The worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 has brought the world to a standstill, and tourism has been the worst affected of all major economic sectors. Against a backdrop of heightened uncertainty international tourism could decline by 60-80% over the whole year as predicted by the UNWTO.
This statement was made in the National Assembly by the Minister of Tourism, Mr Georges Pierre Lesjongard, during his intervention on the introduction of the Covid-19 (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill and the Quarantine Bill.
Minister Lesjongard underpinned that the two proposed Bills will allow Government to restart the economy which is currently at a standstill. He stated that no Government worldwide was prepared for such a disaster.
In a written response, the ministry stated that the government was seriously implementing the African Liberation Heritage Programme under UNESCO.
“This Programme is being implemented in the African continent and lately, it is being implemented by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region,” said the ministry, adding that the programme was approved by the 2005 UNESCO summit and endorsed by the ordinary meeting of AU heads of States in 2011.
SADC ministers convened for the African liberation heritage summit that aimed at bringing together ministers of arts and culture, senior government officials and technical experts from the region to deliberate on the best strategy for effectively implementing the African Liberation Heritage Programme (ALHP) as a collective.
The meeting which was attended by the then minister of information, culture, Arts and sports Nape Nnauye, in November 2016, unanimously agreed that the SADC ministerial roundtable discussion should seek to reinvigorate inclusive integrated planning on the implementation of the ALHP.
