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Quote:Open Africa’s skies to facilitate travel – tourism ministersQuote:HARARE, June 19 (The Source) – Africa needs to open up its airspace to improve connectivity which is seen as crucial to facilitating ease of movement for tourists across the continent which is desperate for income, South Africa’s tourism minister Derek Hanekom has said.
The United Nations World Tourism (UNWTO) reports that global tourism has been on the rise, putting 2014 travellers at 1,138 billion. Africa’s share of the tourism receipts and arrivals is a mere five percent.
Hanekom who was speaking at a tourism conference in Harare on Thursday said improved air networks would encourage more visitors to travel across Africa, giving the continent a bigger share of the global market.
“Our own aviation policies are to blame for the small share which we account for. We have countries protecting their own national carriers not wanting to open up to competition,” Hanekom said. http://source.co.zw/2015...avel-tourism-ministers/
Mzembi speaks on tourism challenges in Africa While tourism has been a major contributor to the economic recovery in many parts of the world, generating foreign earnings, employment and investment, the tourism industry also suffered collateral damage marked by declining arrivals in most destinations in Africa due to various factors such as the Ebola outbreak, which reportedly claimed 11 133 in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Mali and the United States. UNWTO Commission for Africa chairman and Zimbabwe’s Tourism minister Walter Mzembi said although the outbreak was concentrated in West Africa, Zimbabwe among other countries substantially suffered a decline in arrivals. [Media: Masters of sensation & distortion!]“Perception in source markets unfortunately views Africa as one contiguous destination, a country, when in fact the continent. The ubiquitous nature of this disease has far reaching global ramifications and it impacts negatively on tourism and trade business,” Mzembi said. Another challenge facing tourism, according to Mzembi, was the intolerable carnage on wildlife through poaching amplified by illegal trade in game products. He urged member countries to enhance sustainable management of natural resources for posterity, saying the most pressing issues were high levels of wildlife poaching, environmental degradation and illegal trade in wildlife products. https://www.newsday.co.z...sm-challenges-in-africa/
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