Tourism offers an important contribution to the socio-economic prosperity of Africans. This sector provides employment opportunities and supports countries in earning foreign currencies potentially usable for key development projects. Most importantly, tourism when managed intelligently promotes cultural awareness and fosters the preservation of local African culture and traditions.

As the world and Africa in particular, face the risks posed by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the above-mentioned aspirations and projections are now under serious threat. With 80% of the sector made up of small and medium-sized enterprises, millions of livelihoods are now compromised. In a nutshell, the sector is in a fight for adaption in order to survive.

Nevertheless, it is proven that tourism is uniquely placed to lead future recovery, due to its cross-cutting nature and deep social footprint. With well-designed policies and instruments, it could help societies and communities return to jobs, economic growth, and stability, exemplified in periods of post-economic depression, Ebola crisis and others.

Today as we mark the celebration of World Tourism Day, it is an opportune moment to implement plans that have been for too long shelved and help to build economic growth that has a human face.

To support the wider recovery plans and actions, AUDA-NEPAD is working with partner institutions like the World Tourism Organisation in several activities. The key activities are guided by the AUDA-NEPAD White Paper on the Response to COVID-19 and the AUDA-NEPAD Post COVID-19 Recovery Blueprint. The activities include, but are not limited to:

1. A white paper on Tourism Security in Africa to showcase early warning systems and mitigation measures of pandemics and other security threats to tourism;
2. A study to determine the extent of the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector in Africa; and
3. Support for rural-based tourism projects.

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic is a major setback to progress made in the tourism sector, we believe it can lead to economic recovery across the continent. Therefore, it is critical to continue to build partnerships for increased investment in the sector.

Africa has global and continental developmental paths reflected in the Agendas 2030 and 2063 respectively. However, the achievement of these Agendas will be enhanced if tourism is among the key driving forces behind them. Empowering the tourism sector will fast-track our efforts towards the Africa we want.