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South Africa Unsplash Matthias Mullie

AITO conference: Africa will "always be an edgy destination"

At the opening session of the second session of the AITO Overseas Conference, Ginny Russell from Cedarberg Africa told delegates that Africa will "always be an edgy destination" and highlighted the importance of selling sustainable holidays and drawing customers to new areas.

Overall, she said she is "reasonably optimistic" about business to Africa. She said Zimbabwe is recovering "after a period in the doldrums" and South Africa is "seeing growth again" with business recovering after the Cape Town water crisis at the start of 2018. Indeed, she said that her biggest challenge for selling holidays to Africa is water, to reassure travellers they will have enough water to meet their needs. 

Zimbabwe is attracting large numbers from China and she said that with any large group tourism, it is important to ensure that the impact is positive and sustainable.

In regard to Rwanda, she said the country has "repositioned itself" as a "dream destination", particularly with the opportunities to see wildlife such as gorillas, chimpanzees and golden monkeys on trekking holidays. She described offering these kind of unique experiences as a "bulletproof solution" for continuing to attract business.

In Namibia, Ms Russell said that she is looking to draw visitors to alternative desert destinations so they have the same amazing sand dune experiences as visitors to the popular Sossuvlei.

She said that 30% of her customers come from the UK with 20% from France and 10% from Germany. 



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