Boundless Southern Africa recently used two exciting tourism industry platforms to introduce Southern Africa’s Transfrontier Conservation Areas and their cross-border tourism products to a wide range of international and locally based tour operators.

World Travel Market (WTM) Africa, held in Cape Town from 19-21 April,  is part of a series of travel trade show events held across the world, and has been growing ever since its launch in 2014. Nearly 5000 travel industry professionals attended this trade show. Boundless Southern Africa engaged with a range of international and local tour operators and travel media to highlight the tourism opportunities and experiences of the various TFCAs.

The annual Tourism Indaba in Durban from 16-18 May is one of the largest tourism marketing events on the African calendar and showcases the widest variety of Southern Africa’s best tourism products and attracts international buyers and media from across the world. Boundless Southern Africa exhibited alongside other Southern African countries in the vibrant African section of the show.

Boundless met a number of regional stakeholders, international and local tour operators and travel media. Lee Kelsall of Ker & Downey Africa, an adventure travel company, commented on the essence of the discussions in both shows: ‘The real driver of the fitness travel trend is about overall wellness – mental and physical. Travellers want to be active, to connect with the destination, and they want to be in touch with the culture – all while looking after their bodies.’ He concluded that there seems to be a culmination of varying travel, cultural and social trends through the increased desire for active holidays. The true potential in capitalising on fitness travel trends lies in leveraging the adventurously active and meaningful cultural characteristics of remote destinations.

These comments strongly support the current strategy to expand the number of cross-border tourism products throughout the various TFCAs in the SADC region- a very encouraging future for our work!