Africa Tourism Day is here to stay.

Last week i had the privilege to attend the very first Africa Tourism Day.
There was a number of distinguished speakers from all over the continent, from north to south and east to west. A true celebration to create awareness of Africa and its long and fantastic history. Our common history and the diversity in culture.

Just like the rest of the world Africa too is suffering from the Pandemic impact. And many speeches during the day was addressing how to handle the current situation and how to move ahead now and for the future. When the day came to an end the conclusion and solutions where many and a few went like a red thread through the day.

Size matters

I remember from school that we where told Africa is a very large continent and to visualise this our teacher let us compare the different continents using a Globe. Even so, it was difficult to really understand how big difference it is.

Dr Walter Mzembi pointed to the siza of Africa
If we are looking at Africa in numbers instead one can see the continent is huge. With its 30,3 million Km² Africa could contain USA, China and Europe inside its borders. That says something about its size. Only this is a huge obstacle when it come to travel locally within Africa. And meant infrastructure such as “Internet, Rail, Roads and all other sorts of connectivity is key for the continent” he said.

But still it is one way of doing business at present. To keep the business local within the different countries and where possible within the continent.

Visa

One of the obstacles that several speakers where addressing was the Visa requirements. One way to actually open up between the countries inside Africa would be to lift the VISA requirements and open up between countries. This is something also addressed in social media lately where VISA is one of the subjects.

Africa, the cradle of mankind

Another thing that cam up was the question on why people chose to travel to places or countries within Europe instead of visiting and cradle of mankind to explore Africa more? As Africa is offering thousands and yet thousand years of history and culture there is a big opportunity to transfer this into a true contender to the traditional destination for travelers from anywhere overseas and Europe.

Hotels still has Food and Bevergare

One of the immediate solutions that came up from Mrs. Ebikaboere Seimodei, during the day was the fact at a hotel without guests staying over night has still a restaurant and the local community could support the hotels and its restaurant just by going there to have a meal. And Social media could be used to market it. The solution is sometimes so obvious that you miss it.

The Africa Tourism Day is just a small, but the very first step to achieve something great together. Only the future can tell how successful it will be. However, this very first occasion has given us all an insight of the willingness to develop and evolve the travel industry. And this is a huge step for Africa as continent.

Credits and a big thank you to Desigo Limited whom organised the event.

#atd2020.