Co-Founder of one of Africa’s largest online travel companies Wakanow, Mr. Ralph Tamuno, has disclosed that Africa’s economies stand to benefit significantly from inbound tourism earnings if governments in the region are committed to abolishing current restriction on movement of persons.
Tamuno gave the revelation recently while fielding questions from journalists on the capacity of tourism to revive Nigeria’s ailing economy and place the nation on the path to progress. He added that the recent African Union passport is long overdue, and efforts should be made to fast-track its implementation for all African citizens to promote regional integration and free trade.
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“Tourism is one of the biggest foreign exchange earners for most economies today, stimulating markets through enterprise development, employment generation and export earnings. Already, the odds are in favor of Africa going by her demographics and the huge, untapped tourism potentials that abound within the continent.
But for Africa to achieve the impressive projections by global travel intelligence groups, “African countries,” Tamuno added, “should begin to look inwards by focusing on growing the sector through investments in infrastructure, promotion of free movement of persons and maximizing tourism marketing to drive sufficient traffic to various destinations.”
He advised African countries to take a cue from Rwanda which saw her economy leapfrog to new heights following an open-door policy that eased entry requirements for visitors.
Citing a report by the World Travel and Tourism Council, which shows that in 2015, travel and tourism jointly contributed a total of $7.2 trillion to the global GDP, supported 284 million jobs and further projected to grow by 3.3% this year, Tamuno said Africa should leverage heavily on her vast potentials to command a fair share of global arrivals and tourism receipts.
Wakanow is one of Africa’s biggest online travel portals, providing seamless travel deals, holiday packages and tour services to millions of travelers in Africa and beyond. Wakanow has grown from a humble background to becoming one of the fastest growing and largest travel sites in Africa. It has expanded its physical footprints to UAE, USA, UK, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Kenya.
