Promote Africa to the World

By Jana-Mari Smith

The first Africa Travel Week, which is slated to take place next year in May in Cape Town, is an opportunity for Namibian tourism players to reach key buyers and to promote Namibia to the world.

The Africa Travel Week will form part of a week of tourism events, including the first Africa World Travel Market, networking, seminars, speakers from around the globe. Ultimately it will offer Namibians and other tourism players from Africa to come together as a united front and to place Africa on the world tourism stage.

Polly Magraw

This was the message from Polly Magraw, the Africa Exhibition Manager of the World Travel Market, organized by Reed Travel Exhibitions. She explained that the World Travel Market offers participants a “conducive platform to reach key buyers to promote Namibia”. 

Magraw said that figures show that there is a significant growth in the tourism market in Africa, surpassing that of Asia. In 1990, there were 6.7 million visitors to the continent, which jumped to 33.8 million in 2012. This number is set to triple by 2013. 

She said it was clear that Africa needs to be showcased to the world and that it was time for Africa “to take a leading role on the world stage”. The Africa Travel Week will bring together key industry players from around the world, and will afford Namibians the opportunity to further entrench the country with the North-American market, the Asian market and more.