The fourth Annual E Tourism Africa Summit was launched on Wednesday in Cape Town at the quarterly Joint Association Membership Meeting (JAMM) of Cape Town Tourism, Fedhasa Cape, Saaci and SATSA Western Cape. The JAMM session brought together over 200 delegates to hear how the tourism industry needs to become ‘Future Fit’ to benefit from advances in technology and changing global travel trends.
The future sustainability of tourism will be a strong theme at this year’s E Tourism Africa Summit, which will take place on September 15-16 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. SA Tourism is the title sponsor of the summit, with Cape Town Tourism as the host sponsor.
Building on the success of last year’s summit, and on valuable feedback from the industry, this year’s summit will feature a new programme format, with a soon-to-be-announced line-up of international speakers from leading travel firms, social networks and best-practice destinations from around the globe.
During the first day, a selection of international speakers will present the latest innovations and technologies and will also be challenged to demonstrate the opportunities that technology creates for the sustainability of economic growth in a market defined by slow economic recovery, alternative energies and changing demographics.
The second day of the summit will offer delegates the option of attending a full practical online tourism seminar that will help bring tourism stakeholders up to speed on digital marketing, e-commerce management and using social media to promote their businesses. Alternatively, delegates can attend a series of specialised panel discussions – moderated by leading international experts – on key issues for the ongoing development of online tourism across Africa. These sessions will include discussions on the roles of destination managers, travel agents, tour operators, wildlife managers and airlines.
Damian Cook, the CEO and Founder of E Tourism Frontiers, the company organising the summit, said online tourism was still growing rapidly across the world. “Online travel continues to grow. Last year the sector recorded 7% growth and stands at well over
US$160 billion in sales. Statistics show that 55% of travel sales are completed online and more than 95% of travel research is done online. Mobile is also a growing area with 28% of mobile users in the UK using their phones to access the Internet every day,” said Cook.
“With figures like these, it is clear that online is now the arena of choice for travel sales but we need to look at how we can also use technology to build growth in challenging markets and make our industry more sustainable. This is especially true in Africa, where we are only beginning to realise the full potential of technology for tourism. South Africa and Cape Town are leaders in this respect and therefore a logical host country and city for this event, where we will explore ways of working together with both the public and private sector to ensure sustainability and a future fit environment for tourism in Africa,” said Cook.
