“Central Africa is poorly known or little known in spite of efforts made by governments of our different countries,” said Cameroon’s Minister of Tourism, El Hadj Baba Hamadou. He told the experts that their recommendations will enable the Ministers of Tourism to adopt a common strategy to promote the development of tourism.
In spite of its potential, experts say, the Central African sub-region is the least visited by tourists in Africa. Out of 45 million arrivals in 2009, the CEMAC zone recorded only 3 million. Besides Cameroon that attained 500,000 arrivals in 2010, none of the other CEMAC member countries is an internationally recognised destination. “Compared to other African sub-regions, we are late,” El Hadj Baba Hamadou told the experts after disclosing the meeting’s agenda which comprise an evaluation of a feasibility study by the World Trade Organisation, WTO, on a project to ensure the sustainable development of tourism in a network of parks and protected areas in the CEMAC zone; analysis of the training programme of the CEMAC School of Hotel and Tourism; participation of CEMAC countries at the third edition of the Tourist Investment Forum for Africa, INVESTOUR, in Madrid, Spain next year and, lastly, examining ways and means of organising the first International Tourism Fair for CEMAC zone that Cameroon plans to host in 2013.
As the experts settled down to work, they received assurances from the WTO Regional Director for Africa, Ousman Ndiaye who said after the global economic recession that also affected the global tourism industry in 2008, the latter was marked by a recovery in 2010 with 935 million arrivals recorded worldwide. He attributed Africa’s increasing tourist arrival growth rate from 4 per cent in 2009 to 6 per cent in 2010 to efforts by governments and mega-events such as the FIFA World Cup in South Africa that showcased Africa’s beauty to the world.
Holding within the framework of the first ever Meeting of Tourism Ministers of the CEMAC zone organised by Cameroon in its double capacity as the Chair of the WTO Regional Commission for Africa and the first country in Central Africa to attain the minimum of 500,000 tourist arrivals a year, the experts’ meeting ends today to give way tomorrow to a high-level meeting of ministers who are expected to adopt the recommendations of the experts.
