Africa Travel Association Holds World Congress in Zimbabwe

The Africa Travel Association, a travel industry trade association promoting tourism to Africa, held its 37th Annual Congress in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, May 18 to 22. More than 500 delegates from government, business and non-profit sectors attended the event, which was built around the theme, “Africa Tourism: Partnering for the Future,” and focused on how Africa’s tourism growth is outperforming more established destinations, and is one of the most promising industries for promoting African development. South African Airways was presenting sponsor and official congress carrier. Arik Air was the official media carrier.

Five tourism ministers were in attendance, from Central African Republic, Ghana, Namibia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Also present were government representatives from Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Togo and Zambia.

The congress was hosted by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) under the auspices of the minister of tourism and hospitality industry, Walter Mzembi. ATA government members elected Mzembi as the new president of the association at the ATA board meeting on the final day of the congress.

Ministers from Central African Republic, Ghana, Namibia, Togo and Zimbabwe participated in the Tourism Ministers’ Roundtable. They all agreed that the benefits of tourism could be strengthened if African governments collaborated more closely with each other and the private sector over a number of issues, including connectivity, visas, branding and packaging products. The importance of integrating local community into tourism programs was also stressed.

Sessions on social media strategies with RS Social and the role of film in marketing destinations with Thinking Forward Media provided participants with practical tools for more effective media relations and marketing. An Expedia representative discussed the importance of bringing Africa's products to market through social media, mobile technology and the Internet.

A Matador Network representative discussed how to leverage content from dozens of partners to create a unified strategy for promoting your destination on the web. Group IST also presented on the pros and cons of voluntourism.

Delegates explored several new tourism topics at the congress, including “Women’s Engagement in Africa’s Tourism Industry,” which brought together representatives from Affluent Hospitality Group, Amalinda Collection, United Nations World Tourism Organization and ZTA to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing women in the tourism industry today.

Leading travel trade and mainstream media representatives explored the relationships between tourism and the media at one of the sessions. Participants spoke about how to develop more effective media relations and how to move travel news to the front pages. The participants spoke about how the negative and the positive play a role in creating perceptions of Africa and stressed the potential role of the media in communicating tourism’s contribution to development and achieving political stability.

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