Practitioners in the travel and tourism industry in Africa have spoken on challenges they have faced and the survival strategies even as the global community opens up again post-COVID 19.
Speaking recently at the African Youth in Tourism in Conference of the 2020 Akwaaba African Travel Market, which held virtually from Lagos Nigeria, the youthful participants drawn from across the continent shared their views on the future of tourism after the devastating effect of the pandemic among other issues.
A UK based African from Barbados who was the lead speaker of the conference, Jamie-Lee Abtar, who said she got introduced to tourism in her teen years in Barbados, spoke on the theme of the conference: The Role of the Youth in Restoring Tourism Growth in Africa.
According to Jamie-Lee, the return of the tourism sector back to its former stage before the ravaging impact of the novel pandemic would be tied to a conscious review of the ecosystem under some salient points.
Jamie-Lee said youths first of all must assume leadership positions and take up responsibilities while adding that youths in Africa must create new ideas and viewpoints.
Speaking further, Jamie-Lee said the youths must build effective networks towards and explore the huge digital opportunities
Another speaker from Nigeria, a popular tour operator, Chiamaka Obuekwe, who is commonly known as Social Prefect, lamented the impact of poor road infrastructure, which has affected the growth of Nigeria’s inbound tourism. Obuekwe said destinations in Nigeria have been far from navigable due to neglect.
She cited the popular Obudu Mountain Resort in Cross River State, Nigeria as a typical example, which according to her is in a pitiable state owing to its bad access road.
Speaking further, Obuekwe decried the low support of the government in branding and promotion. She stated that despite the challenges faced by Nigeria in terms of security in tourism areas, Nigeria should promote its own. She cited a robbery attack of popular TV celebrity, Kim Kardashian, who despite being robbed in France didn’t stop the promotion of France as a destination of choice.
Another speaker at the online event, who is a Kenya born Digital Marketer, Ann Mwangi, said digital marketing can only be better explored in tourism development with proper knowledge of target audience while adding that the place of youth in the tourism sector is largely dependent on their roles in policy making.
A Lagos based tour operator, Sam Adeleke, in his opinion argued that collaboration can be questionable owing to ulterior intentions of collaborators as many would want to feast on ideas than to consolidate on efforts.
Adeleke also added that young people need to choose their struggles, stating, “You can’t grow your business out of bitterness and anger.” He lamented the position by some people who are activists and negative critics than positive support to others.
Mel is a South African Tour operator who was a speaker at the event. In her views, she said the pandemic exposed so many issues affecting the tourism industry, which had over the years been ignored by succeeding administrations in Africa.
Other speakers at the event included Paul Ukachukwu of AKWAABA African Travel Market, Carmin Imbii of Namibia, Abigail Nayram; the current Miss Tourism Ghana, Dein Gbabo; Secretary of Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP), among other speakers at the conference, which went online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The organiser of the event and Publisher of Africa Travel Quarterly, Ikechi Uko, in his remarks tasked the youth to embrace humility and desist from “infantile grandiosity, narcissism and sense of entitlement,” while urging them to embrace right attitude.
Akwaaba African Travel Market is the leading Pan-African Tourism Expo, which has over the years attracted the global community into Africa with promotion of destinations dominating discourse.
