{"id":49211,"date":"2023-11-03T08:50:10","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T08:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/wttc-global-summit-2023-the-heart-of-travel-and-tourism-is-in-africa\/"},"modified":"2023-11-03T12:38:27","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T12:38:27","slug":"wttc-global-summit-2023-the-heart-of-travel-and-tourism-is-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wttc-global-summit-2023-the-heart-of-travel-and-tourism-is-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"WTTC Global Summit 2023: ‘The Heart of Travel and Tourism is in Africa’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The three day summit commenced on 1st, November, 2023 at Kigali Convention Centre attracting dignitaries from over 45 countries and more than 2000 participants coming together to discuss challenges and opportunities within the tourism and travel sector.<\/p>\n

Running under the theme \u201c Building Bridges to a Sustainable Future\u201d, the 23rd annual Global summit aims to grow the contribution of tourism to Africa\u2019s GDP to 5.1%.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Julia Simpson the CEO and President WTTC noted that tourism on the African continent had doubled over the past two decades on the Global average, a thing that is promising.<\/p>\n

\u201c84 million international visitors added 196 billion dollars to Africa’s bottom line which is 7% of the continent’s economy\u201d, she remarked.<\/p>\n

Arnold Donald, chair of WTTC also echoed Julia\u2019s remarks stating that tourism within Africa rose to a much stronger rate than the Global average since 2000 making Africa the ‘heart of travel and tourism’.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween 2000 and 2019 tourism investment increased by nearly 350%.at a broadly consistent rate across the continent, today here in Rwanda we send a sounding message to the world, the heart of travel and tourism be strongly here in Africa,\u201d he remarked. <\/p>\n

In Rwanda, tourism is the single major source of foreign earnings having attracted US$173 million in 2022, with a target of rising to US$194 million by the end of 2023. Additionally, the sector intends to grow the number of employment opportunities to 350,000 by the end of 2023.<\/p>\n

The country has played a pivotal role in the conservation of mountain gorillas that almost went extinct before 2000 having established an annual gorilla naming ceremony dubbed \u2018Kwita Izina\u2019 that attracts tourists from all walks of the world investing immensely in the sector.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the country attracts visitors through hosting continental and Global events like; Women Deliver Conference, Basketball Africa League (BAL), Trace musical Awards, among others.<\/p>\n

Addressing the delegates during the summit, Francis Gatare the CEO of Rwanda Development Board (RDB) commended the organisers of WTTC for choosing Rwanda as the host of the summit because its not only a milestone to the country, but the continent as a whole for its dedication towards sustainable tourism.<\/p>\n

To the African governments, Samia Suluhu Hassan, the president of Tanzania posed three \u2018serious questions\u2019 aimed at promoting, conserving and preserving Africa\u2019s tourism attractions emphasising that \u2018Africa and Tourism are inseparable\u2019.<\/p>\n

With the statement: \u2018Africa is no longer the future but now\u2019, Suluhu acknowledged the role of the private sector in the promotion of tourism in Africa referencing on the funding done by the private sector in Tanzania, in the production of the movie titled \u2018the royal tour\u2019 that has attracted a vast of tourists to Tanzania.<\/p>\n

She thus called upon governments to collaborate with the private sector and Non-Government Institutions to make travel and tourism more vibrant in African economies. <\/p>\n

The WTTC Global summit was founded to promote sustainable growth for the Travel and Tourism sector through working with governments and international institutions to create jobs, drive exports and generate prosperity. <\/p>\n

According to Julia Simpson; the summit in collaboration with Saudi Arabia monitors global, environmental and social footprints of 195 countries to pinpoint required changes and shifts of policy.<\/p>\n

For the past 33 years, the summit has \u201cstood as a beacon for the sector for 33 years advocating for the positive impact tourism and travel has on the world,\u201d said Arnold Donald- chair of WTTC.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n
\"Tanzanian<\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{For the first time since its inauguration, the prestigious World Tour and Travel Council (WTTC) has held its Global Summit in Africa, in particular Rwanda.}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000060896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[3104],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-49211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-jane-babirye"],"bylines":[{"id":3104,"name":"Jane Babirye","slug":"jane-babirye","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":3104,"name":"Jane Babirye","slug":"jane-babirye","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000060896,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/6c9a1434-3-bbb7e-e0ec8.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/6c9a1434-3-bbb7e-e0ec8.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/6c9a1434-3-bbb7e-e0ec8.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/6c9a1434-3-bbb7e-e0ec8.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/6c9a1434-3-bbb7e-e0ec8.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/6c9a1434-3-bbb7e-e0ec8.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000060896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49211"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=49211"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=49211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}