Africa’s Travel and Tourism Summit is looking forward to the revitalisation and recovery of the tourism industry post-Covid-19.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, those wishing to travel could only look towards domestic destinations, and even those were limited. But now, with the introduction of vaccinations, the world seems eager to travel beyond borders again and the best way to reawaken the travel bug for African travellers is to travel within the continent rather than just domestically.
However, this still means we have to be conscious as travellers.
It is imperative that the health and safety of tourists are taken into consideration to minimise the spread of Covid-19. That’s why Africa’s Travel and Tourism Summit will, hopefully, be the first of many exercises in developing new safe practices and procedures for tourists and the event itself, will comply with current Covid-19 protocols and that the host cities will have proper measures in place.
We are now a conscious society and that means we have also become conscious travellers. This particular mindset represents the starting point for green and sustainable tourism on the continent.
The conscious traveller is concerned with a destination’s conservation practices, reducing their carbon footprint and being cognisant of the health and safety of everyone around them. With Africa slowly opening up to inbound tourism, we will all need to be conscious travellers by maintaining social distance, sanitising regularly and keeping our masks over our mouths and noses when in public.
This is a major reason for why a summit of this nature is critical in ensuring that we are aligned as a continent as we reignite the tourism industry into an inclusive recovery period. It is time, once again, to showcase the African continent’s leisure tourism and business events hosting capabilities.
For these reasons the South African Tourism and the Department of Tourism are excited to host the first-ever Africa’s Travel and Tourism Summit from 19-21 September, 2021.
With the Summit being a hybrid event, delegates can attend virtually or physically. We are leading the way in demonstrating how tourism can be enjoyed safely while adhering to health protocols. Host cities include Johannesburg and Durban, as well three other African cities that are still to be confirmed, pending Covid-19 regulations.
The Summit will bring together African community delegates, African tourism ministers, industry associations, tourism boards, destination marketing organisations as well as various partners across the tourism value chain for the first time since the Covid-19 outbreak.
Exciting topics will be on the Summit’s agenda, including how travel tech start-ups can take advantage of the chaos of the pandemic, how airlines can recover and grow, and the advent of a regional uni-Visa for Africa so as to ease travel across each other’s borders.
Over the course of three days, the Summit will not only showcase Africa as a destination, but will also allow all stakeholders to come together and reflect on the reignited journey ahead. No doubt the Summit is a crucial moment in our industry; it will lead to ideas and trends being explored robustly and culminating in recovery initiatives and solutions. In essence, we are showing the world that Africa’s tourism industry is getting ready to welcome tourists again and to share in our African success story.
The timing of Africa’s Travel and Tourism Summit could not have been more perfect as September is Tourism Month in South Africa and World Tourism Day is on 27 September.
Join us as we reawaken a new kind of tourism at ATTS 2021!
Register now at www.africatourismsummit.com.
For media enquiries, please contact Altaaf Kazi at South African Tourism
Tel: 082 553 9595 | Email: altaaf@southafrica.net OR mediaq@southafrica.net
