Africa’s tourism travel fairs set sights on global stage

Tourism travel fairs hosted within the Africa region will be repositioned to match with globally established exhibitions to attract top buyers of tourism business.

Cuthbert Ncube, president, African Tourism Board, said that the continent would not continue to play second fiddle in the competitive tourism environment that continues to evolve.

To achieve this, Ncube noted that the region must at all costs strive to avoid segmentation that have only weakened the levels of presentation during tourism expos.

“It is time for us to stand and be counted as a region, we have what it takes to be in same level with globally known tourism fairs held in other countries,” Ncube remarked.

He was speaking at a Nairobi hotel during a dinner hosted for regional tourism boards as part of the activities to mark the 14th edition of the annual Magical Kenya Travel Expo (MKTE) that ended over the weekend at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi.

The Kenya Tourism Board (KTB), the host of MKTE, reported a successful event that attracted over 35 countries.

According to June Chepkemei, CEO, KTB, the event also attracted over 4,000 delegates that included 180 top quality buyers from across the globe.

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“We are making impressive strides in making this show a premier tourism showcase in Africa as we continue to adopt new innovations to resonate with the ever-dynamic tourism environment,” Chepkemei said.

She stated that the continent of Africa should speak in one voice even as it benchmarks with best practices from the globally known giants in tourism fairs such as London-based World Travel Market (WTM), German’s International Travel Bourse (ITB) and Asia’s leading travel show-Outbound Travel Mart (OTM), among others.

In the same way, Francis Gichaba, chairman of KTB, while acknowledging competition among African countries as a healthy venture, said that the process should not hinder the resolve to position the region for global appeal.

He added that countries should build on synergies amongst themselves as they seek formidable position to present tourism business to the world.

The meeting was attended by tourism boards of South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.