Jumia Travel, Africa’s leading online travel website has today marked the celebration of World Tourism Day with an event in Accra. The brief media interaction which was under the theme ‘’Sustainable Tourism – a Tool for Development.’’ This theme was in line with the UNWTO’s theme for the 2017 celebrations. The online travel website which contributes immensely to the development of tourism and hospitality in Ghana interacted with the media and other stakeholders about the roles each of them can play in the attainment of set goals.
Speaking on the day, Chief Operations officer and Co-founder of Jumia Travel Estelle Verdier said ‘’ Africa has a huge tourism potential and Jumia Travel is here to make travel easy and affordable for everyone in Africa. Surprisingly, it is easier for a tourist to travel from Europe to Africa than for An African tourist to travel from one African country to the other. Governments in Africa have a great responsibility of making travel easy and stress-free for African travellers by putting structures and policies in place to make visas easy to acquire. We are all together in this desire to develop tourism and hospitality in Africa’’.
With the main global celebrations taking place in Qatar and Ghana marking the day with a special event in Tamale, Jumia Travel being a major player in the tourism industry held this event in Accra to once more preach the need for sustainable tourism and share their strategies to promote tourism and national development. The event also handed the media an opportunity to ask questions about the role of online travel agencies to the promotion of Ghana’s tourism and eventually national development.
‘’Tourism accounted for 7.8% of African GDP (US $ 165 billion) in 2016 and international tourist arrivals in Ghana is forecasted to total about 2M by 2027 which will generate an expenditure of GHC 5,927.3M (USD 1,414.6M), an increase of 4.1% pa. These figures barely tell the story of the great potential and rewards we can derive from tourism. In 2016, Africa’s internet penetration rate was 27% with more than 300 million users and smartphones penetration currently at 28% is forecasted to be at about 68% in 2020. This clearly defines a path for online travel websites like Jumia Travel to do a lot more by providing the technologies and tools for safe, easy and affordable travel in Ghana and beyond,’’ said Mr. Bennet Otoo, PR and Marketing Manager of Jumia Travel Ghana.
World Tourism Day has been celebrated since 1980 on September 27, the day in which the Statutes of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) entered into force. Peace and Dialogue, Energy, Accessibility, World Heritage and Water and Tourism have been some of the topics tackled on the 37 previous editions of World Tourism Day.
Founded in 2013, Jumia Travel has built track record in ecommerce and technological innovations, becoming the leading online travel agency in Africa. It offers online hotel and flight booking services as well as tailor made packages for its large inventory of customers, both individual and corporate.