In a bid to enhance the tourism potentials of member nations, the Ministers of tourism in Africa have come together to appeal to the developed nations to make the covid-19 vaccines more available for their members to help boost tourism travels.
This call was made on Wednesday by Nigeria’s Information and culture minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed on behalf of his colleagues after a meeting with other Ministers of tourism at the ongoing 64th meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation Regional Commission for Africa and the second edition of the UNWTO Global Tourism Investment Forum in Sal Island, Cape Verde.
The Minister raised some other critical issues that have been observed as stumbling block to the development of tourism in the continent, especially amidst the covid-19 pandemic.
He said the issues of availability of covid-19 vaccines, flight connectivity as well as travel advisory must be tackled with all the required urgency for African tourism to thrive and compete appropriately.
The Minister said a situation where travelers spend days connecting flights within the same continent was unacceptable and discouraging.
“Tourism Ministers from Africa have agreed to speak with one voice to let the world know that the continent is being unfairly treated in the area of covid-19 vaccines distribution.”
According to Alhaji Mohammed, in the cause of discussion, the African Ministers realised that certain issues were not in the agenda but which are critical to the sustainance of tourism in Africa.
Covid-19 vaccines
“Of particular, is the issue of covid-19 vaccines. It was the consensus of all the African ministers present at the meeting that we need to speak with one voice and let the world know that they are being unfair to Africa, especially in the area of vaccines.
While other parts of the world including Europe and the U.S. are thinking of the third vaccine, which is the booster vaccine, most countries in Africa are yet to attain five per cent vaccination of their population.”
Flight Connectivity
The minister said the issue of flight among African countries was also raised and set for plenary at the conference which they believe will go a long way in addressing some of the critical challenges bedeviling the sector in Africa.
“In our case, we started our journey from Lagos to Dakar on Monday and we had to sleep in Dakar. From Dakar we moved to Praia and we had to also sleep there before we managed to get to Sal on Wednesday.
The stories of other colleagues were even worse,” he said.
“Those who came from Central Africa Republic had to go to Togo first and moved to Dakar and to Praia before getting to Sal Island. We have resolved that the issue of connectivity must be addressed and we must work towards making connectivity to be easy within the African continent in order to attract tourists.’’
On Travel Advisory
The Minister appealed to the developed world to treat with care the issuance of travel advisory because it has a tendency of affecting the tourism sector negatively.
“Whenever there is a small issue in Africa, the developed world would issue travel advisory warning people not to travel to such countries.
“ Whereas, when bigger and more dangerous issues occur in either Europe or America, nobody bother to issue any advisory.”
He said most times such travel advisories are based on half truth and unverified happenings.
The African ministers reached the consensus at a meeting in Sal Island, Cape Verde to ratify the agenda for their 64th Conference of United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Commission for Africa.
Dominica Nwabufo
