Unexpected Encounters: A Late Arrival at the World Travel Market Yields Treasures and Food for Thought

I WASN’T SURE what to expect when I arrived at the World Travel Market in Cape Town late on its third and final day. But in those last hours-among the clinking of glasses, excited conversations, and flurries of greetings between strangers who had now become friends and business partners at the 96 stall-I experienced the very heart of what this event stands for: connection.

At the vast Cape Town International Convention Centre, the energy was still pulsing. The global travel industry was hard at work-executives negotiating over laptops, exhibitors engaged in lively discussions. The air crackled with the pace of a stock exchange. WTM was doing what it does best: matchmaking.

The Little Prince Starts With Waragi

In the background, I heard the cheerful banter of visitors. I felt a bit like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince, suddenly launched into a constellation of destinations.

My first stop: Uganda. A friendly exhibitor beckoned me to try some "Waragi," traditionally a homemade gin. But this was a branded version-Uganda Waragi, industrially distilled by East African Breweries. I chose the lemon and ginger flavour. Strong but aromatic and not overly sweet.

Next came Aquila Game Reserve from Touws River. Their team, clearly in a festive mood, offered a glass of South African MCC. "Hey, hokaai," I joked. "I’m still processing the Waragi!" I teased a staff member about the lions lying lazily like dassies on my last visit. She laughed and explained, unfazed.

"See you later," I said-and wandered straight into a raffle for a R20,000 piece of jewellery at Afrogem. Those who didn’t win got a consolation prize: a silver chain with an Africa pendant. I gave mine to my femme de ménage the next day-she was overjoyed and wore it immediately.

Quacking Along on the Duck

"Head Gander" Keith Lindsay, here with colleagues Kyle Brandt (left) and Dan Hayworth, was proud to display his Waterfront Duck, the only amphibious vehicle in Cape Town which takes you on tour by road and sea.

Across the hall, a colourful vehicle caught my eye-was it a bus or a boat? It was both! I had discovered the Waterfront Duck, South Africa’s only amphibious vehicle tour.

Keith Lindsay, its owner, explained that "Bella" begins her tour at the Silo Hotel and glides through the city before splashing into the water. It passes the seal platform, aquarium, bridges, and both the Alfred and Victoria basins-complete with fun tales and ecological insights.

WOW-E-Bikes for the Win

Annelize Ziehl-Owens, marketing director of WOWeBIKES, in front of their stall at the WTM with her colleagues Peter John Galloway (left) and Edgar Wolf (right). They were accompanied by Benita Cyster from Women in Tourism.

Next, I spotted sleek e-bikes ahead of me. "Can I win one?" I joked. Annelize, a vivacious brunette, laughed and invited me to experience a guided tour in Paternoster with WOWeBIKES, based in this charming West Coast village.

Annelize Ziehl-Owens, marketing director of WOWeBIKES, chatting to a visitor in front of their exhibition.

She explained their mission: selling zero-emission electric bike tours that are great for both health and the planet. And also offering two guided 90-minute rides which can be either along the neverending, untouched beach, and visiting an oyster hatchery, or through the Cape Columbine Nature Reserve, past Tietiesbaai, and the lighthouse.

WOWeBIKES also empowers the local community, offering jobs and training-all while showcasing nature in a low-impact, sustainable way.

Bushbaby in the Kruger

Elize Olivier who runs Bushbaby Adventures in Phalaborwa, explains all they have to offer to a client.

Just as the event began winding down, a woman with a pile of files crossed my path. Her badge read Bushbaby Adventures. "Sorry I missed your exhibition!" I joked.

How do I start if I want to see the Kruger National Park, because it is fully booked months in advance, I asked, confessing I had never been there before. She smiled. "Phalaborwa! Of course. That’s where you start."

Her name was Elize Olivier, and she lit up when talking about her beloved town. Married to a game ranger, in the Kruger 23 years ago, she and her husband Anton now work to market Phalaborwa as the gateway to the iconic park. Their company offers everything from airport pickups and settling tourists into accommodation in their town or surrounds, to tailor-made safaris led from there by professional field guides.

There are full-day and half-day tours (north or south of the Kruger Park), sundowner safaris, and sleep overs.

Then there are other exciting excursions in the surrounding area. Like boat cruises on the Olifants and Blyde Rivers. The latter passes the Kadishi Tufa waterfall-known as the "weeping face of nature."

A celebrity worth meeting, is Jessica the hippo. A 17-year-old semi-wild hippo near Hoedspruit, she’s known worldwide for her gentle nature and love of human contact. "She lets you feed her, touch her-and yes, even kiss her!" Elize says.

Visitors can also immerse themselves in Shangaan culture-meeting traditional healers, artisans, and cooks, and even visiting a local orphanage.

Phalaborwa, I now realised, is not just a launchpad to wildlife, but to community engagement, cultural education, and genuine sustainability.

Amid all the slick branding and curated experiences at WTM, there were those small human moments. Like the Aquila consultant who didn’t flinch when I joked about their lions which (on the day I happened to be at their reserve) to me looked more like Labradors after Sunday lunch than kings of the jungle. Or the e-bike guide who asked about my kids before asking what publication I was from. Or the smile on my domestic worker’s face when I handed her the silver Africa pendant, still snug in the little black velvet bag.

If a late-arriving, Afrogem pendant-wearing, Waragi-sipping journalist can leave WTM Africa with a handful of new friends and a head full of responsible-tourism success stories, imagine what twelve full months could do for the rest of the continent!