Category: Africa

According to research conducted by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the South African economy could face massive losses of more than ZAR 181 million every week it’s on the UK’s ‘red list’ for travel. The comprehensive study conducted by WTTC, reveals the staggering consequences the UK ‘red list’ represents to the South African Travel & Tourism sector, and the nation’s economy, which have both been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. All UK travellers, regardless of their vaccine status, travelling to countries on the ‘red list’, which includes South Africa, are required to cover the expensive cost of a ... Read more

Leading African destination Kenya is welcoming Indian tourists to try out the unique Kenyan tourism products in 2021. Kenya is heavily banking on Indian Tourists to boost its international tourism arrival numbers, this year. As per the official statistics from the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, Kenya has registered a total of 122,649 travelers from the Indian market in 2019. In 2020, statistics for the period between January to October, the total number of tourist arrivals into Kenya from India was 25,251 and the decline is solely attributed to the travel restrictions imposed by both Kenya and India as part ... Read more

Kenya has been named Africa’s leading golfing destination. This announcement was made during the 7th Annual World Golf Awards Gala Ceremony held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Kenya scooped Africa’s Best Golf Destination 2020 category ahead of South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco. At the same time, Karen Country Club was also celebrated as Kenya’s best golf course while the Great Rift Valley Country Lodge and Golf Resort won the award of Kenya’s best golf resort The World Golf Awards which was founded in 2014 recognizes and rewards excellence in golf tourism, courses, and golf destinations. Commenting on this recognition, Kenya ... Read more

The government of Kenya has awarded a title deed to Nairobi National Park for the 2000 acres of Government land that was formerly known as Sheep and Goat Research Facility, which is adjacent to the Park. The title was awarded by President Uhuru Kenyatta at a ceremony at the Kenyatta International Convention Center yesterday. “Giving the title deed to Nairobi National Park enables the Park to secure the much-needed space for wildlife and is a clear testimony of Kenya’s commitment to wildlife conservation. We must secure more space for wildlife habitat for posterity,” the President said. With the formal acquisition ... Read more

South Africa’s popular destination, Table Mountain has been chosen as Africa’s leading tourist attraction at the World Travel Awards 2020. Table Mountain faced stiff competition from Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, Cape Town Big Six attractions – Robben Island, and the V&A Waterfront. Table Mountain has earlier won the award in 2019 and 2013. Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company (TMACC) in the background has been encouraging the South Africans to cast their votes. With a visitor list touching over 29 million over the decades, the win has cemented the destination’s position ... Read more

Abdenabi Nouidi sold his favourite horse for USD 150 to help feed the others on the team that pulls tourists in carriages through the buzzing streets of Marrakech. Still, he’s worried about the future of the rest of the horses. The prospect of starvation looms for carriage horses and other animals normally used in Morocco’s tourist mecca, since visitors have vanished during the coronavirus pandemic, says a report by the Associated Press. The Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad, or SPANA, says hundreds of Morocco’s carriage horses and donkeys are threatened amid the collapsing tourism industry. They are among ... Read more

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has expressed satisfaction with the measures being taken by stakeholders in the hospitality sector to protect tourists from the coronavirus pandemic. He said Kenya is ready to receive tourists and encouraged local and foreign travellers to take advantage of the prevailing low rates to visit the country’s famous tourist sites, says a report by CGTN Africa. “I want to take this opportunity to encourage every single Kenyan to take advantage and to travel…You can travel, you can move,” the President said. “And now as you know, we have also opened up our skies and flights are ... Read more

English Premier League champions Liverpool FC has announced a new global partnership with the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority and Economic Development Board of Mauritius, as the club’s official tourism and economic development partner. The deal forms part of the country’s drive to become a leading global tourist destination and business hub of Africa. The three-year partnership will see Mauritius benefit from a range of LFC digital, social media and marketing assets.  As well as being one of the top premier luxury holiday destinations in the world with one of the highest rates of return visitors, Mauritius is also one of ... Read more

Kenya Airways resumed international flights on Saturday, heading to about 30 destinations for the first time since the routes were suspended in March due to the coronavirus, Reuters has reported. The carrier, in which Air France KLM holds a small stake, resumed domestic flights in mid-July after the government cleared local air travel. “We announced we are starting with 27 destinations, we increased it to 30 just following demand,” Allan Kilavuka, the airline’s chief executive officer, said during a ceremony ahead of seeing off a flight to London. He said for the rest of the year the airline expected demand ... Read more

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is urging African governments to unblock bottlenecks so that urgently needed financial relief pledged for air transport and tourism reaches the distressed businesses. As a consequence of the pandemic and associated restrictions, African airlines are forecast to lose $2 billion in 2020. Without urgent financial relief, the industry is at risk of collapse, putting about 3.3 million jobs and $33 billion in African GPD in jeopardy. To date, the governments of Sub-Saharan Africa Rwanda, Senegal, Côte D’Ivoire and Burkina Faso have pledged a total of $311 million in direct financial support to air transport. ... Read more

Emirates has announced that it will resume passenger services to Seychelles from August 1, coinciding with the country’s re-opening to international tourists. Operating flights to Seychelles five times a week with a Boeing 777-300ER, Emirates offers travellers convenient access to this popular Indian Ocean holiday destination. The Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa. Seychelles is home to numerous beaches, coral reefs and nature reserves, as well as rare animals such as giant Aldabra tortoises. Mahé, a hub for visiting the other islands, is home to capital Victoria. It also has the mountain rainforests ... Read more

Kenya’s cabinet secretary for tourism, Najib Balala, has urged industry players to make tourism more affordable for domestic and international travellers.  Balala made the remarks in an interview with local television channel, Citizen, where he lamented the high cost of tourism in the East African country. “This is the problem I have with the industry. We have overpriced ourselves. And if you look at Kenya – people come here once in a lifetime. Why do we have to get people once in a lifetime? Because it is very expensive to come to Kenya,” he said. Balala noted that the high ... Read more

American hospitality major Hilton has stopped operating its Hilton Cape Town hotel from Sunday, after nine years of running it. The property at the Buitengracht Street of Cape Town, will be handed back to its owner, Millat Properties. Hilton had recently announced that it would cut 2,100 jobs – more than a fifth of its corporate staff –  in response to the coronavirus crisis, which has decimated the hospitality industry. “Never in Hilton’s 101-year history has our industry faced a global crisis that brings travel to a virtual standstill,” said CEO Christopher J. Nassetta. In South Africa, leisure accommodation is ... Read more

Solomon Islands is pushing for an intra-regional travel bubble. To date no cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu, Solomon Times has reported. Josefa Tuamoto, chief executive of Tourism Solomons says while Australia and New Zealand continue to explore options for a Trans-Tasman bubble, “we believe there is merit in forming a travel bubble of intra-regional Pacific nation groupings.” In total the countries have a population of about 1.5 million, but the bubble would cover a vast area of the Pacific. ... Read more

Senegal has declared that it will not re-open its airspace to European Union (EU) travellers after the bloc did not include it on a list of “safe” states due to the coronavirus, according to media reports.  The EU issued a list of 15 nations considered safe, taking into account “epidemiological criteria,” including Africa nations with a high number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, such as Algeria and Morocco, the Africa News has reported. The EU list also included Rwanda and Tunisia. Dakar declared a ban on travellers from the EU states as a probable retaliatory measure, but Minister of ... Read more