South Africa’s Minister of Tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, has officially confirmed the cancellations of the 2020 Africa’s Travel Indaba and the Annual Lilizela Awards due to the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
The global tourism industry has been hard hit by the outbreak of COVID-19, forcing a re-evaluation and assessment of several business events which were billed to take place this year.
Among these events were the Africa’s Travel Indaba, which was scheduled for May 12 to 14, 2020 and the Lilizela Awards slated for November 2020.
The Minister while speaking during a tourism industry webinar last Wednesday, said, “When we initially postponed Africa’s Travel Indaba 2020, we were hoping that we would be able to host the event during tourism month in September. Currently it is looking very unlikely.
Tourism activities and events can only start once the country moves to Level One restrictions.”
Indaba remains one of the most powerful platforms for Africa to showcase to the world our unique and warm African tourism story while profiling, amongst others, our cultural, heritage and artistic assets.
Kubayi-Ngubane also confirmed the cancellation of the Lilizela Awards on the webinar. The Awards recognize and celebrate tourism businesses for tourism excellence, their contribution to South Africa’s global competitiveness and for growing tourism’s contribution towards GDP and job creation.
“The risk adjusted approach that we have in South Africa gives us a framework within which we can carve our path towards recovery for the tourism sector. The involvement of all tourism stakeholders is absolutely important. Based on the COVID-19 expected trajectory, the best-case scenario is that tourism sector recovery will only begin toward the end of the year.
“With us having some time to focus on our properties and events, I do believe that next year’s Indaba, Meetings Africa and Lilizela awards will be world class events showcasing the warmth of our industry as we rebuild the industry,” concluded Kubayi-Ngubane.
The Minister added that the initial phase of the recovery will be driven by domestic tourism, followed by regional tourism. International tourism is likely to recover in 2021.
