A five-year win that redefines South Africa’s hospitality future

KwaZulu-Natal’s success in securing the rights to host Africa’s Travel Indaba (ATI) from 2026 to 2030 is more than a tourism milestone; it is a strategic victory that positions South Africa’s hospitality sector at the centre of continental growth.

This achievement provides not just five confirmed events, but five consecutive years of predictable opportunity — a framework through which investment, training, and innovation can take root. For the province and the country, it marks a shift from short-term recovery to long-term economic intent.

This outcome did not occur by chance. It reflects the combined effort of the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism and Film Authority (KZNTAFA), the eThekwini Municipality, Durban Tourism, and the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) and the private sector. Their unified bid demonstrated that collaboration between government and industry can turn ambition into strategy.

By aligning destination marketing with infrastructure, logistics, and policy, they elevated KZN’s proposition from a capable host city to a fully integrated tourism economy.

From Trade Fair to Economic Flywheel

The African Travel Indaba (ATI) has always been a headline event on Africa’s tourism calendar and its influence extends far beyond the Durban ICC. It functions as the engine of the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) economy, which is the backbone of business tourism across the country.

Each May, the Indaba ignites an immediate surge across the hospitality value chain: hotels operate at high occupancies, restaurants operate at almost full capacity, airlines and shuttles transport thousands of delegates, and event supplier from caterers to AV teams—deliver services to international standards.

What begins as a three-day marketplace of ideas becomes a year-long pipeline of return visits, incentive trips, and corporate events.

The exhibition alone contributes over R500 million to GDP, but the real dividend is realised in the months that follow in repeat conferences, new trade agreements, and visitors who return with their families.

In that way, Indaba operates less as an event and more as an economic flywheel that keeps KwaZulu-Natal’s visitor economy in motion.

This momentum matters because the numbers tell a bigger story. In 2024, South Africa recorded 8.92 million international arrivals, a 5.1% increase over 2023. In the first quarter of 2025, KwaZulu-Natal attracted 194,000 international tourists and 1.9 million domestic trips, generating R7.6 billion in combined visitor spend.

Sustaining ATI for five more years means these figures are no longer spikes in performance-they become the baseline of a maturing, confident hospitality economy.

Connecting Business, Culture and Creativity

The Indaba’s success also highlights how tourism has evolved from a transactional sector into a convergence of business, culture, and creativity. The event’s growing inclusion of local performers, culinary experiences, and township entrepreneurs has given delegates a more authentic encounter with KwaZulu-Natal’s identity.

Hospitality provides the bridge between these worlds: hotels host pop-up culinary showcases, guesthouses open their doors to creative entrepreneurs, and restaurants integrate local produce and design into the visitor experience.

Each connection expands economic participation. When a hotel sources from local artisans, or a caterer partners with township chefs, the benefits reach far beyond the beachfront. This is where inclusivity becomes real — when the global stage of Indaba reflects not just the province’s scenic beauty, but its human diversity and entrepreneurial energy.

It also cements KZN’s reputation as a province where creativity is not a side attraction, but a competitive advantage.

For FEDHASA, this is precisely where hospitality proves its long-term value. Our sector doesn’t just sustain tourism; it sparks the wider economy into motion. Every hotel, restaurant, tour operator, transport providers, craft producers, and entertainment hubs — every player helps shape first impressions and, more importantly, future decisions.

A delegate who experiences service excellence this year can return not only as a guest, but also as an investor, a collaborator, or even a brand ambassador for our destination.

Sustaining Momentum Through Skills and Partnership

Sustaining excellence requires foresight. Each year, as Indaba approaches, hotels and restaurants ramp up their teams — recruiting temporary staff, retraining seasoned employees, and onboarding youth through learnerships, internships (both privately and SETA-funded), and workplace experience programmes.

Many establishments host intensive crash courses on international protocol, service excellence, and cultural awareness to ensure delegates experience world-class standards.

FEDHASA members go a step further, forging partnerships not only with CATHSSETA (Culture, Arts, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Sector Education and Training Authority) but also with leading higher education institutions and colleges that offer hospitality and tourism modules.

This collaboration transforms short-term seasonal demand into long-term employability, building a skilled workforce and strengthening South Africa’s global reputation for hospitality. In doing so, the sector doesn’t just meet expectations — it raises the bar for service excellence and employability across South Africa.

This constant skills renewal is not just operational necessity; it’s a strategic advantage. It ensures that Durban’s reputation as a reliable host city rests on people as much as on infrastructure. And as service levels rise, so too does confidence among investors and conference planners choosing KZN for future events.

That confidence is reflected in the bricks, mortar, and menus shaping KwaZulu-Natal’s skyline and identity. Across the province, flagship hotels are expanding, refurbishing, and diversifying to meet international demand. The Durban ICC’s adjacent hospitality precinct continues to attract strong investment, while major hotel groups and independent operators are upgrading properties along the Golden Mile and Umhlanga Ridge — reimagining spaces, elevating service offerings, and reinforcing the province’s reputation as a world-class destination.

On the North Coast, the R2 billion Club Med resort now under construction, will introduce a new standard of integrated beach-and-safari luxury to Southern Africa, while boutique lodges in the Midlands and the Drakensberg are reinventing conference and wellness offerings for smaller, high-value groups.

Durban’s restaurant scene, meanwhile, is flourishing — from fine-dining innovators like The Chef’s Table and The LivingRoom to township favourites and seafood markets that celebrate the province’s multicultural flavour. Together, these developments signal a hospitality sector not in recovery, but in renaissance — one confident enough to invest ahead of demand, knowing that KwaZulu-Natal’s appeal is broadening from business to lifestyle, and from visitors to investors.

A Province Ready to Lead Africa’s Visitor Economy

The strategic task ahead is to transform this window of opportunity into a sustained growth trajectory. That means leveraging ATI to attract new investors, to deepen partnerships between tourism and trade, and to broaden the circle of inclusion.

It means positioning Durban and KwaZulu-Natal not just as hosts, but as conveners-places where Africa meets to negotiate, collaborate, and imagine.

If we maintain the alignment that delivered the bid-between KZNTAFA, EDTEA, Durban Tourism, the eThekwini Municipality, and the private sector — KwaZulu-Natal will do more than welcome delegates.

It will set the benchmark for how Africa’s visitor economies can drive inclusive growth. FEDHASA’s commitment is to keep that partnership active, ensuring that every room filled, every conference staged, and every meal served becomes part of a larger national recovery story.

The world is coming to KwaZulu-Natal — not merely for a travel showcase, but to witness how a province turns collaboration into competitiveness. Our role is clear: to host with distinction, to include with intention, and to make every visit a reason to return.

*Jaya Naidoo is the General Manager of the Federation of Hospitality Association of South Africa (FEDHASA) East Coast.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.