Regional efforts key to tourism sector growth, says EATP boss

Carmen Nibigira is the regional co-ordinator for the East Africa Tourism Platform (EATP), a regional private sector body that promotes tourism sector interests and the participation of the private sector in the East African Community (EAC) integration process. The New Times caught up with her last week to give an insight on efforts by regional tourism stakeholders to tackle the challenges the industry is facing, and other sector-related issues: The EAC tourism industry has experienced big challenges over the past two years. What strategies are in place to address these challenges? Most challenges facing the tourism industry are a result of policies that need to be changed to streamline the sector in all aspects. There are also issues of product development, marketing, and improving access to destinations, as well as human resources development. Therefore, we need to first solve the root cause of these challenges, most of which originate from inadequate and non-supportive sector policies. It is important that we tackle these issues as a bloc to find harmonised and sustainable solutions as EAC. This also calls for joint approaches where we will work together and integrate our interventions to attract more visitors, as well as encourage local and regional tourism. The Single Tourist Visa was launched by the Northern Corridor states almost two years ago. How do you rate its performance? In January 2016, it will be about two years since the Single Tourism Visa was operationalised. Therefore, it has not yet been fully implemented. However, regional tour and travel firms have been marketing the three countries as one destination under the single tourism visa. We are happy that the approach is bearing fruits. Though players like Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan are not yet part of this arrangement, we are optimistic that they will eventually join. It is also important to note that apart from the single tourist visa, the citizens of East Africa can now use their national identity cards as travel documents between Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. This is a big stride toward greater integration, as well as facilitation of cross-border trade. It will also boost the tourism industry among the three countries. Besides these initiatives, people with work permits and resident status in any of the three countries do not need visas, but only to obtain interstate passes to travel. These initiatives are making it easier for people to discover this region. How has regional tourism been affected by terrorism? Terrorism is a global challenge. However, as far as East Africa is concerned, countries have put in place mechanisms to tackle it. Kenya has strengthened its security systems and is sensitising its citizens about this challenge and how they can help prevent insecurity. It is important to understand that if any of the EAC countries is attacked by terrorists, this affects all the other states in the region. Presently, Kenya and Tanzania are still the big players as far as tourism is concerned, so if tourists don’t visit Kenya or Tanzania, they may not choose any other destination in the region. That’s why it is crucial that we find solutions to challenges in the sector jointly. Kenya used to receive over 1.2 million tourists each year, but received around 800,000 tourists last year due to terrorism. Terror attacks by Al Shabaab in Kenya also had an effect on the other regional countries. Ebola was another factor that hit the regional tourism industry during the period. Although Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone are far away from East Africa, we were affected because everyone assumed the whole of Africa had Ebola. Tourism is a fragile industry which we need to take care of, especially by taking strong measures to address the issues of insecurity and perceptions. How are you working to promote local tourism in the face of dropping foreign tourist numbers? EATP is promoting inter and intra-regional tourism because we believe that at around 150 million people in the region, if say, one per cent of this population were to visit tourist sites across EAC, we would earn far more than what we expect from international tourists. Therefore, I am appealing to the media in East Africa to change the narrative because we have so many successful stories to tell; national parks, great tourist attractions, cultures, and heritage. There are so many tourism products we can sell to our people and the outside world to help us boost regional tourism arrivals and revenues. However, we need to change our focus and try to tap into the local intra-regional tourism market.

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Regional efforts key to tourism sector growth, says EATP boss