Bid to put tourism higher on African Union’s agenda

08 May 2015 - by Tessa Reed

The African Union should strive to include tourism on its agenda, a round table of tourism ministers from Africa has suggested.

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More needs to be done to put tourism on the agenda of the African Union, given the sectors ability to drive economic growth on the continent.

This was one of the key sentiments that emerged from the Ministerial round table discussion, which took place in Durban on Friday, ahead of the Tourism Indaba, which was hosted by Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom. Opening the session, Hanekom pointed out that while tourism to Africa has grown, the continent saw only 4% of global travel. He said the given Africa’s unique tourism offering, the continent had the potential to attract a greater portion of the world’s travellers.

Zimbabwean Minister of Tourism Walter Mzembi emphasised the need to escalate resolutions reached by the ministers so that they translated into actions and questioned the absence of Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who was expected to attend the session.

Mzembi said that if Dlamini Zuma was present, he would have asked her for the progress on the issue – raised last year – of seeing a structure in the AU for tourism. “If you look at AU formation and its structures, they speak to various economic pillars, except tourism.” He added that unless tourism’s significance was appreciated at a national and continental level, the resolutions made would not be achieved.

From the floor, Algerian Ambassador to South Africa, A-EL-N Belaid suggested that the AU should have tourism as a main item on its agenda at one of the union's upcoming summits. He added that the items on the agenda of previous AU summits included agriculture and health.

According to the Department of Tourism, the session concluded with consensus on the following issues:

- The African Union should strive to include tourism on its agenda, in order to elevate tourism as the economic driver in the continent;

- It was proposed that the next African Ministerial session should consider putting systems in place to advance uni-visa’s on the continent;

- Africa should strive to harness its cultural and historical resources to market and present Africa as a truly unique and authentic destination for the world to visit.