EDITOR’S COMMENT
The world keeps spinning and will continue to do so, regardless.
A
s we approach the end of year, I am cautiously optimistic. Personally, I’m feeling a lot more upbeat. The business events industry is slowly emerging from an enforced hibernation. I am definitely seeing an increase in
physical events in all parts of the industry. It is fantastic to observe the different sectors in our industry starting up again. The past few weeks have been amazing. I’ve been following industry leaders on social platforms doing what they do best — be it exhibitions, incentives, conferences and events. The industry has been waiting for so long and all it took was a green light from government! After months of despair, finally there is renewed positivity in the industry. One big positive is that South Africa is now finally off most of the world’s travel red lists, including the UK. The recent Africa’s Travel and Tourism Summit (ATTS) also set the scene for what is to come. If anything, I get the feeling that our continent – the continent of Africa – is finally realising its own strength in unity. Over the years, African countries have always looked to other continents for tourism and business events while, in fact, its own African countries were overlooked. There is no doubt that there are still a lot of challenges, like airlift, visa restrictions, etc. One of the challenges addressed during ATTS is that tourism/incentive and conference/events packages in the past
have always been geared to the European or American markets. If we, Africans, would like to cater for our own African visitors we should package it differently. Over the past few years, our industry leaders have done a lot of talking about the issue of airlift within our continent as well as the issue of visas within Africa for Africans, I hope that ATTS has ignited a new chapter, where African airlines look at new routes within the continent and finally break those barriers which have hindered travel within Africa. Of course, we would all love to see international delegates and tourists return to our shores but what prevents us from exploring new markets within our continent? The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that we are able to collaborate a lot better if we keep the communication streams open within our continent. The time is now, Africa is open for business and I am proudly African!
Irene
Email: gomesi@iafrica.com
Credit: Hein Liebetrau
Africa is open for business
