UN tour body urges Africa to woo travellers

Foreign tourists relax at a beach. The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has urged African states to formulate strategies on how to woo travellers within the continent to spur its hospitality and travel sectors. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By WINNIE ATIENO
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Summary

• The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has urged African states to formulate strategies on how to woo travellers within the continent to spur its hospitality and travel sectors.
• The UNWTO Executive Council says is high time for the region reflected and developed intra-Africa tourism and open-sky policies to ensure affordable flights.

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has urged African states to formulate strategies on how to woo travellers within the continent to spur its hospitality and travel sectors.

The UNWTO Executive Council says is high time for the region reflected and developed intra-Africa tourism and open-sky policies to ensure affordable flights.

“Look at Spain, it receives 82 million visitors, the majority from the neighbours and Europe, France and the UK the same. Africa has 1.2 billion people and if we just have 400 million people travelling within Africa that would be good enough for us. So far, we only have 62 million people travelling into Africa; that number is very low,” said the UNWTO executive council chair Mr Najib Balala.

Mr Balala, who is also Kenya’s Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary, was speaking during an interview with a local FM station on how the sector can revamp post-the coronavirus global pandemic that has hardest hit tourism worldwide.

He said Africa should encourage intra-Africa tourism.

However, the UNWTO executive council chair cited challenges such as passport and visa, lack of infrastructure including poor road and train network that will affect the sector.

“In Kenya, we must have a paradigm shift, it’s not going to be business as usual where people make super profits and taking advantage of the dream of Europeans coming to Africa and who want to do it once in lifetime. You must cut the costs, and that is the paradigm shift the tourism industry must understand,” the CS said.

Mr Balala said the industry players have no choice because there will be no business post the pandemic. He said the domestic market has always been secondary for hoteliers.

The CS said once Kenyans get used to domestic tourism, the international market will become secondary citing South Africa whose primary business is the local market. However he said South Africa has an edge due to affordable hotels and flights that attracts domestic travellers.

“But in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, everything is expensive because we are just waiting for out-of-Africa foreigners to come in. We must change because there will be no business to attract from Europe or elsewhere,” the CS warned.