Cape Town - The city's annual
travel fair, intended as a showcase
for outbound travel, was attracting
an increasing number of foreign
tour operators interested in
bringing their nationals to South
Africa, Stephen Bozdan, a director
of Travel Market Events, the
organisers, said yesterday.
Local hotels, resorts, game
lodges and tourism authorities
joined international exhibitors at
the fair held at the weekend in
association with Absa, the banking
group, and were kept busy
with trade inquiries from countries
including Spain to Australia
and the US.
Bozdan said the number of
foreign travel industry representatives
had risen from 300 at the
first fair last year to 800 this year.
Countries represented for the
first time included the US, Cuba,
the Maldives, Spain, Australia
and the Indonesian island of Bali.
Lauro Castro, at the Spanish
stand, said heavy twoway traffic
had developed between Spain and
South Africa since Iberia Airlines
introduced a service between
Johannesburg and Madrid. The
Spanish airline was now applying
for permission to put on more
flights.
Angela Matthews, sales manager
of Iberia, said more than 50 percent
of its passengers originated
in Europe. It was asking for air
traffic rights to increase the number
of flights from three a week to
five to meet growing demand.
Johan Stander, Absa's gener
al manager of international
banking, said the bank now supplied
24hour foreign exchange
facilities at Johannesburg International
Airport. It had tendered
to provide banking facilities
which would be available
for every arrival and departure
at Cape Town International Airport
and would tender to provide
similar facilities at
Durban.