Kirstenbosch -South Africa

at the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show, London

South Africa has participated as an international exhibitor at the world’s most prestigious flower show – the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London – for the past 33 years, and won 29 Gold Medals as well as numerous other special awards for outstanding contributions, including the Lawrence Medal in 2006 for the ‘Best Exhibit shown to the Society’ in that year and was the first recipient of the new ‘President’s Most Creative Award’ in 2008.

Once an image-building initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the immeasurable value of this event as a magnet for tourism has increased dramatically since the dawn of the New South Africa, in spite of the termination of government funding in 1995 in favour of other diplomatic expansion programmes, and South Africa’s participation has been corporately funded since then to promote our country as a prime ecotourism destination.