Rwanda to Host the Next ATA Congress

Rwanda is one of the countries that are blessed with lots and lots of tourists attractions among which are the most sought primates the mountain gorillas and more to this, is that really magnificent mountain country view.  Rwanda is also one of the Africa Travel Association and this year, come November 2016, Rwanda will be hosting the 41st ATA Congress and all members are expected to attend.

The theme will be destination Africa and it is intended to discuss the future of Africa’s Tourism sector and it will be run from 14th November to November 17th 2016. This congress is expected to attract delegates from all parts of the world including Africa, the United States and European countries among other nations. This will be the 3rd time in the recent years that it will be taking place in East Africa , the first time during  the  39th  congress which was held in Kampala, in November  2014 and  last year’s which was the 40th  and  was held in Kenya’s capital city  Nairobi  also in November.  This will be the very first time that Rwanda hosts such a Congress and  so all  delegates will have the opportunity to witness Rwanda’s hospitality , they will be given a chance to visit some  Rwanda’s hot tourists destinations.

This year’s ATA Congress will mainly be focusing on how they can market East African region as a single tourist destination and also devise means of how to sell combined African safaris.

According to history, Kenya was the very first African and also East African state to ever host the ATA Congress  and that was  in 1976 only a year after this team was started in New York in 1975, by people who were mainly travel and airline executives. The next time was held in 1985 during the 10th, followed by the 20th ATA congress and the 30th Congress which was held in Nairobi in 2005. The most recent one is the 40th which Kenya hosted just last year. According to the records, Kenya is has hosted these meetings more than any other nation in East Africa thus making Nairobi the leading capital in African because of the fact that 5 of these congress gatherings were held there.

Compared to other East African countries, Tanzania has hosted only two times which were, during the 23rd meeting held in 1998 and the last being the 33rd held in 2008. Both these meetings were held in Arusha, a popular tourists’ site in the northern tourist part of the country.

Uganda has held just one of these meetings and that was 2014 in Kampala. Rwanda is getting this chance for the very first time.  All together, East African block has hosted Africa’s tourism marketing and promotion meetings more compared to any other country on the continent. Such forums are organized to help market Africa as a great tourism and cultural destination and also the world’s tourist source markets.

According to the organizers who are the Africa Travel Association together with the Corporate Council, they are so ready to receive all the guests and also all those that are interested in participating can still register since registration is still on.

With recent development in the transport system, East African states have become a lot more  connected by all means of transport more especially by  air transport  thus making it really very easy for the participants both  East African and  international to fly from one nation to another in less than 3 hours. Today, Kenya Airways still stands as the best air carrier in the whole of East Africa, helping to link airline to the different 5 states that belong to the East African Community. Delegates and the ATA Congress participants that are coming from United States of America as well as those from other nations will go through Kenya and then proceed to Kigali- Rwanda’s capital city.  They can always visit Uganda too from Rwanda since there is no visa required for anyone crossing between Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda as long as you have already acquired the single tourists’ visa. This visa is issued by any of these countries and permits you entry into the other 2 nations as well. This single tourist visa was introduced in 2014 in an effort to increase on the competitiveness among the East African Community (EAC) which in this case includes Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. That same visa is now worth US$100 and it works for a maximum of 90 days and it’s important to remember that it only works in the 3 member countries.

East Africa is one of the most blessed destinations with really great tourists’ attraction especially the variety of wildlife.  Kenya and Uganda have the highest number national parks and game reserves and most of these places are homes to hundreds and hundreds of wildlife and of different species some of which are really rare to find anywhere else.  Our  tourists sites include the  Ocean beaches  in Kenya  for example those in  Zanzibar as well as Malindi, there are mountains like Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, Uganda’s Rwenzori , mount Kenya  and there are also those  places that no one interested in  wildlife should miss like the Serengeti and Maasai Mara wildlife ecosystem n Tanzania and Kenya respectively. Uganda too has a lot to offer in terms of wildlife but also has these amazing primates like mountain gorillas mainly found in Bwindi and in Rwanda there is the volcanoes national park, Akagera national parks in addition to the very beautiful scenery of gently rolling hills and mountains.  You can have a complete itinerary drafted for you following any of the available tour packages that are available in any of these countries.

This year’s ATA’s Annual Congress will be graced by people like the Zimbabwean Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry as well as Dr. Walter Mzembi who is the chairman Commission for Africa, which is under UN World Tourism Organization. Hopefully, it will turn out to be a very fruitful meeting for all member countries.