Now in its third year WTM® Africa will be taking place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) from 6 – 8 April 2016.
World Travel Market Africa is Africa’s leading B2B exhibition for the inbound and outbound African travel and tourism markets. Through its industry networks, global reach, and regional focus, WTM® Africa creates personal and business opportunities providing customers with quality contacts, content and communities.
WTM® Africa is an enhancing platform for small medium and micro enterprises (SMME) to match their products correctly with international tourism buyers to aid in creating impactful business relationships.WTM® Africa in partnership with SATSA (Southern Africa Tourism Services Association), will be facilitating the attendance of 10 tourism related SMME businesses, and has seen an increase in the number of new SMMEs exhibiting at this year’s WTM® Africa event.
WTM® Africa’s online portal provides a platform (the diary of events) to allow exhibitors to pre-schedule meetings with like-minded buyers ahead of the event, to endorse their products in the international market. This initiative provides an equal platform for all registered buyers, which in turn allows for new business ventures opportunities for SMME’s to flourish.
David Frost, CEO of SATSA and a champion of SMMEs, has provided some helpful insights for WTM® Africa’s small medium and micro enterprises exhibiting for the first time at this year’s exhibition. He advises:
1. Ensure that you have a sharp pitch when presenting to overseas buyer, make sure they know immediately what you have on offer.
2. Be aware that many are from countries where English is not their first language so make sure that the person you send to the exhibition to represent your company can articulate your message well.
3. Conduct research into which buyers you are going to meet through your diary of events. This allows you enough time to ensure you are prepared and well-equipped for these meetings.
4. Do some research on what markets these buyers are from to see if your product is in line with what they are looking for.
5. Examine the buying nature of their market and what segments the buyer operates in as all of this creates potential business.
WTM® Africa hopes to build on the opportunities at this year’s event by creating pre and post experiences, mixing exhibiting SMMEs and international buyers with whom successful meetings were had. This is a great way for global buyers to get an overview of the product outside of the meetings hosted at WTM® Africa and they will be encouraged to go to visit SMMEs at their own offices, after WTM® Africa, to establish if these ventures really are of value.
Reiterating his support for WTM Africa and the SMMEs, David Frost said “WTM Africa is addressing the problem of supporting small business ventures trying to get noticed in the international markets in Africa. We applaud them for this initiative.” WTM® Africa is proud to host an event whereby large global organisations and SMME’s side by side, have a platform to engage with buyers, visitors and the media.
