Botswana’s Tourism Forum aims to chart a new path for Africa

The 7th edition of the Africa Tourism Leadership Forum being held in Gabarone, Botswana seeks to strengthen public and private partnership for tourism in Africa and grow tourism figures from Africans in the continent.

The forum is being convened by the Botswana Tourism Organisation, the Africa Tourism Partners and the United Nations Tourism.

It brings together tourism leadership from across the Africa with the aim of increasing tourism on the continent.

A total of 43 countries and over 500 participants from Africa and the rest of the world are in attendance.

The forum is set in the magnificent landscape of Gabarone, beneath the burning African sun and majestic wildlife.

On day one, Acting President of the Republic of Botswana, Slumber Tsogwane officially opened the 7th Africa Tourism Leadership Forum.

The conference is taking place under the theme: Charting a new path forward for Intra-Africa Travel, Tourism and Investments.

Botswana signed a Memorandum of Agreement for convening the event over a period of three years, from 2022 to 2024.

In addressing the opening ceremony, President Tsogwane says, tourism in Botswana is a major contributor to the national economy and has tremendous potential to grow.

He says, the Botswana Government has reviewed its Tourism Policy and also developed the National Tourism Strategy and Master Plan to provide a frameworks for the sector.

“The Africa Tourism Leadership Forum is a Pan-African dialogue platform, bringing together key stakeholders of Africa’s travel, tourism, hospitality, and aviation sectors to network, share insights, and devise strategies for Intra-Africa travel and tourism growth across the continent, whilst enhancing the brand equity of our: Destination Africa. This is the only forum of its kind that highlights tourism as a major economic pillar to diversify African economies.”

Kwakye Donkor – CEO of Africa Tourism Partners, the convener of the forum says, the 4 day event, will redefine the future of African tourism, particularly in a post COVID-19 environment, focusing on key areas of innovation, job creation and sustainable growth.

He says, the forum will build on marketing Africa to Africans.

“Basically, is a platform that has really brought Africa tourism, private and public sector together. There is nothing like this on this continent. And the whole idea is to make sure that as Africans, we are able to trade among ourselves, we are able to invest among ourselves, we are able to learn from each other. And as you might be aware, during COVID, the rest of the world was cut away from us. And we felt that there is a need for us to start growing the tourism sector within the continent, from the continent, and not necessarily relying on the global market outside Africa. The idea is to get the private sector in Africa to get to know each other. And through this particular forum, there is now Africa Chamber of Commerce, even when they call it that way, that has been established)

Dankor says the return on investment for the city of Gabarone as the host of the forum is immeasurable.

“The leisure tourists will spend, let’s say, $1 ,000 a weekend, and that they will choose what they want to do and where they want to stay. A tourist who will come for a conference of this nature spend about three to six fold of that because they are business travelers and to them it’s an investment. So the economic impact is always, always good and the countries or whoever host it generate the very good return on investment. Then on top of that there is knowledge sharing. What is that going to do? It’s going to generate trade. So as far as the return on investment on this conference of this nature, in particular in tourism, is priceless.”

Meanwhile, Head of Division at the African Continental Free Trade Area, Beatrice Chaytor who addressed delegates says, the forum will serve as a crucial tool to strengthen public and private partnership for tourism in Africa.

“Tourism is one of the priority sectors under the first round of negotiations in the AFCFTA. There is recognition that tourism can play a significant role in development in the creation of employment across the continent through driving the increase in GDP. And so with that recognition there is the opening up of markets under the tourism sector and through that there will be investment into the tourism industry and therefore that will then have these knock -on effects on employment, GDP, etc., incomes.”