put on one helluva show for the travelling world? My money’s on the latter, because at the end of the day the flu will run its course and the soccer players, and Fifa, will go home with their bags of swag (mostly gained at our expense) and what we will have left is what we have now – an absolutely fabulous country located in an even more fantastic continent, packed with exciting places to stay, stuff to do and things to behold – aka holiday heaven. Kla. Finished.
About Author
Award-winning writer and film-maker Sharon van Wyk was born in Cambridge in England, where she was raised, and educated. She fell in love with Africa and its wild places at an early age, thanks to her family hauling her to Kenya, South Africa and what is now Zimbabwe before the age of 10.
She began working in journalism in the early 1980s, pushed into it, she says by her first boyfriend, rock guitarist Phil Collen of Def Leppard. “I used to write him long letters while he was touring and he kept nagging me to turn pro, so I did, writing for heavy metal magazines!”
Writing concert reviews turned into mainstream journalism with stints on top newspapers and magazines in the UK before Sharon traded black leather for khaki, returning permanently to South Africa 17 years ago. She now writes widely on conservation, eco-tourism and travel, and makes natural history documentaries with her company, Painted Earth Productions (www.paintedearth.tv). “My life has been a safari extraordinaire, and the bush is where I find my bliss” she says.
You go for it !! INDABA is like Xmas in May. Great jorl, great surprises (products), great weather and most importantly GREAT PEOPLE.
PS> if not busy on Monday 11 May, join us – ZUNGEZA – from 7H30 for our INDABA Breakfast – Gibela Backpackers Lodge, 119 Ninth Avenue, Morningside.
lat = -29.50’07 SOUTH lon = 31.00’52 EAST
Hope to see many faces at Indaba 2009, Elmar would have also loved to attend your breakfast meeting, however I’ve already booked with TravelPort.com’s breakfast meeting at Ushaka Marine.
One interesting aspect of Indaba for me, will be my first meeting in person with Sharon, amazingly we work together and yet have never met in person before…those are the wonders of the internet…get everything done remotely.
I cant make it this year but am sure it’ll be a blast – have fun guys.