Tourism Is Gold For Africa

Tourism Indaba 2017 has been deemed a tremendous success. The event which held in the Kwazulu Natal province of South Africa from the 16th to the 18th 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.

Meanwhile,the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) says it will commit about 500 million dollars to revive agriculture and construction of world-class tourism and trade logistics infrastructure in The Gambia

The President of the bank, Benedict Oramah said this in a statement issued in Lagos on Thursday.

Oramah, who met with President Adama Barrow in Banjul, said part of the fund would also be used to improve the country’s energy sector.

He said the construction of Tourism Relay Facilities would include luxury hotels and resorts which would generate higher revenues and foreign exchange inflows for the country.

According to Oramah, the bank will launch a Contingency Food Emergency Trade Financing Facility to assist countries exposed to droughts or floods, such as The Gambia.

He said the aim was to help such countries improve their financial preparedness through food imports.

Oramah said that the bank could also intervene in the provision of bridging finance for upgrade and expansion of the country’s major ports and related logistics infrastructure.

The statement quoted President Barrow as saying that the bank’s financing offer was in line with Gambia’s three-year programme for accelerated growth.

Barrow said the country was in urgent need for interventions to improve the means of livelihood of Gambians.

According to him, the four key areas to consider include macroeconomic management frameworks, strengthening the public sector, promoting sustainable inclusive growth, and investing in human capital.

Afreximbank is the foremost Pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade.

The bank was established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African investors.

Since 1994, it has approved more than 51 billion dollars in credit facilities for African businesses, including about 10.3 billion dollars in 2016.

The bank has its headquarters in Cairo.