The Birth of the West Africa Tourism Roundtable
The idea for a West Africa focused tourism roundtable series first came to mind a few years ago. The pandemic was a critical incident that helped to focus my mind, in terms of where we needed to go as a tourism industry in our region.The West Africa tourism economy is still some way behind that of the Southern and Eastern Africa economies and 2020 presented the chance to reflect and identify tangible ways to contribute to the growth of our industry.
The tourism industry was one of the worst hit industries by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and it was time to think about how to jumpstart recovery, but use the opportunity to truly address complex development challenges that have impeded the growth of the tourism economy for so long. How do we address our contextual challenges: foreign visitors could not come in, and our domestic tourism industry was severely underdeveloped to attract in-country visitors? How do we establish opportunities for collaboration among practitioners? Who should we learn from and how do we adapt these lessons to our context? How do we engage our policy makers to ensure sufficient regulatory support is in place to aid our growth trajectory as an industry? Who would be responsible for verifiable industry research that should fuel innovative ideas? How can we learn from other experts in West Africa and create a strong network for tourism development in West Africa? So many questions, and I must confess that I wondered if we could address them all over the course of the sessions.
But then, I have learnt that starting is the most important part of addressing challenges. From the first edition of the West Africa Tourism Roundtable in March 2021, to each of the subsequent editions in May, July and September, together with experts from other industries with linkages with the tourism industry, we grappled with the challenges and proposed solutions around security, sustainability, service quality and human resource development.
The sessions closed with a strong sense of optimism and participants shared the strong sense of agency they felt in how they could contribute to the growth of our industry. And this for me is the most important part — we cannot wait for anyone to solve our problems; the solutions must come from us.
And so, for the final edition of the roundtable series for 2021 which will hold on November 3, we have worked on codifying the solutions proffered and the successes achieved so far. In documenting our proposed solutions, we hope that these can truly contribute to sustainable tourism development in West Africa, as we take ownership of the causes that resonate, and identify areas for collaboration that can lead to lasting change.
Here is my special invitation to YOU to attend the final edition of the West Africa Tourism Roundtable event and the launch of the 2021 West Africa tourism report. To join as a virtual delegate, you may register here: http://bit.ly/WATRoundtable5. For C-suite executives who would like to participate in-person and contribute to conversations, do send us an email: contact@redclayadvisory.com.
What is in stock for 2022? How do we move on to another phase of impact? I will be sharing all at this event.
I look forward to hosting you.
