E-Tourism Africa Summit 2009 Takes Off

Diski Dancers Open the 2009 E-Tourism Africa Summit

The E-Tourism Africa Summit held in Johannesburg December 1-2^nd 2009 was our largest and most popular event yet- bringing together 260 delegates from all over the continent. Given the venue and the date- there was one topic at the forefront of the agenda- the 2010 World Cup being held in South Africa in just over six months time.

So it was appropriate that the conference was launched with South Africa’s popular World Cup “Diski Dance” being brought to life as a team of dancers performed live and a coach taught the delegates the series of moves that make up the popular dance which blends a typical township groove with footballer footwork- culminating in a mass Diski by the entire group.

The most common message delivered at the conference was simple: Africa needs to start using technology to encourage our visitors to market our destinations by communicating their positive experiences via social media. While the focus for the World Cup is currently on a single month of ticket sales and visiting fans- we need to start thinking about how the experiences of those visitors, and the positive focus on the destination, can be used as a sustained and growing marketing tool- a point strongly brought home by William price- Head of Digital marketing at South African Tourism.

The event, which was sponsored by Vodacom Business, VISA International, Travelport and Johannesburg Tourism- mixed practical online business sessions on reservations and booking technology with sessions on e-marketing, social media and content.

All the delegates join a mass Diski Dance

Speakers included Jerome Touze, the co-founder of Wayn.com the world’s largest social network for travel, who highlighted the work he has done with South African tourism to promote the destination to Wayn’s 15 million members. Andrew Pozniak, Google’s Head of Travel discussed the media giants role in the region and the implications for tourism- and invited all of the delegates to join and take part in developing the new Google Wave project.  Travel distribution and business sessions from both Travelport and Expedia, two of the world’s largest travel businesses, showed extremely positive trends in the African market- and plenty of room for growth- while trade support sessions from Vodacom Business and local realtime booking solution Nightsbridge showed how businesses can star achieving distribution and selling online.

Wayn.com Co-Founder & CEO Jerome Touze

Maud Larpent from Trip Advisor demonstrated the power of positive opinion from online user reviews to influence and drive bookings, using examples from Africa. This ‘user generated’ theme was further enforced by two leading bloggers on African travel visiting from Europe. Johan Knols of planyoursafari.com presented on the art of blogging and Michael Theys of Africafreak.com gave every delegate a copy of his new ‘crowdsourced’ safariguide and e-book- with collaborative content drawn from social media.

South Africa’s popular author and e-marketing guru Rob Stokes of Quirk eMarketing gave an excellent intensive e-marketing session and provided every attendee with a discounted voucher for Quirk’s online marketing course. Two of his ‘Quirkstar’ eMarketers- Mary Mzumara and Heidi Schneigansz ran interactive sessions on using Twitter and Facebook for tourism businesses.

A host of other African web, e-marketing and social media experts presented new products, projects and promotions using locally available solutions. These included the Uganda Wildlife Authority who recently grabbed headlines by putting their entire population of endangered Mountain Gorillas on Facebook, raising funds for conservation and the profile of their tourism destination as over 13,000 people have signed up in the first months of operation.

Delegates on a Smoothie Break

Graham Wallington, CEO of WildEarthTV gave a thought provoking presentation on the nature of live interactive media- and whether live streamed game drives can be not just a tool to promote travel to Africa- but a saleable alternative to visiting Africa for a mass market, thereby reducing impact on the environment.

Paula Kahumbu Executive Director of Wildlife Direct- an online conservation community that uses social media to raise direct online donations to conservation projects, called for stronger cooperation between tourism operators and conservationists to protect the natural resources that the sector depends on.

Also presenting were Mobiguide, Virtual Africa, Cambrient, Platypus Productions, Smartguide Realmdigital and many many more.

The conference was an engaging lively and information packed two days- that highlighted the power of the internet and social media to reinvent and reinvigorate African tourism. As Garai Makaya of Life Media from Botswana, attending his second E-Tourism Africa conference, said “This is my annual wake up Call”.

Next year’s Summit will be held in Capetown in September 2010, following regional events in East and North Africa.

Stay tuned for more videos, delegate interviews and blogs from the event.

E-Tourism Africa Summit 2009

December 1-2nd 2009, Johannesburg

We have an amazing line up of speakers for our upcoming E-Tourism Africa Summit, including some of the world’s leading online tourism experts- but also an impressive array of innovative African projects and internet developers. This two day event, (December 1-2nd in Johannesburg South Africa) sponsored by Vodacom Business, VISA and Travelport is our biggest event yet- and will be the event for online tourism in Africa.

There’s now no doubt that the future of our Tourism is online- and this event will show you how to get there. African Travel companies have seen the success of tourist produced online viral videos such as the Battle of Kruger, which has been viewed by almost 50 million people, and they are now creating platforms for user generated content, reviews and discussions of their products.

One of our key messages is that the market now looks to their users for advice and content- and a great review or video posted by a user is marketing gold- it’s all in how you make use of that. The web has really made it easy for small players to use technology, creativity and innovation to make a big connection with global markets. And with the world’s spotlight on Africa next year with the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, it is critical that tourism companies in South Africa and across Africa take advantage of online marketing opportunities.

Our international line up includes Head of Tourism for Google Andrew Pozniak, Trip Advisor’s Head of Emerging Markets, Maude Larpant, Ross Kata from Expedia and leading Internet innovator Jerome Touze – the co-CEO and one of the Founders of Where Are You Now WAYN.com – the world’s leading travel social networking site, which has over 15 million members.

Jerome spoke at our event in South Africa last year and following meetings held there he has since worked with South Africa Tourism on a social media campaign called the “Face of South Africa”, which has been hugely successful, attracting over 5 million views and 20,000 members signing up.

Jerome will be taking the audience through this highly successful campaign- and previewing new South African promotions. He is looking forward to meeting with other African destinations and stakeholders at this year’s event. SA Tourism‘s Digital head William Price will also be demonstrating South Africa’s approach to social media- particularly in respect to the 2010 World Cup.

We are proud that alongside the international speakers at this year’s summit, there will also be an impressive number of Africa based companies and projects presenting new and innovative ways of promoting and selling Africa online- showing how the sector is growing and local innovation is coming to the fore.

We’ll be highlighting locally available products such as the Nightsbridge booking solution for SMEs, business solutions for tourism from Vodacom, and the multimedia tools offered by Virtual Africa. We’ll see how rich dynamic content from Africa is spreading on the web- with interactive TV from SA Direct and the unbelievable work of Wild Earth who stream game drives live to the world via vehicle mounted webcams and provide Twitter updates and interactions with viewers as they go.

We’ll also be talking a great deal about the rise of mobile technology and it’s importance to tourism, as more and more travellers are arriving carrying web enabled SMART phones. Once again- we will have local experts- Mobiguide and others- demonstrating some amazing mobile travel tools.

For those of you new to online marketing and looking for advice to get started, we’ll have an e-marketing essentials session with the ever popular author and online guru Rob Stokes from Quirk eMarketing- with some optional sessions on using Facebook and Twitter for tourism.

Going Ape - Going Online

We want to show that Africa can set examples for the rest of the world to follow. We are proud to have Uganda Wildlife Authority presenting at the summit. UWA recently made their population of endangered mountain gorillas members of Facebook, through the launch of Friend a Gorilla. The project, supported by a group of Hollywood celebrities, grabbed world headlines and garnered over 12,000 supporters in the first weeks of operation to both promote tourism and conservation in Uganda- and will surely go down as one of this year’s social media success stories- and they will be showing us how they did it.

Also presenting at the summit will be ecologist and author Dr. Paula Kahumbu – CEO of Wildlife Direct who have created a blogging platform and social network for conservation projects- Paula will be discussing how Tourism and Conservation can work together online. Paula was recently made one of the prestigious  Pop Tech fellows for Social Innovation.

These are just a handful of the speakers who will be presenting. It’s going to be a great event- and we look forward to seeing you all there.

The E Tourism Africa Summit will be held in Johannesburg at the Gallagher Convention Centre – Midrand on the 1st-2nd December 2009.

Registration for the E Tourism Africa Summit is open now.

South Africa Get Social with Wayn.com

In our last blogpost we talked about Uganda’s plan to put their wild gorilla populations on Facebook- a great result from our recent seminars held in Kampala. We are seeing a groundswell of realization among destinations of the importance of online marketing and management- and critically the rewards that engaging social media can reap for tourism.

Wayn.com were introduced to SA Tourism at an E-Tourism Africa Event

We still have a way to go as “Destination Africa”- but there are some obvious leaders emerging- and South Africa is proving to be leading the game when it comes to using social media. At our E-Tourism Southern Africa event last year in Johannesburg, we introduced the region to Wayn.com the world’s largest social network for travel.

Wayn co-founder and CEO Jerome Touze gave an excellent presentation on how destinations can work with his social network, with over 15 million connected members, to market their products- via specifc campaigns incorporating traffic generation, brand awareness, interaction, UGC (User Generated Content), data capture and lead generation. South African Tourism took up the discussion from this event- and their resulting campaigns have borne excellent results- which they presented at the Online Business Seminars hosted by E-Tourism Africa at the Indaba Trade Fair in Durban this year. Their recent campaigns on WAYN generated the highest number of views for their promotional video – in fact, the highest number of views ever generated for any promotional video they have ever run. Their online competition to give away a South Africa trip to a Wayn member resulted in 20,000 entries in a month and over 5 Million views of the displayed inventory.

Wayn.com believe there is tremendous interest about African destinations among their travelling membership- and this can easily translate into business and market visibility. The guys from Wayn.com will be back at our soon to be announced E-Tourism Africa Summit- and will be presenting the results of their South African campaigns. To see more on their work with South Africa- visit their blog.

This is yet another example of how easily and powerfully African destinations can engage social media and reap results- and an example for other destinations to follow.

West Africa- Prospects and Possibilities

Our Event will be held in Accra

As US President Barack Obama visits Ghana- the world’s spotlight rests on this small West African Nation- and it’s rich heritage and potential economic future. Ghana will be where we will be holding our first West African event- an E-Tourism conference and seminar series in early 2010.

I was recently in Accra, Ghana- which will be the host city. The West African region presents some unique challenges and opportunities that will mean a different focus from our other regional events. There are also some commonalities that see the same issues that impact on the sector throughout the continent. Online penetration by the tourism sector is minimal- there is very little available inventory online outside of large chain hotels and airlines and realtime reservations are almost unheard of. The quality of websites is generally very basic- and the same goes for the public sector- with very basic destination sites and tourism officials that can only be contacted via Yahoo and Gmail addresses.

These are the same problems that plague the rest of Africa- connectivity, little or no legal infrastructure for e-commerce and lack of resources and training across the board. However, in the West Tourism is less a of a economic focus than it is Southern and Eastern Africa- and many of the tourism stakeholders are focused on catering for business, MICE and investment tourism. Of course, these sectors are equally- if not more- reliant on online management of tourism, and heavily influenced by online marketing. So investment, training and development for better management of MICE and business travel is essential.

There is also a growing groundswell of leisure tourism focus in many West African destinations- much of it in niche areas. Whether it is music festivals in Mali, the slavery heritage sites of Senegal, beaches in Sierra Leone, football in Ghana or eco-tourism in Gabon- these are all products ideally suited to the internet’s ‘long tailed’ culture of choice. For travellers with such specific interests- the internet will almost always be their first port of call for both research and bookings- and West Africa needs to be present online.

Certainly tourism in Ghana is becoming a focus- and the Tourist Board is working to convince both Government and the public of the benefits that tourism revenue can bring if the sector is developed appropriately. They are holding a full month of tourism related events, special tours and awareness raising seminars and shows during September- during which we will announce the dates and venue for E-Tourism West Africa.

Technologically the area is growing fast- and there is rapidly improving connectivity and a drive from the very strong West African banking sector towards e-commerce and integration with e-business. We look forward to working with the local banks, ISPs and data networks to help them develop opportunities for the tourism sector. As elsewhere the driving force behind tourism development and the uptake of technology in the sector comes from the young, the tech savvy and from new entrepreneurs.

Over lunch with Julian Ayeh who lectures in Tourism at the Cape Coast University- I learned that tourism studies are becoming increasingly popular- and that while most of the students are digitally aware and regularly use social media and networks- they still require the knowledge and resources to better combine this with their tourism studies. We will be sure to secure sponsored student places from across the region at our event.

Right across Africa, independent young bloggers are rapidly changing the dynamics of the business community- by becoming not just commentators but also agents for change, using social networks to spread the word and encourage greater use of technology by local enterprise. West Africa is no different- and I’ve become connected with many bloggers, tweeters and budding online entrepreneurs.

In Old Accra

There certainly is plenty of tourism potential- and not just in business or conventional leisure tourism. With an afternoon free in Accra I met with Yao Bebleou who runs a small community based tour operation- giving guided walking tours through the historic Jamestown area of old Accra. Yao took myself and an American journalist and photographer on a three hour walk through the markets, fishing beaches, disused slave forts and historic buildings of the one busiest and liveliest parts of town- providing fascinating and detailed information along the way of the long and complex history of Accra and the diverse communities who built the city- and how the modern and the traditional thrive side by side. This included visits to the local chief’s home and to amateur boxing clubs.

Yao’s company- Old Accra Tours- has been running for three years- marketed mostly to in country tourists via paper leaflets found in hotel lobbies. During our afternoon chat- we talked about how the internet could be a much more powerful tool for marketing his small business- via a simple WordPress blog and website, a Facebook page where past visitors could post their comments and experiences, connecting with online networks focussed on cultural tourism and by producing and publishing photos and videos of his tours. If you’d like to contact Yao his email is slymase@email.com or via Twitter @yaogbebleou

If small operators such as Old Accra tours can develop their online presence, and then be reflected on destination sites and regional portals- suddenly the whole destinations product offering becomes much more diverse- attracting a much wider range of tourists with niche interests- and critically- increasing foreign exchange revenue and spreading it much further, and to more communities, than ever before.

This will be the message we will bring to West Africa at our conference and seminar series- and we look forward to bringing together destinations, businesses of all sizes and areas of focus, students, bloggers and finance and technology professionals to demonstrate how technology and tourism can build a better and more sustainable future.

For more info contact me at damian@e-tourismafrica.com

East African Seminar Roadshow Wraps Up

Kampala Seminars

In May-June 2009 we held our East African Seminar Roadshow. This epic project saw us visiting 6 different tourism centres in 4 countries.- holding 2 day training seminars in each venue for tourism professionals and destination managers.

As with our Southern and East African conferences- the level of attendance and enthusiasm was remarkable. There is an increasing awareness that successful use of online marketing and distribution is critical for sustainability of the trade. We saw a good mix of both well-established tourism firms and new entrepreneurs keen to develop modern- forward thinking businesses that can thrive and survive.

Our training has proved popular as we address the fundamental issues facing tourism businesses- getting their inventory online and then selling and marketing it using technology- and show them how to do it in a cost effective way without bombarding them with jargon.

Our line up of trainers and speakers seemed to suit our audiences- Rob Stokes from Quirk eMarketing has an infectious enthusiasm for technology, while Nightsbridge’s practical realtime reservations systems are extremely appropriate for these markets, New Mind’s Destination Management System solutions demonstrate how developing destinations can utilize the web to get their entire stakehold online- and the local presenters from VISA, Kencall, Kenya Airways and Safaricom brought everything home.

In our Mombasa session- having Safaricom’s MPESA manager, together with the regional Country manager for VISA and a local bank interested in offering online banking services felt like a real victory towards achieving the business synergy needed to develop E-Business in the region.

Rwandan Students at the Kigali event

One of the most common responses from our delegates was surprise at how accessible, cost effective and relatively simple some of the solutions we demonstrated were. The myth that getting online requires major investment and intense technological know how still dies hard- and it has been great to be able to demonstrate the ease of online reservation systems, working with online travel agencies- and how a website with a simple Content management system can be easily and effectively run. The same was true for search engine optimization techniques, email campaign management and use of multimedia and social media tools.

But while we saw a lot of enthusiasm for change we also saw many common challenges. In all destinations we heard from stakeholders the challenges of finding web designers who can provide more than a basic static website for business applications and the lack of local e-marketing professionals or agencies offering new media services.

Part of this challenge lies in local budgets and the need for companies to consider their websites to be capital investments and to reallocate their marketing budgets into online- this will develop the market and see more quality service providers emerging.

As we travelled through this diverse region we also saw local differences and challenges and opportunities that were unique to each destination. In Uganda and Rwanda we saw a high level of enthusiasm and a real thirst for knowledge- as tourism is very much an emerging force in their markets and much of it is driven by a relatively young business sector. In both countries we also saw a high level of interest from their public sector – particularly in addressing issues of destination management (especially give their common issue- access to high demand tourism resources- Gorilla permits).

In the more mature markets of Kenya and Tanzania we saw the common mature challenges- longer standing tourism sectors are more set in their ways- especially in distribution models. The reliance on foreign based tour operators, and the ‘old school’ marketing methods of traveling to trade shows with stacks of brochures remains strong- and there is often surprising skepticism of online tourism in these markets.

This is where our sessions on global travel trends are vital- and it has been important to expose local stakeholders to the situation in their key source markets- the rapid growth of online, the decrease in demand for conventional media, the online shift of many of their key supplying Tour Operators and more.

And we have seen attitudes begin to change and success stories develop- one of the Ugandan attendees from our Nairobi conference was with us in Kampala- and with the changes he had put into effect after the last event he is now doing 40% of his business online.

One thing is clear- change is coming and coming fast- at all of our East African sessions there was one common thread- that the arrival of the undersea fibre optic cable in Kenya this month is going to revolutionize connectivity for the region- but who will be ready to take real advantage of this resource and revolutionize their business?

What We Are All About

Welcome to the first post in the new official blog from E-tourism Africa. We are a major continental initiative to develop online tourism across Africa.

Great- but what does that mean and why is it so important? Why does Africa need help developing online tourism. The answer is simple enough- because without it the continent will be unable to sustain it’s tourist industry and all the businesses, jobs, communities and natural and cultural resources that depend on it.

We all know how much the Internet has impacted on the way people live, work and do business around the world.  But one of the greatest impacts has been on the tourism sector- Travel is now the number one selling commodity online- with ease of e-commerce and the ability of the internet to offer unlimited choices and options making the web and travel natural partners. So the internet is now the first port of call of over 70% of people considering where to travel and almost half of all travel in the world is now sold online- and these figures that are growing fast.

Meanwhile in Africa however, an estimated less than 2% of travel is sold and distributed online- a staggering difference from the global situation. Finding African websites offering direct online sales is almost impossible- and there is almost no African inventory on the websites of the world’s major Online Travel Agencies.

Why? Because many African countries have suffered from lack of access and awareness to technology- and in most of them there is no structure for legal e-commerce. Added to this is general lack of awareness of how the internet can be used to market and manage tourism resources effectively. As a result – both public and private sector remain firmly rooted in traditional means of marketing and selling their products- brochures, trade exhibitions and contracts with tour operators-  that are fast disappearing elsewhere.

What we see here is a prime example of what a leading Clinton advisor  dubbed the “Digital Divide”- where technology should have helped the developing world it has in fact harmed it- as nations without access to technology and connectivity are left further and further behind in the global marketplace.

This is where we come in- we have worked with African destinations for many years- and developed E-Tourism Africa as a solution to reverse this problem and ensure sustainability of the trade for the future.

• We undertake professional training for both public and private sector groups- introducing them to the world of online distribution, sales and marketing.
• We hold business driven conferences to introduce African product owners and managers to the global online travel trade
• We lobby both public an private sector to change outdated laws and increase access to legal and viable e-commerce

Our events are accessible, affordable and fun- we demonstrate the boundless possibilities technology can offer to the African trade. This includes online bookings and reservations, destination management, travel distribution, database marketing, social media, video and multimedia and much much more.

We have held successful conferences in Southern and East Africa, discussed Africa at the London Travel Distribution Summit and the ENTER conference in Amsterdam, staged a day of E-business workshops at the 2009 Indaba Travel fair with South African Tourism- and recently wrapped up a major roadshow of seminars in East Africa- visiting Kampala, Kigali, Nairobi, Arusha, Zanzibar and Mombasa.
We have partnered with major companies including Microsoft, VISA International, Coca Cola, Safaricom, FNB, Quirk eMarketing, Nightsbridge, Expedia, New Mind, TEAM Tourism and many many more.

Our events are always well attended, entertaining and enriching. We will be holding a Pan-African Summit and South African roadshow in October 2009- and are planning events in West and North Africa.

If you’d like to attend, participate or help with one of our events- please get in touch via info@e-tourismafrica.com