Indaba 2025 | Innovation and Resilience at Africa’s Premier Hospitality Show

Fresh from Africa’s flagship travel trade show, Indaba 2025 in Durban, the CiMSO team returns with a renewed sense of momentum and valuable takeaways across the board. While this year’s event faced organisational challenges, the exhibitors, delegates, and partners brought their best, going above and beyond to create meaningful conversations and lasting connections.

Against the odds, Indaba 2025 turned into a standout opportunity. The energy on the floor, the quality of engagements, and the clear hunger for digital transformation in hospitality made this one of CiMSO’s most productive Indaba showings yet. From our first demo to the final deal, we saw a sector that’s not only recovering but redefining itself—with purpose, resilience, and a clear eye on the future.

Lessons from two decades on the Indaba floor

Since our first appearance at Africa’s Travel Indaba in 2002, CiMSO has returned consistently over the years—building relationships, sharing innovations, and staying close to the pulse of the hospitality industry. Across these two decades, we’ve learned two enduring lessons.

The first is consistency. In the ever-changing world of hospitality technology, where software companies come and go, reliability is earned through long-term presence. Our ongoing participation in Indaba reflects the same stability and trust we provide to our clients through every software release, every support call, and every new feature.

The second is fluidity. Markets shift. Technology evolves. But true innovation lies in knowing what to change—and what to preserve. At CiMSO, we continue to adapt to new trends without losing the values that built our foundation.

Founded in 1989, CiMSO began with a modest, text-based reservation program—INNkeeper. Today, we offer a fully integrated suite of software for hospitality and tourism. Through the rise of the internet, mobile devices, cloud computing, and now AI, each breakthrough has become part of our evolution—and part of our promise to our customers.

Africa’s Travel Indaba delivered another strong showing, contributing over R574 million to Durban’s GDP and generating R232 million in direct spending. Attendance rose by 7.7% from 2024, with 1,348 exhibitors, 1,037 buyers, and representatives from 27 African countries—the highest international buyer turnout in four years.

The energy on the floor was undeniable. CiMSO’s booth attracted a steady stream of hospitality professionals, operators, and tech-minded decision-makers eager to explore proven, fully integrated software solutions. Representing CiMSO at Indaba 2025 were Johan Marais (Director of Sales and Marketing), Tom Davidson (Sales and Marketing Executive), Hanré van Niekerk (Marketing Team), and our trusted value-added resellers, James Sharkey (KEY Computers) and Ricky Ressa (CSS).

One of the standout moments at our stand was the preview of CiMSO’s upcoming multi-currency functionality — a long-anticipated feature that will allow operators to seamlessly manage transactions in different currencies across their integrated POS, reservations, and accounting systems. This development is set to dramatically streamline operations for properties catering to international guests. Just as exciting was the official launch of CiMSO DATAvault, our advanced data protection solution designed to safeguard businesses against ransomware, system failures, and internet or power outages. With secure local backups and rapid recovery capabilities, DATAvault delivers true operational peace of mind. It’s clear: financial flexibility and data resilience are top priorities for hospitality operators in 2025, and CiMSO is leading on both fronts.

New to the Indaba experience this year was Hanré van Niekerk, the latest addition to the CiMSO marketing team. With a fresh pair of eyes and a digital-first mindset, Hanré helped capture the event’s energy in real-time and gathered invaluable feedback from booth visitors. His presence added a creative spark to the team and helped ensure our Indaba coverage reflected the high standards and human approach we bring to everything we do.

Buzz at the CiMSO stand: Reseller James Sharkey from KEY Computers conducting a demonstration (centre), and Hanré van Niekerk presenting to guests (right).

With leads in hand, calendars booked, and follow-ups already underway, the CiMSO team is looking ahead with clarity and purpose. Whether it’s a family-run guesthouse in the Eastern Cape or a luxury golf resort in the Garden Route, the conversations we had at Indaba reaffirmed the industry’s hunger for reliable, integrated, and flexible software solutions. We’re ready to meet that demand — not just with great tech, but with long-term partnerships.

We’d like to thank everyone who stopped by the CiMSO booth, from old friends to new contacts, curious explorers to seasoned operators. Indaba is more than a trade show — it’s a moment of connection, reflection, and redirection. And we’re proud, once again, to have been a part of it. Here’s to the next chapter in African tourism — and to building it, together.

Contact us

CiMSO supports clients transitioning from fragmented legacy software systems to integrated ERP solutions. CiMSO also manages the successful deployment of new systems in compliance with their ISO90003 Quality Management Systems and PRINCEII project management methodologies.

Don’t hesitate to contact your local CiMSO office or Value Added Reseller for more information on CiMSO’s Integrated ERP Software Suites for Hotels, Lodges, Resorts, Clubs, Timeshare, and Leasing management.