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Kenya's STTA and University of Brighton (UK) join forces to address SMEs' challenges amid COVID19 crisis
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enya’s Sustainable Tourism and Travel Agenda (STTA) has signed a partnership deal with University of Brighton UK to address the challenges faced by the tourism Small and Medium Scale (SMEs) enterprises in East Africa amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
• Judy Kepher-Gona (right) and Marina Novelli (PhD) right
The initiative championed by Judy Kepher-Gona and Prof Marina Novelli of STTA and University of Brighton respectively include research to fully assess best practices in addressing the covid19 induced tourism crisis. Commenting on the partnership, Judy Kepher Gona said: “At STTA, our mission is to contribute to modelling a sustainable future for Africa’s tourism. Our approach to addressing this very challenging mission has been to create diverse spaces of engagement with different interest and stakeholder groups in tourism. This partnership with University of Brighton is timely, as it strengthens our work with SMEs, a group that is most vulnerable during crisis, but often faceless in tourism economic data and planning. In line with our shared value of “leaving no one behind, this partnership will lay a foundation for resetting the place of SMEs in the tourism value chain.” Prof. Novelli (UoB) said: “At the University of Brighton, we are delighted to partner with STTA in addressing the challenges posed by the COVID19 pandemic on the tourism sector and particularly on the SMEs of Kenya. This is undoubtedly the consolidation of a long-lasting professional collaboration, which started with research conducted in Masai Mara, Kenya in 2011. Based on our shared commitment towards sustainable tourism in
Africa, we believe that this historical moment is giving us the opportunity to reflect, reset and change for the better. For many years, both STTA and UoB have been advocating for a more sustainable sector and this initiative will give us the opportunity to strengthen our actions though an empirically grounded, proactive and responsible set of activities and pilot innovative ways to move in the right direction in Kenya and in other parts of the African continent in the future.”
Africa Travel Week 2020 Postponed
R
eed Exhibitions Africa has confirmed that Africa Travel Week, which comprises of World Travel Market Africa and International Luxury Travel Market Africa, due to take place in April this year, will now be postponed following the escalation of COVID-19 Coronavirus around the world. The event will now take place again in 2021. In a statement Carol Weaving, Managing Director of Reed Exhibitions Africa said: “We have had to respond to
the current coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and the ongoing conversations with our customers whose welfare is our number one priority. Due to the uncertainty in the region and around the world, with many of our clients facing company travel bans, we have taken the decision to postpone the event to 2021, which was due to take place from 02 – 08 April 2020. Our thoughts are with all those affected in these difficult times.” Megan Oberholzer, Portfolio Director for Africa Travel Week added, “We would like to thank the industry for their support in these unprecedented times. All buyers and exhibitors and industry partners will be contacted in the coming days.”
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