Scheduled for 24 to 26 October 2022 at the Gaborone International Convention Centre, Grand Palm, Botswana, the 5th Annual Africa Tourism Leadership Forum (ATLF) and Awards has received overwhelming response from African countries and beyond.
The Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) has said that the key components of this year’s forum are the Pan-African Private Sector Forum, Ministerial, Digitalisation and MICE Masterclasses, Ministerial and Executive Dialogues and Insightful Expert Presentations and Interactive Panel Discussions on recovery measures, continental and global industries and strategies for building back better.
Further, the organisation said central to the fifth edition are curated business-to-business sessions, desk-top exhibitions and the Fifth Africa Tourism Leadership Awards Gala Dinner. All participants will have the opportunity to do real business. As part of the campaign, Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) has urged delegates to take time off after the forum to experience the country’s distinctive offerings, among them the Kalahari Desert, the Okavango Delta and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve with its fossilised river valleys and undulating grasslands.
Botswana boasts of several fascinating game reserves, national parks, a unique melting pot of cultures and many more tourist attractions which the ATLF 2022 delegates and hosted buyers can package and promote as an unforgettable intra-Africa experience. Sharing some of the issues that will be discussed at the Forum and why such topics were selected, BTO says the African Leadership dialogue platform is designed and convened by Africans in Africa to promote tourism as a priority sector and significant economic development pillar in African states.
African Tourism Partners (ATP) – www.africatourismpartners. com is a UNWTO- affiliated award-winning pan-African tourism development and strategic destination marketing advisory firm. The firm specialises in tourism and MICE strategy formulation, investment facilitation and promotion, research, master planning and destination market development and capacity building across Africa’s travel, tourism, hospitality, aviation and golf sub-industries. “To appreciate and strengthen to role being played by the African tourism private sector themed ‘Ligniting Intra-Africa Tourism Through Inclusive Intra-Africa Trade, Partnerships and Investments,” ATLF 2022 will host a Private Sector Roundtable Session as a meeting of African countries’ private sector tourism associations to craft an action-oriented and functional Pan-African Private Partnership initiative,” BTO said.
The purpose is to intensify advocacy and promote intra-Africa travel inclusive of both inbound and outbound travel to a Pan-African apex body or association. In line with this, BTO added that all Chairpersons, CEOs and other executives, as well as technical persons of tourism authorities and associations, have been invited to register, participate and contribute to this landmark project as a collective and pan-Africa approach to boosting intra-Africa travel.
Keynote messages at the session will be made by the host Philda Nani Kereng – Minister of the Environment and Tourism; Zurab Pololikashvili – Secretary General, UNWTO; Elcia Grandcourt – Director, Africa Department, UNWTO; Emily Mburu- Ndoria – Director Directorate of Trade in Services, Investment, IPR and Digital Trade, AfCFTA, Ghana; Moseketsi Mpeta – Head Tourism and Manufacturing, Industrial Development Corporation, South Africa; Dr Geoffrey Manyara – Economic Affairs Officer for Tourism; Tshoganetso Carl-Ponoesele – Acting CEO, Botswana Tourism Organisation; United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Rwanda; Fred Odek – Chairperson, East Africa Tourism Platform, Kenya; Pascal Viroleau – CEO, Vanilla Islands, Reunion Islands; Keitumetse Setlang – Executive Manager Marketing, Botswana Tourism Organisation; Dr Linda Pereira – CEO, CPL Events, Portugal & UK; Jeanette Moloto – Director Global Sales Sub-Saharan Africa, Marriott International; Bonita Mutoni – Founder and CEO of Uber Luxe Safaris, Rwanda; Hando Sinisalu – Founder, Best Marketing & Marketing Parrot, Estonia; Didier Scaillet – Chief Executive Officer, Meeting Profile Consulting, Belgium; and Senthil Gopinath – CEO, International Congress and Convention Association, Netherlands. It is worth noting that participants of 2022 ATLF are also set to benefit from one-on-one business-to-business engagements, conversations and networking sessions as well as desktop exhibitions. BTO believes that such engagements will be beneficial to itself and the Botswana tourism industry in general.
It described ATLF as a gathering of industry thought leaders that aims to advance intra-Africa travel, entrepreneurship, women and youth empowerment and recognise industry change makers through the Africa Tourism Leadership Awards. As a Pan-African forum, ATLF and Awards are used by African tourism industry leaders as a platform for doing business, advocacy, learning, sharing of experiences and knowledge, and ultimately devising firm implementable actions to stimulate intra-Africa travel growth and development.
This is the only pan-African dialogue platform that brings together key public and private sector leadership and other stakeholders from across Africa and the rest of the world’s travel, tourism, hospitality, and aviation sectors to share insights, devise strategies for intra-Africa travel and tourism growth across the continent and to network whilst enhancing the brand equity of “Destination Africa.” These are the only pan-African industry awards that recognise and celebrate change-makers and innovations pioneered by Africans, in Africa, for African travel, tourism, hospitality and aviation industries who have both been self-nominated and nominated by others.
The World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. As the leading international organisation in the field of tourism, UNWTO promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide. The Botswana Tourism Organisation Act mandates the BTO to market and position Botswana as a premier tourist destination, promote investment and product diversification in the tourism industry and ensure that all tourism facilities are classified, certified and graded.
