The 6th Africa Tourism Leadership Forum & Awards 2023 will be preceded by the Africa Travel and Tourism Business Exchange, Business-to-Business Session and Exhibition on Tuesday, 3 October 2023.
These sessions will offer an opportunity for marketing, sales, business development and networking in professional and personalised settings for suppliers (accommodation, travel trade and service providers) to DO BUSINESS with travel trade (DMCs, tour operators, travel agents, online travel agents (OTAs) in a structured and business environment.
The Business Exchange programme will be augmented by speed marketing, desktop exhibitions destination showcases. These are uniquely designed to promote intra-Africa travel, African tourism destinations, accommodation facilities, attractions and experiences. Adding to these are cocktails and networking platforms that can be used by participants to maximize engagement and relationship-building as part of the destination showcase.
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.
Furthermore, entrepreneurship masterclasses are scheduled for the 3rd of October as part of this year’s training and capacity-building programme. These will focus on Tourism Entrepreneurship, Women Entrepreneurship and Franchising in travel, tourism and hospitality.
Some of the faculty members for this year’s Forum are Hon. Derek Hanekom, Chairperson of South African Airways, Jon Danks, Chief Executive Officer, Africa Travel and Tourism Association, Francisco Gómez Durán, Head of the Culture Unit, UNESCO’s Regional Office for Southern Africa, Emily Ndoria-Mburu Director, Directorate of Trade in Services, Investment, Intellectual Property Rights & Digital Trade (DTIID), AfCFTA Secretariat, Margareth Gustavo, Executive Director: Strategy & Branding, Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board, Dr. Kamilla Swart, Associate Professor, Hamad Bin Khalifa University Qatar, Sileshi Girma, State Minister, Ministry of Tourism, Ethiopia and more.
According to the organisers of the Tourism event, space is available to register for physical attendance, one-on-one B2Bs sessions, desk-to exhibitions and destination showcases. While exclusive partnership and sponsorship opportunities are available on request.
About Africa Tourism Partners
African Tourism Partners (ATP) is a UNWTO-affiliated award-winning Pan-African tourism development and strategic destination marketing advisory firm. The firm specializes in tourism and MICE strategy formulation, investment facilitation and promotion, research, master planning and 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 responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UNWTO promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and 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 a number of 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.
