The East Africa Tourism Platform (EATP) has launched a three-month campaign dubbed “Tembea Kenya” in the East African Community (EAC) Partner States.
The campaign is aimed to spur tourism within the region by showcasing the many hidden gems as well as affordable and exciting holiday packages that can be explored in what the world has come to know as Africa’s magical destinations.
Addressing during the campaign launch, EATP Board Member and CEO of Tourism Confederation of Tanzania, Richard Rugimbana said the sector has been hit hard by COVID-19 pandemic but remained optimistic in the new opportunities created in the industry.
“The tourism economy is at a crossroads. The corona virus has heavily hi it but this pandemic also brought us opportunities to explore new markets, open up new destinations, encourage innovations as well as think of new and sustainable tourism development models,” said EATP Board Member and CEO of Tourism Confederation of Tanzania, Richard Rugimbana.
According to the study commissioned by the East African Business Council (EABC) on the impact of COVID-19 on Tourism and Hospitality in May, 2021, EACC Partner States lost International tourism receipts to the tune of USD.4.8 billion in the year 2020.
In terms of impact on employment, tourism jobs in the region dropped from about 4.1 million jobs to 2.2 million.
EABC survey indicated that hotels in the region registered average occupancy rates of below 30 percent, affecting their operations significantly that included maintaining staff.
About 4.2 million foreign tourists were not able to travel to their preferred EAC destinations.
Also, visitors to the national parks declined by about 65 percent, which affected negatively to wildlife conservation efforts in the region.
In order to pursue through the signing of new partnership seen on September 15, between EABC and the EATP, the two agreed to harmonize operationalization of open sky policy that included Tourism Service Licenses, uniform Visa free for all EACC member states and expedite the review of the common criteria for the classification of hotels and restaurants.
Effective implementation of the EAC strategy to combat illegal Wildlife Trade, identifying and removal of all non-tariff barriers and joint tourism marketing strategy are among the major issues that were part of the agreement.
