The Indaba has proved to be a boon for the Eastern Cape and almost every exhibitor from the province has said interest in the province has been the highest they have ever experienced.

Even first-time exhibitors felt they had made progress in the very competitive international markets.

Inkwenkwezi's Graham and Keith Stanton said they had negotiated a number of deals and would be featuring in a number of tour operators' catalogues from 2006.

"Even though we are here to sell ourselves to buyers for the 2007 guides, we have managed to get the reserve into Tui Germany's biggest tour operator's catalogue.

"We are one of the very few Eastern Cape products in their catalogue, but I believe now that they are aware of the province more they will be offering more and more options from here."

Nita Ross, of Wild Coast Holiday Reservations, which handles Wild Coast walking tours, said this year she had more pre-booked appointments than ever before in the eight years she had been attending the Indaba.

"Even up to last year we had to buttonhole people walking past and ask them if they knew about the Wild Coast, but this year they sought us out and wanted to know more about the area and what it offered. Many of them had been recommended through word of mouth," Ross said.

First-time exhibitor Lindiwe Makubelo, of Alice's Mak and Mak Guesthouse, said despite a few organisational hitches she had been having a good Indaba from a business point of view.

There has been a lot of interest in her operation as there were people who wanted to get into that area to look at culture and heritage sites, the ANC's archives and art collections at the University of Fort Hare.

The Sunshine Coast's Erica McNulty said there had been a lot of domestic tourism interest in the area and people had been a lot more receptive to listening to details about the area and had been "keen to take brochures we normally have to force on them".

Eastern Cape Tourism Board (ECTB) head of marketing Susan Wilson said that the new stand had an impact on the number of visitors to products in the province and that the Eastern Cape had "indeed turned into South Africa's flavour of the month".

Buffalo City, with a stand opposite the main ECTB one, also reported a lot of interest and acting chief executive Darby Gounden said that Tourism Buffalo City's new birding pamphlet had been well received by Birdlife SA and was already on its stand with 14 others.

"We have had a lot of interest in the city as well."

Also on the stand was Peter Gregerson, of the Blue Lagoon Hotel, doing a lot of active promotion of the city.

"It worked very well and we have had a big number of positive responses and have arranged a number of visits from operators," he said.