Africa Tourism Day first time ever to be celebrated this month
Recognizing the position of the African continent in the world tourism map, the Africa Tourism Day will be celebrated for the first time this month to spearhead promotion and marketing of rich tourist attractions, tourist sites and tourism services available and offered in different countries within the continent.
Planned and organized by Desigo Tourism Development and Facility Management Company Limited in collaboration with African Tourism Board (ATB), the Africa Tourism Day (ATD) will be marked with a theme: “Pandemic to prosperity for Posterity”.
The Africa Tourism Day 2020 will be staged and hosted in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and the World’s largest black nation by population. Subsequently, the event will be rotated amongst the countries of Africa each year, organizers said.
Africa Tourism Day will is aimed at celebrating Africa’s rich and diverse cultural and natural endowments, whilst creating awareness on issues that may be impeding development, progress, integration and growth of the tourism industry and also formulating and sharing solutions and marshal plans to leapfrog the tourism industry in Africa.
The event is also set to focus inwards on Africa’s tourism sector, to highlight the importance of tourism in the continent, to create awareness similar to the World Tourism Day which is celebrated at the global level. 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.
The birth of Africa Tourism Day will feature participation across 55 African countries and hosted by a different African country annually that will have won the bid in the previous year on a rolling basis across African continent.
Organizers said that the day will be marked and celebrated with a mix of high level engagements, speeches, webinars, tours, summits, events, carnivals and a series of festivals.
Other activities planned for the event are competitions, road shows, musical concerts, conferences, investment forums, trade exhibitions, goodwill messages among other.
Organizers of the event said that they view the Africa Tourism Day in the light of the World Tourism Day (WTD) which was initiated by Ignatius Amaduwa Atigbi, a Nigerian, and has been held and championed every year since 1980 by the UN World Tourism Organization.
“On the heels of the World Tourism Day which celebrated annually on the 27th of September, it’s time for Africa to convene its kith and kin all over the world to celebrate its effulgent array of arts, cultures, traditions, assorted wildlife, natural ecosystems, diverse youthful talents and over one billion people with their unique creative energies”, Organizers said.
Africa has to celebrate its tourism endowments whilst marshalling plans and proffering solutions to fast track the recovery, stability and sustainability of the tourism sector which has been severely impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic, organizers noted. The Africa Tourism Day event is in collaboration with Africa’s foremost tourism development and marketing organization, the African Tourism Board. The objective of the Africa Tourism Day is to focus inwards on the African Tourism sector.
Whilst the world celebrates and highlights the importance of Tourism on the global level on World Tourism Day (WTD), Africa has no such designated day on its dedicated to tourism which is unarguably one of her major economic sectors. Key organizations including the African Tourism Board (ATB), Embassies and Public sector authorities will be identified for partnerships in organization and participation to the event.
African Tourism Board, UNWTO Commission for Africa, African Union, Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN), and Ministries of Tourism across Africa are among key partners and stakeholders to the event. A group of private partners and professionals will form the Think Tank for the organization and future of this annual event.
The 2020 edition is a pilot edition to launch and introduce the African Tourism Day and to prepare for a grand celebration in 2021 and subsequently.
