African tourism officials and tour operators are hoping that the number of tourist arrivals in Africa will continue to grow, despite fears over an Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The impact of the outbreak is certain to be discussed on Sept. 22, when travel and tourism officials and professionals, diplomatic representatives, and African Diaspora leaders gather at New York University-Africa House in New York City for the Africa Travel Association (ATA)’s 9th Annual Presidential Forum on Tourism.
Tourism is a key driver of Africa’s socio-economic growth and development. According to the World Bank’s most current report on the subject, the number of tourists arriving in sub-Saharan Africa alone has grown more than 300 percent since 1990, with 2012 marking a high of 33.8 million tourists who visited the region.
Receipts from hotels, tours and other attractions in 2012 amounted to over US$36 billion and directly contributed just over 2.8 percent to the region’s GDP, according to the World Bank report, titled “Tourism in Africa: Harnessing Tourism for Improved Growth and Livelihoods.”
W Hospitality Group, a leading provider of advisory services to the hospitality industry, notes in its 2014 Hotel Pipeline Report that “Sub-Saharan Africa is really proving to be the hotel growth story of the 21st Century.”
Since March when it was first reported, the Ebola outbreak has claimed more than 2,2000 lives in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria, the four countries where the disease is said to be contained. Several airlines have suspended flights to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, where most of the Ebola cases have been found. Anxiety about the spread of the disease also has resulted in trip cancellations or postponements, even to destinations thousands of miles away in East Africa, where no cases have been recorded.
“The affected countries are on the extreme West of the African continent, thousands of kilometers from Kenya and indeed Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are closer to Madrid, Paris and London than they are to Kenya in East Africa,” the Kenya Tourism Federation declared in a statement.
Medical authorities affirm that the overall risk of a traveler or tourist contracting Ebola is very low, as it requires direct contact with the bodily fluids or secretions from an infected person exhibiting symptoms or from a dead body.
The ATA’s presidential forum will feature Walter Mzembi, Zimbabwe’s minister of tourism and hospitality industry and outgoing ATA president; Fatou Mas Jobe-Njie, Gambia’s minister of tourism and culture; Lazaro Nyalandu, Tanzania’s minister of natural resources and tourism; Elizabeth Ofusu-Adjare, Ghana’s minister of culture, tourism and creative arts; and Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, Ph.D., CEO, New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency.
The forum follows the a promotional road show for Destination Uganda, where the ATA’s 39th Annual World Congress is scheduled to be held from Nov. 11-16. Intended to educate the U.S. and Canadian travel community about Uganda as a tourist destination, the road show made stops in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., New York, and Toronto (Canada) from Sept. 2 to 11. The ATA has indicated no plans to postpone the congress.
“We need to make sure that we project into the future, not just 5 percent market share that Africa is enjoying today of the global tourism performance — $1.3 trillion per annum, seven billion in GDP bucks, one billion arrivals, one billion opportunities, but Africa’s share a mere 5 percent,” Mzembi said during the New York stop. “I hope that, together with ATA and the presidency of Uganda, which is coming soon, we can take Africa to the next stage. That is, double-digit market share by the year 2020, with Uganda in the driving seat.”
Mzembi noted that tourism to Africa grew 6 percent in 2013 from 2012.
