Tourism could be new Gold for African Economies – Ntshona

The just concluded, Tourism Indaba 2017 has been deemed a tremendous success. The event which held in the Kwazulu Natal province of South Africa from the 16^th to the 18^th of May saw a growth in visitors by a whopping 20%. This year’s African Travel Indaba attracted about 7000 delegates, including 1449 local and international buyers, as well as more than 1000 exhibiting businesses from 18 African countries showcasing a diverse array of travel and tourism offerings. A total of 692 registered media representatives attended the show, an 8% increase over 2016.

Sisa Ntshona, CEO of South African Tourism mentioned while speaking at the launch, “All signs point to Africa being the new tourism frontier”. He further went on to speak about the global increase in international arrivals of 3.9% which exceeded the global increase in international arrivals overall. “So Africa is definitely the happening place to be, with vast untapped tourism potential that could buoy the greater African economy and contribute its prosperity”, he said.

West Africa is firmly carried along, as SAT West Africa further strengths partnership and collaboration by hosting 28 Nigerian Tourism delegates that at this year’s Indaba. The West African team were also treated to an especially engaging media session with SAT’s CEO Ntshona and Minister of Tourism, Tokozile Xasa where the discussion revolved around promoting tourism in Africa as a whole.

In addition to the partnership, for the first time ever in Nigeria’s history, the Director General of National Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) in his office as DG visited the indaba. He was joined by three trade associations, NANTA, TOUGHA and NATOP.

 

Kehinde Akintola