Writes: Edwin Sipho Rihlamvu
           International Tourism Relations - Communications

State of tourism in the African Continent
In the case of the African Continent, tourism is among the top export earners for the majority of states and is an industry that can stimulate jobs and earnings across a multi-sectoral economy. According to preliminary results obtained from the World Tourism Organization (WTO) the number of international tourist arrivals recorded worldwide grew by 5.5% and exceeded 800 million for the first time ever.

“Although 2005 was certainly a tumultuous year, international tourism has fared amazingly well. Despite various terrorist attacks and natural disasters, such as the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami and an extraordinarily long and devastating hurricane season in the United States and the Caribbean, tourism's recovery, which started in 2004, continued firmly through 2005. Even though the disruptions experienced definitely left traces locally in the short-term, they did not substantially alter the global or regional traffic flows” said Mr Claude Pretorius, Portfolio Manager, Americas and UK: South African Tourism.

Whereas growth was more moderate, it is still almost 1.5 percentage points above the long-term average annual growth rate of 4.1%. Overall, the tourism sector has gained substantially in resilience over the past few years and in spite of the turbulent environment we live in nowadays, destinations worldwide added some 100 million international arrivals between 2002 and 2005.

Who is ATA

The growth that is referred to above is arguably attributed to the work that was achieved by the Africa Travel Association (ATA) since its birth back in 1975. This birth was motivated by comments from Hon. Morris Dzoro, Minister of Tourism and Wildlife, Kenya, who remarked:

"I believe it would be a great idea to have an umbrella tourism organization such as the Africa Travel Association that can supplement our promotion and marketing efforts in other tourist-generating markets such as Europe and Asia."

ATA is now an international, non-profit, non-political and educational organisation whose mandate is to promote tourism to the continent of Africa. Its membership comprises of African government tourism offices, international airlines, the accommodation industry, cruise lines, tour operators, and travel agents. It is also a member of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), and a founding member of the Coalition of Partners of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT).

Strategic importance of ATA to the South Africa’s international tourism marketing efforts

“South Africa had an opportunity to measure the success of the work of ATA and appreciate its strategic importance, particularly in relation to our international marketing initiatives. Having made an assessment of the strategic importance of ATA to South Africa’s marketing efforts, a conclusion can be drawn that this organisation has achieved a global position in the travel industry through the establishment of sound and beneficial alliances” said Bulelwa Seti, Chief Director: Tourism Support at the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT).

This partnership has placed South African ATA charter members who are mostly Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME's) in a unique position to access and influence agency owners and travel leaders about travel to and within Africa (South Africa in particular) by the North American market, and African-Americans.

What would SMME's benefit from ATA?

The Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year Award (ETEYA) is a South African Tourism and Provincial Tourism Authorities initiative, aiming at celebrating the achievements of individuals in businesses that have risen above the odds to achieve growth within the tourism sector. Finalists and winners will be rewarded to varying degrees with cash prizes, participation in marketing initiatives and in fully paid for training academy sessions around the country.


Entry requirements and restrictions:


The ETEYA Judges are restricting their search to bona fide companies who:

• Are registered in South Africa to operate a business
• Have been in business for less than 5 years
• Employ less than 50 people and who have an annual turnover of less than R3 million