Impressive line-up for second Getaway tourism conference

Speakers will interrogate a broad range of subjects pertinent to the industry, including inbound tourism trends, Africa's political landscape as it pertains to tourism, environmental issues, e-marketing and foreign exchange regulations.

Among the line-up of industry leaders offering their perspectives will be Rick Taylor, CEO of the Business Tourism Company; Simon Gear, environmental specialist, SDG Consulting; Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold, CEO, Cape Town Tourism; William Price, SA Tourism's e-marketing global manager; and Branco Brikc, editor of The Daily Maverick.

Aiming to improve the SA tourism landscape

They will address delegates attending the second annual Getaway Travel & Tourism Conference, which aims to provide a platform for role players to share their expertise and skills in an ongoing initiative to improve the South African tourism landscape.

"Tourism remains one the most important growth areas in South Africa and it's important we continually strive to improve the standard of the traveller's experience," explained Getaway's publisher, Jacqueline Lahoud. "As a role player in this sector, our objective is to bring together a diverse group of interested parties to work towards this end. Following the resounding success of our first conference, we are confident this year's event will be able to deliver even more insightful gems and we earnestly recommend all those in the industry attend."

The event has been structured to allow speakers and delegates to network across a broad range of tourism-related issues. The first day follows a conference format that will serve to inform the industry as a whole of the latest trends, industry insights and challenges, with workshops on the second day focusing on equipping SMEs with tools to ensure the success of their businesses.

Key insights

Getaway will also share some of the key insights to emerge from in-depth research conducted by Bateleur and RamsayMedia Research into the lifestyles and interests of the country's more affluent travellers, as well as its own successes in the digital and social media arena.

The Getaway Travel & Tourism Conference takes place on 26 & 27 July and will attract some 300 delegates from the accommodation sector, tourism boards, travel agents and travel and tourism media.

The event is one of magazine's recent multiplatform offerings, which include mobisite, website, books, TV, new media and the Getaway Show.

The organisers are offering an early-bird special to the conference until the end of June. Full details of the conference line-up and prices are available at www.getawayconference.co.za.