Durban – The Kingdom of Eswatini is heading to Durban this week with one of its most diverse tourism delegations yet, as it prepares to showcase its offerings at Africa’s Travel Indaba 2026, running from May 11 to 14 at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre.
The Eswatini Tourism Authority (ETA) will attend the trade show with 20 tourism industry players, including the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Big Game Parks, Happy Valley Hotel, Royal Villas Hotel, Foresters Arms Hotel, SibaneSami Hotel, Sibebe Resort, Hilton Garden Inn, MTN Bushfire/Malandela’s Lifestyle, Mountain View International Hotel, Mantenga Lodge, Piggs Peak Hotel, The George Hotel, Nkonyeni Lodge and Golf Estate, All Out Africa Adventure Tours, Eswatini Air, the Eswatini National Tour Operators and Tour Guides Association (ENTOTOGA), the Eswatini Civil Aviation Authority (ESWACAA), Lidwala Lodge, Wide Horizons Mountain Retreat and Global Village Guest House.
Africa’s Travel Indaba is the continent’s most influential tourism trade show, drawing over 1 000 exhibitors and thousands of quality buyers from across the globe. For Eswatini, the event offers a concentrated networking environment that would otherwise take years of international travel to replicate. 
The ETA describes its participation as strategic on several fronts. The indaba gives Eswatini global visibility among international tour operators who curate African itineraries, while also providing a platform to observe emerging travel trends such as slow travel and eco-conscious tourism. It also opens doors to buyers from Europe, North America and Asia who are actively looking for authentic, off the beaten path experiences, markets that go beyond the Kingdom’s traditional source markets of South Africa and Mozambique.
The ETA is managing the design and execution of the Eswatini stand at the ICC, with the space designed to be a sensory experience featuring local crafts, digital displays of the Kingdom’s landscapes and room for business to business meetings. The authority is also playing a key role in subsidising and coordinating the participation of local small and medium enterprises, ensuring that the economic benefits of the indaba reach operators across the country.
The Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs and ETA leadership are expected to participate in high-level media briefings and panel discussions at the indaba, including conversations around the Triland collaboration with Mozambique and Mpumalanga, a three-country, one-trip concept that has been gaining traction among long-haul travellers.
The 2026 delegation brings together major hotels and resorts with meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions facilities, adventure and tour operators focused on the Kingdom’s highlands, hiking, canopy tours and wildlife safaris, as well as cultural practitioners showcasing living heritage from the Umhlanga Reed Dance to traditional homestead experiences.
A key focus for this year’s delegation is what organisers are calling the “Big Five and Beyond” narrative. Alongside wildlife, exhibitors will draw attention to the ease of travel within the Kingdom, the warmth of the Emaswati people, and sustainability products that directly benefit local communities, following the recent 3rd International Responsible Tourism Conference held in Piggs Peak.
