The 4th Africa Youth in Tourism Innovation summit concluded over the weekend in Namibia with an epoch announcement by organizers to set up an African Tourism incubation centre in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek.
The leading Pan African Tourism startup summit last week assembled experts, African start-ups, young entrepreneurs, and key stakeholders as well as mentors, innovators, academics, and funders in tourism, travel and cross-cutting industries high-level partners to address the needs of youth participation in tourism in Africa.
The 4-day summit discussed a plethora of initiatives tailored to shape young ideas in the travel, tourism, and aviation sectors.
A major takeout of the event was the decision by the organizers, partners, and the government of Namibia to host Africa Tourism Innovation Hub in Windhoek.
According to the conveners of the event, the initiative is aimed at creating an avenue where young people who participated in the youth challenge can be assisted.
The CEO of Africa Tourism Partners Kwakye Donkor said the innovation hub is to scout, incubate small enterprises among the youth with innovative ideas, including women, and the goal is to open up innovation within the sector with the partner agency, send the ministries that we like to work with.
The CEO of Africa Tourism Partners Kwakye Donkor said, ’So the ultimate goal is to ensure that we develop more innovative tourism ideas and accelerate entrepreneurship through innovation in the sector across Africa. We are also going to work with educational institutions to help us to conduct a lot of thought leadership research and application of new technologies in the sector on the Continent.’’
He added that the initiative has received the backing of the Government of Namibia as well as the Durban Technology university and other partners to set the ball rolling.
Speaking on the key takeout from the Pan African youth tourism summit, Mr. Donkor noted that the summit was the use of innovation to drive and categorize the growth and development of the industry through the youth.
The Africa Youth in Tourism Innovation summit acts as a platform for Africa Youth in travel, tourism, hospitality, and aviation to exchange ideas, knowledge, and insights, and to collaborate.