African govts must invest in marketing values – South Africa Tourism Minister

The Minister of Tourism of South Africa, Patricia De Lille, has challenged African countries to aggressively publicise their values to the rest of the world to boost tourism and yield the benefits thereof. 

She said African countries needed to understand that the world owed them nothing and that they had to brand and market themselves.

“If we are going to wait for things to pour into our lap, it is not going to happen.

I can tell you I have travelled around the world and the competition is stiff and that’s why I am saying to all the African countries that the world owes us nothing.

We have to go out and we need to go and get it,” she said at a media engagement yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa, after the official opening of this year’s Meetings Africa, an annual business event designed to showcase African business tourism products and services, and create networking opportunities.

Underestimate

Ms Lille, who opened the exhibition for the event, said African governments underestimated the value of tourism, seeing it as just leisure.

She explained that in South Africa, one permanent job was created for every 13 tourist arrivals, along with three indirect jobs. She added that, for instance, the country sustained 1.3 million jobs in the sector last year.

Africa, Ms Lille said, was blessed with beauty — from Kilimanjaro to the Table Mountain, and the seas and the valleys, adding that “it is us getting together and governments investing more in marketing in their respective countries.”

She said that unless African countries addressed challenges related to visa acquisition, free movement, and increased air connectivity, they would be unable to fully harness the benefits of tourism.

Platform

Since its launch in 2005, she said, Meetings Africa had served as a bridge, connecting African suppliers with global buyers, connecting destinations with investors, connecting policy with partnership and connecting opportunity with execution.

“Over the past three years alone, the economic impact of Meetings Africa on our own GDP has nearly doubled, from 371 million Rand in 2023 to 690 million Rand in 2025. =

During this period, Meeting Africa has created and sustained over 2, 600 jobs,” she emphasised.

In total, she said 375 hosted buyers were participating, 325 exhibiting companies, with more than 6,440 confirmed business meetings scheduled to take place over the next two days.

“Each of these meetings represents a connection. Each connection represents a possibility.

And each possibility represents progress.

For Meetings Africa 2026, we have 21 African countries represented.

Africa, our continent, is also an anchor of South Africa’s record-breaking 10.5 million inbound arrivals in 2025,” she said.

This year’s Meetings Africa is on the theme: “20 Years of Connecting Africa to the rest of the World” and it is being held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

Summit

Ms Lille said that just last year, for the first time on the continent, South Africa hosted the G20 Leaders’ Summit, alongside more than 135 related meetings.

She added that following the success of the summit, the country also secured the World Economic Forum Special Meeting, scheduled to take place next year.

“This is confidence that’s being demonstrated in our capabilities. Meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions are aggregators of economic growth and job creation.

Since the start of the 2025/26 financial year, the South African National Convention Bureau supported 100 bids for international business events to be hosted in South Africa between 2025 and 2030. 

“Overall, South Africa has secured 52 bids for international and regional business events supported through the Bid Support Programme,” she said.