Botswana is geared to host the inaugural AfCFTA Forum on Tourism, Creatives, and Cultural Industries. The launch will occur during the Africa Tourism Leadership Forum & Awards scheduled for 04 to 06 October 2023 at the Gaborone International Conference Centre.
The emergence of creative tourism reflects the growing integration of tourism with different placemaking strategies, including promoting creative industries.
Against this background, the AfCFTA Secretariat partnered with Africa Tourism Partners (ATP) to host the inaugural Forum on Tourism, Creatives, and Cultural Industries during the Africa Tourism Leadership Forum 2023. This seeks to involve key Pan-African and intra-Africa travel and tourism stakeholders and related sectors to harness the value of the continent’s creative and cultural assets to stimulate demand for intra-Africa travel. The forum will highlight and harness emerging trade opportunities in intra-Africa travel and tourism investments sectors. It will be used to launch the newly established Africa Tourism Private Sector Alliance (ATPSA), an apex body for African travel and tourism private sector. The objective is to use this body to leverage the opportunities under the AfCFTA.
Themed, “Shifting demand dynamics to shape the future of intra-Africa Travel” the 2023 ATLF & Awards will present distinct networking avenues, business opportunities and learning programmes relating to intra-Africa travel, franchising, creative industries and culture, tourism investment, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events), Digitalisation and more. Led by renowned global experts, Ministers, CEOs, Business Executives, Policy-Makers, Entrepreneurs, Academics, Researchers, Practitioners and DMCs.
All hotels, lodges, guest houses, B&Bs, DMCs, Restaurants, Tour Operators, Travel Agents, Online Travel Agents, Marketing Agencies, NTOs, DMOs, Associations, Women Associations, Youth Association, entrepreneurs and all key industry stakeholders are set to benefit from high-level B2B sessions, Tourism Entrepreneurship Masterclass, Intra-Africa Travel & Tourism Road Show & Exhibition starting on Tuesday, the 3rd of October 2023. The ATLF & Awards 2023 will also feature Destination Showcase & Presentations from all participating African Member states to promote destinations to a broad spectrum of global participants.
Over 500 physical delegates, including the media and hosted buyers from across the globe, will converge from 03 to 06 October at the Gaborone International Convention Centre, Grand Palm, Botswana for the 6th Annual African Tourism Leadership Forum and Awards.
Space is available to register for physical attendance, one-on-one B2B sessions, desk-top exhibitions and destination showcases.
About Africa Tourism Partners
African Tourism Partners (ATP) is an award-winning, UNWTO-affiliated pan-African tourism development and strategic destination marketing advisory firm. The firm specialises in tourism and MICE strategy formulation, investment facilitation and promotion, research, master planning, destination market development, and capacity building across Africa’s travel, tourism, hospitality, aviation, and golf sub-industries.
Our clients and partners include but are not limited to UNWTO, World Bank, Mastercard Foundation, NEPAD, AfCFTA, South African Tourism, Ghana Tourism Authority, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal, Rwanda Development Board, Rwanda Convention Bureau, Rwanda Chamber of Commerce, SAACI, RwandAir, SAA, Ethiopia Airlines, Tanzania Tourism Board, Kenya Tourism Board, Uganda Tourism Board, Gauteng Tourism Authority, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, Tourism Business Council of South Africa, Nigeria and more.
About UNWTO
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations agency for promoting responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. As the leading international organization in tourism, UNWTO promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development, and environmental sustainability. It also offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.
About AfCFTA
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a free trade area encompassing most of Africa. It was established in 2018 by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which has 43 parties and another 11 signatories, making it the largest free-trade area by several member states after the World Trade Organization and the largest in population and geographic size, spanning 1.3 billion people across the world’s second-largest continent.
