Travel, the number one selling tourism commodity online is generating over $110 billion (Rwf for Africa per year, Damian Cook, African E-Tourism Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said in a statement last week. 

Cook, who made the revelations ahead of this week’s online seminar to be held in Kigali, however said that very little African tourism is sold online and finding and booking African destinations on the web can be a challenge.

The online tourism seminar in Kigali is scheduled to take place on the May 21-22, and it is part of the E-Tourism East Africa Road show.

It will take place across East African countries in May and June.  This is the first time a seminar on online tourism and digital marketing is taking place in Rwanda.  

According to Cook, online sales have been one of the few sectors experiencing growth, despite the global recession.

He also said that with more education and awareness, the tourism sector in East Africa will harness and implement online marketing tools.

The seminar will explain the benefits of online payments and e-commerce and will introduce real business solutions for tourism companies that may be struggling with reservation and booking systems.

The CEO also said that, they will also include a special "Recession proofing” content on how to use technology to reduce wasteful marketing costs and target the best value customers

 "This two-day seminar provides certified training from professional International trainers and Guest presentations from New Mind, Expedia, Nightsbridge, VISA International, Trip Advisor and many more,” the statement from e-tourism Africa reads in part. 

It also adds that the sessions will include website development, e-commerce, online reservations and bookings, working with partners, e-marketing and multimedia. They will also include; Web 2.0 marketing; user generated content, social networks, mobile marketing and much more.

Online travel information shows that there has been an estimated 1.2 billion internet users globally, with substantial growth in all world regions, particularly in Asia and the Pacific, which, has registered about 400 million users from 100 million users in a period of seven years.

Current forecasts suggest 1.5 billion people with internet access in 2011, which translates into a huge potential for e-tourism.

In general, travelers are increasingly computer literate and tech aware, with two thirds of the over 100 million travelers using the internet to make travel plans.

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