Johannesburg: More global travel and tourism thought-leaders have joined the 2023 Africa Tourism Leadership Forum and AfCFTA Forum on Tourism, Creative and Cultural Industries speaker line-up.
A few among these opinion leaders are H.E. Zurab Pololikashvili – the Secretary General of UNWTO; Keith Vincent – CEO, Wilderness Holdings; Senthil Gopinath – Chief Executive Officer, ICCA; Emily MBURU-NDORIA – Director, Directorate of Trade in Services, Investment, Intellectual Property Rights & Digital Trade, AfCFTA; Minister Philda Kereng – Minister of Environment and Tourism; Evelylne Freiermuth – Government Affairs Director, WTTC; Mikul Shah – Co-founder, Purple Elephant Ventures, Kenya – Robyn Williams – MRICS, CA(SA) – Senior Vice President – JLL, South Africa and Derek Hanekom, Chairperson of South African Airways, Didier Dogley – Founder and Director Inspire for Tomorrow Consulting Services company Seychelles & Former Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports & Marine, Seychelles.
In addition to more thought leaders joining the speaker line-up, AfCFTA has partnered with Africa Tourism Partners to launch the inaugural AfCFTA Forum on Tourism, Creative and Cultural Industries as a key component of the 2023 Africa Tourism Leadership Forum and Awards. The goal is to amplify the contribution of tourism, and creative and cultural industries to intra-Africa trade.
Also, private–public with AfCFTA leadership at the Forum will explore measures to mainstream sustainability practices across African travel, tourism and hospitality touch points. This will be done by sharing insights on how stakeholders can create a balance between Green thinking, Innovation and Profitability. This will serve as practical learning for investors, entrepreneurs, accommodation and conference facilities. Other key areas of focus are hospitality and tourism franchising, tourism concession management, digitalisation and media relations, management of bid data, youth travel business opportunities and women in tourism employability and entrepreneurship.
Over 500 physical participants including thought-leaders, media, travel trade, industry practitioners, hoteliers, policymakers, renowned experts and more are expected to attend the Africa Tourism Leadership Forum & Awards (ATLF) 2023 in Gaborone Botswana.
The organisers noted that limited 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 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 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.
