Johannesburg – “In the lead up to the FIFA 2010 World Cup it is vital that the tourism sector is aware of all the online opportunities for business. Travel is now the number one selling commodity online and is generating over US $100 Billion annually in sales. The Internet is becoming the leading source of travel information and sales for the modern consumer, yet very little African tourism is sold online and finding and booking African destinations on the web can be a challenge.”
“This disparity presents a very real threat for Africa, as Africa risks disappearing from the view of online travel shoppers”, said Damian Cook, the Managing Director of E Tourism Africa, at the launch of a major new initiative to develop online tourism across the continent on 1st July 2008. The organization aims to alter the imbalance between the way tourism is marketed and sold globally and in Africa, where traditional sales channels still dominate.
The E Tourism Africa conferences, which will be held in Southern, East, North and West Africa, will bring together global online and digital experts, from companies such as Expedia, Digital Visitor, Microsoft and a special address by the CEO and Founder of WAYN (Where Are You Now?) the world’s largest social network for travellers with over 11 Million members. The international experts will address conference delegates about the new technologies available, as well as highlighting marketing and commerce solutions, the best use of social networking tools such as Facebook, YouTube and MySpace, the implications of blogging and the importance of consumer generated content and online video for the travel trade.
The first E Tourism Africa conference will focus on the Southern African region and will be held in Johannesburg on the 1-2 September, it is being supported by First National Bank, (FNB)- the title sponsor, Microsoft, Visa International and Johannesburg Tourism Company. Following the Southern Africa event, conferences will be held in Nairobi in October, with additional conferences planned for Cairo and Ghana in early 2009, culminating with a pan African event in Cape Town in June 2009. The E-Tourism Africa website was launched this week www.e-tourismafrica.com and it will provide more details on each of the conferences.
FNB 2010 National Supporter and the title sponsor of the event, said the company had a very strong commitment to tourism and wants the sector to explore all the opportunities available and ensure that all South Africans benefit from the legacy that will be created by the greatest show on earth.
“We see tourism as a major driver of the region’s economy, especially in the lead up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. We have developed specific solutions for our tourism clients – including Prebook, a complete reservations and e commerce solution. Prebook offers the tourism owner a real time online booking and transacting solution to ensure the virtual Tourist has a World class booking experience. FNB’s involvement in the E Tourism Africa conference is an example of how FNB assists the Tourism industry to get ready to host the greatest show on earth, said Pieter de Bruin Head of Tourism, for FNB Commercial.
Visa International is also supporting the conference. “With so many products and services being purchased online today we want to ensure that the tourism sector knows the values and benefits of accepting online payments. We also want to highlight the importance of managing secure payments online,” said Gill Buchanan, Corporate Communication Manager Sub Saharan Africa at Visa.
Lindiwe Mahlangu, the CEO of Johannesburg Tourism Company, said that the E- Tourism Conference for Southern Africa will be a great opportunity to rapidly develop the IT capabilities of the travel sector. “We want to show the world that Johannesburg will be ICT prepared for the FIFA 2010 World Cup. We want to be seen as a world class city not only in terms of our infrastructure but also in terms of how tourists and business travellers can book and use the internet for all their Southern African travel”.
The E Tourism Southern Africa conference will be held in Johannesburg at the FNB Building at Fairland on the 1st-2nd September, followed by three days of special training seminars for the tourist trade on the 3rd-5th September at the FNB Conference and Learning Centre – Sandown, Sandton.
E Tourism Africa Conferences 2008-09
www.e-tourismafrica.com
• Southern Africa (Johannesburg) 1-2 September 2008
(Training Seminar 3-5 September 2008)
• East Africa (Nairobi) – 13-14 October 2008
(Training Seminar 15-17th October 2008)
• North Africa (Cairo) March 2009
• West Africa (Accra) April 2009
• Pan African (Cape Town) June 2009
What is E Tourism Africa?
E-Tourism Africa is a continental initiative to develop a sustainable and equitable online tourism sector in Africa, with special focus in the lead up to 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
The E Tourism conferences, which are a first for Africa, will educate and provide resources to both the private and public sectors to enable a shift from traditional sales and marketing methods and to create a locally based, business driven environment for online travel distribution and e-commerce.
The conference programme is being implemented in conjunction with Eye For Travel International, the World’s largest Online Travel Conferencing Organisation which host 26 events around the world and this will be their first African event. Microsoft is utilizing the E Tourism Africa events to introduce a major new travel technology programme and product to Africa – SPP, which is affiliated with UNTWO, (United Nations World Tourism Organisation). Our other implementing partners are FNB , Visa, Johannesburg Tourism Company, (JTC) and SA Tourism
The conferences will be a major driver for the development and growth of Africa’s tourism sector and will help expand and sustain the industry’s growth in line with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
A survey of any of the continents leading tourism economies shows that actual online conversion of sales, either directly of via intermediaries is virtually non-existent.
This is largely due to lack of enabling e-commerce environments across the continent, matched by a lack of awareness of e-marketing and sales among tourist economies and business communities.
E Tourism Africa Conference Programme
The conference programme is designed to reverse Africa’s almost total exclusion from the global online travel marketplace, which currently generates over US $74 Billion in annual sales.
By bringing together key players to be educated, informed and inspired at E-Tourism specific conferences, and including international intermediaries, technology and service providers, we can create a shift in local business cultures and practices, encourage strategic investment and planning and generate business.
This event will bring international and local experts and intermediary travel providers to demonstrate and present working solutions for online sales, distribution and commerce as well as new media, social networking and search marketing and management.
This will be a business driven and focused event that will combine a strong, educational conference with a commercial exhibition and networking environment.
The key objectives are to address legal and administrative blocks to e-commerce and to provide education, exposure and resources to the private sector, with the overall aim of creating an enabling environment for e-tourism and greater participation in online travel distribution channels.
Programme Outline E-Tourism Southern Africa 1-2 September 2008
Venue: FNB Building – Fairland Johannesburg
Day One
Our first day establishes a clear picture of the Global Online Travel marketplace, and reviews Africa’s current position, with presentations by Eye for Travel, a global authority on international E-tourism.
The emergent role of New Media, blogging and social networking will be discussed by Trip Advisor and other guest speakers.
Key elements of online travel distribution, sales and marketing will then be discussed by experts in each area, including the Global Distribution Channels, Online Intermediaries and Airlines. Revenue management systems will be demonstrated by TravelClick.
With these key issues identified and explained- the afternoon sessions will focus on Destination Marketing and Management, guided by Peter Varlow, former head of VisitBritain.com and a leading tourism consultant. Local speakers will include South Africa Tourism, who will look at their use of data in their CRM programmes.
That night, at a special gala dinner a special presentation on Climate Change and Sustainable tourism will be held.
Day Two
The second day addresses these issues in terms of individual tourism players showing them how they can integrate into online channels and ‘future-proof’ their businesses.
These sessions will include practical demonstrations of Website construction, marketing and security combined with E-Commerce Solutions and network applications.
Following these sessions- the concluding half of the day is focused on strategies for the future- with presentations from Local E-tourism Projects on their successes and challenges, and Development Organizations who have are working to develop practical solutions, including the FNB Bank, IFC, Microsoft and SA Tourism.
A special panel discussion will address the most important issue facing Southern African tourism- the 2010 World Cup, with a host of panel members debating the obstacles and opportunities and how the region can best make use of technology and regional public-private sector partnerships to gain maximum benefit from this event.
Finally an Open forum discussion will agree new partnerships and priority actions arising from the conference, which will be agreed, published and taken forward for review at the Pan African E-tourism summit in Cape Town in 2009.
Exhibition
In conjunction to the conference an exhibition will feature stands, displays and demonstrations from technology and service providers.
Training Seminars 3- 5 September 2008
Following the conference we will hold a three-day training seminar workshop for 100 participants. The training seminars are designed to complement the conference agenda and include practical implementation of the new Microsoft SPP project to provide free hosted websites to small to medium tourism enterprises across Africa.
These intensive courses are structured to cover the essentials for online sales and marketing, content and inventory management for online distribution and strategic planning for the future.
Who will attend the Conference?
The delegates will comprise paying attendees from the public and private sector, Up to 300 delegates are expected at the Southern Africa.
The Conference rates will be as follows:
• €250 (Euros) approximately R3,072 for the two day conference which will include lunch each day.
• €350 (Euros) approximately R 4,300 for the two conference and three day training seminar
About E Tourism Africa
E-Tourism Africa was founded and formalized by Damian Cook, an online tourism consultant based in East Africa, and is a registered division of his company WP Communications.
WP are consultants to the Ministry of Tourism in Kenya and the Tourism Trust Fund. They specialize in online tourism development, multimedia, content production and management, and public-private sector partnerships. They were responsible for the creation and management of Kenya’s official destination site http://www.magicalkenya.com – and a Ministry of Tourism project to network tourism related parastatals. Over the past five years, they have made presentations on tourism in the developing world to several international forums, including the World Information Summit in Tunis, the UN Experts Panel on E-Tourism and Development and has made presentations on tourism investment to World Leaders as part of Kenyan Presidential delegations worldwide.
They organized and coordinated two consecutive Kenya E-Tourism conferences in 2006 and 2007, bringing a wide range of international speakers and experts and local stakeholders from both the public and private sector. The Kenya E Tourism Conferences were extremely well attended and attracted a lot of media interest.
For more information contact:
Damian Cook
Managing Director
E Tourism Africa
damian@e-tourism.com
Cell: +254 733 826 712/ +254 727 532 250
Office: +254 20 374 3764
Lisa Rabbitts
Fleishman-Hillard
Lisa.rabbitts@fleishman.co.za
+27 11 548 2012
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Intersted
Africa has alot to offer and Kenya is one of the countries which its good to make it one of your Africa destinations. With alot of tourism and rich culture you are welcome to Kenya.
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