24 Mar WiT Africa 2026: What to Expect at The Next 20
For the third year running, WiT (Web in Travel) Asia’s leading digital travel media and events platform, returns to Cape Town for its Africa edition. But 2026 is different. This is WiT’s 20th anniversary year, and the gathering at Innovation City is structured not as a retrospective but as a bold, forward-facing declaration: Africa is not emerging. Africa is arriving!
One day. The continent’s boldest travel tech minds. And a time capsule being sealed at sunset for the leaders of 2046!
Why This Year Matters
Africa has spent two decades leapfrogging from landlines to mobile, from cash to mobile money, from access to acceleration. The focus now shifts from closing the digital divide to capturing the digital dividend. With a population of 1.72 billion by 2030, 477 million of them being young people aged 15–35, and AI reshaping every layer of the travel stack, the continent is no longer a market to watch. It is a market to build for.
What’s On The Agenda
🎯 10 Big Bets On The Future AI is no longer a side story in travel – it’s reshaping demand, distribution, payments and product at speed. But amid the noise, what are the signals that truly matter? Mike McGearty (Meili), Tania Platt (Visa B2B Travel) and Bayo Adedeji (Wakanow) will separate hype from hard reality, placing 10 bold bets on what will change over the next decade, and what will prove more resilient than expected.
✈️ Founders & Futures: From Sandy Bay to Singapore & Dubai Wego.com Co-founder Craig Hewett, a Capetonian who built one of the most successful travel platforms in the Middle East and South-East Asia, talks resilience, ambition and what two of the world’s fastest travel growth engines have taught him. One of the day’s most personal and practical sessions.
🌍 OTAs: The Next Frontier Booking.com, Travelwings.com and Travelstart share one stage to tackle the defining distribution question of the era: will OTAs become invisible infrastructure, intelligent trip partners, or powerful super-platforms? And how do global giants and African homegrown champions coexist?
💳 Travel As The New Loyalty Currency How a major South African private bank is making travel benefits a primary driver of customer retention; not a perk, a strategy!
⚙️ The Rise of B2B Africanative.com and Amadeus Africa on what happens to the travel industry when Generative AI empowers everyone to sell travel. The middle layer of travel tech is becoming both more powerful and more contested.
🏨 Beyond The Room: Hospitality In The New Age Banyan Group, Club Med, NightsBridge and Trip101 Pte Ltd on how hospitality is moving past accommodation into curated experience – and what that means for how brands connect with the next generation of travellers.
🎶 The Live Events Surge The global live events market is projected to reach US$75 billion by 2035. Festivals alone hit US$271 billion in 2026, growing at 12% annually. The City of Cape Town and Big Concerts / Ticketmaster South Africa examine how Africa is capturing its share of this boom.
🎒 The Experience Economy Intrepid Travel, VoiceMap Audio Tours, gotukio.com and RAFINYA on a US$400 billion global market – and the central question: in a world where AI generates itineraries in seconds, what makes an experience irreplaceable?
💡 Travel Hack 2045 Short, sharp pitches of audacious ideas for the future of travel. The room votes for its Top Five!
📱 Who Controls Discovery Now: AI, Creators Or Algorithms? YOUKNOW Technologies, Travelstart and Ace Labs on the collision of social feeds, influencer content and conversational AI at the top of the travel funnel, and who really owns the moment between inspiration and booking.
💰 The New Age of Capital Flow Purple Elephant Ventures on where smart money is moving across African travel tech, and where innovation and returns are actually being seeded.
🚀 Founders & Futures: Building For A Brave New World Tripesa, iXperience and TurnStay on what it actually takes to build a travel startup in these disruptive, AI-accelerated times.
💸 The Future of Payments Following the release of a new Peach Payments / Phocuswright report on African digital commerce, MoneyBadger, PayJustNow and Glyde Payments tackle wallets, alt-payments, BNPL and the new battleground for conversion.
🛫 Aviation & Destination: The Power of Two South African Airways | Corporate, South African Tourism, Wesgro and Africa’s Eden Tourism Association on the iron rule of travel: no flights, no visitors. How do destinations compete for airline capacity and how do airlines think about connecting a young, rapidly urbanising continent?
📬 Letters To The Future The day closes as it opened; with an eye on the horizon. Letters from today’s builders, sealed into the WiT time capsule for the travel leaders of 2046.
The Numbers Behind The Story
📊 1.72 billion – Africa’s projected population by 2030
📊 477 million – young people aged 15–35 on the continent
📊 US$75 billion – projected global live events market by 2035
📊 US$400 billion – the global experience economy
About WiT Africa
WiT Africa launched as a virtual event in 2021 to bridge Africa and Asia. In 2024 it became a physical event in Cape Town, in partnership with Innovation City and Travelstart. WiT is Asia’s leading digital travel media and events platform and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northstar Travel Group. Its audience spans C-level professionals across the full travel technology ecosystem.
Join us on 9 April 2026 at Innovation City, Cape Town – use code SPECIAL50 to get 50% off your ticket: https://www.quicket.co.za/events/358755-wit-africa-2026/#/
