Published on : Tuesday, July 3, 2018
The African Union revealed that the tourism industry’s share in the total work force of the African continent has also reached 6.5 percent.
Amani Abou-Zeid, AU Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Tourism said that the value of the industry now stands at over 160 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for almost 8 percent of GDP, thus exceeding the contributions from manufacturing and banking sectors. She, however, noted that the African continent should work in the promotion of the tourism sector by developing better tourism promotion strategies, improvement of Africa’s image and branding tourism in the continent.
Abou-Zeid further stressed the need to do various tasks and forging new partnership among AU and other organizations that include AU members states to make Africa the preferred destination through the creation of a unique “Brand Africa”. She also reaffirmed the AU’s resolve to strengthen cooperation and collaboration with the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which she said is a key partner for the success of Africa’s ambitions in the tourism sector.