Africa Showcase 2015 comes to Canada

Thirty southern Africa travel suppliers met with Canadian agents last night in South African Airways’ Africa Showcase 2015, marking the show’s first Canadian appearance.

Agents were greeted with a series of destination presentations (including Namibia, Zambia and Johannesburg, South Africa), followed by a performance of traditional African music before sitting down for a whirlwind tour of the region by visiting with suppliers, representing various southern African destinations, accommodations and attractions.

The show, now in its seventh year, makes an annual trek through the U.S. each fall and following increasing demand from the Canadian travel industry, a Toronto stop was added for 2015, explained David Chorley, director, sales development - Canada for South African Airways.

“It’s all about education,” Chorley told PAX. “Educating people about what’s there, the ease of doing business and about transportation through our airline, but at the end of the day, it’s about keeping everyone up to speed on what’s going on in the countries.... People in Canada had heard about the show and said ‘What about us?’ We said ‘absolutely!’"

Stroebel Bekker, South African Airways’ vice-president, sales - North America, added “I think from the suppliers’ side as well, there was a great deal of anticipation in wanting to visit Canada as well. It was the perfect year for us to come here!”

With Africa offering a diverse range of travel - from those seeking safari and adventure opportunities to cultural and religious travel - the continent draws interest from many different travel markets, with travellers from regions all across Canada venturing to Africa each year, Chorley said.

Taking the education on Africa travel offered at the showcase, Bekker said that agents can make themselves even more indispensable in selling travel to the region, which often sees clients seeking the services of travel professionals as opposed to personal bookings.

“It’s becoming harder and harder for agents to earn good commissions through the threat of people doing their own bookings, but I think the great part of African travel is that while a lot of people will do their research on their own, they still want someone to hold their hand. There’s healthy margins to be made in selling African travel.”

According to Chorley and Bekker, while there are currently no plans for South African Airways to fly directly from Canada in the near future, it’s a strong possibility as both leisure and business travel between North America and Africa continue to increase.

“That question has been asked forever,” Chorley said. “There’s the cost of fuel and now it’s come down, but there’s also aircraft availability; there’s still a lot of things that have to happen.”

“Canada’s a very important market for us,” Bekker said. “As an airline, you want to continue growing and Toronto is certainly the type of city that offers that opportunity."