Recognizing the position of the African continent in the world tourism map, the Africa Tourism Day was celebrated for the first time on the 26th of November to spearhead promotion and marketing of rich tourist attractions, tourist sites and tourism services offered in different countries within the continent.
The Africa Tourism Day (ATD) is a FOCUS-ON-AFRICA annual country-specific rotational event celebrating Africa’s rich and diverse cultural and natural endowments whilst creating awareness on issues that are impeding development, progress, integration and growth of the industry and also sharing solutions to leapfrog the tourism industry in Africa.
The ATD is a good opportunity to discover new destinations in Africa and focus inwards on Africa’s tourism sector, to highlight the importance of tourism in the continent and create awareness similar to the World Tourism Day which is celebrated at the global level.
The virtual event gathers important speakers from different places in Africa such as the Egyptien Minister of Tourism, the CEO, Tourism Business Council South Africa TBCSA, the Fmr. Secretary General, UNWTO, the Executive Chairman, African Tourism and more.
Africa has no such designated day on the continent to celebrate and focalize tourism which is one of its major economic sectors, event organizers said.
Focus on tourism in South Africa:
South Africa came second in a ranking of the leading African countries in terms of international tourist arrivals. It only had around one million less international tourist arrivals than the most visited country, Morocco. The tourism industry is one of the key industries in South Africa attracting visitors from all over the world. In 2018, the largest number of visitors to South Africa from a non-African country came from the United Kingdom with 430,708 visitors.
In 2018, the number of tourists in South Africa amounted to 16.44 million – a figure that steadily increased over the past five years and is expected to see growth in the future. By 2023, it was forecasted that the number of tourists in South Africa would reach 19.6 million.
South Africa offered the highest number of chain and branded hotels in relation to other selected African countries in 2017, with a figure amounting to 430. Comparatively, Morocco, which was top of the list of most visited African countries, accounted for a smaller total of 153 chain and branded hotels.
Margaux S., We Fly Africa, December 2020
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