East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 20th November, 2023:Diversification of tourism products beyond traditional tourism attractions and joint promotion of the region, is a catalyst to revamping the EAC region as a single tourism destination.
This was underscored by regional Ministers responsible for EAC Affairs and Tourism and Wildlife Management who converged for the opening of the 3rd EAC Regional Tourism Expo (EARTE’23) and the Magical Kenya Travel Expo in Nairobi, Kenya.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 29th April, 2023: The East African Community (EAC) Secretariat and all the EAC Partner States’ Tourism Boards have been participating in the 7th Edition of the Pearl of Africa Tourism EXPO taking place at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort in Uganda from 26th – 29th April, 2022.
The four-day event that was officially opened by the Uganda Minister for Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Hon. Col. (Rtd) Tom Butime on Wednesday, 26th April, 2023. The EXPO closes on 29th April, 2023.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 26th September, 2022: East African Community (EAC) Partner States have been called upon to cooperate in packaging and promoting tourism investment opportunities and incentives in the region through different fora.
It has further been agreed that Regional Tourism Value Chains should be stregthened in order to spread tourism benefits to the local communities and EAC citizens in general.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 25th September, 2022: East African Community (EAC) Partner States have been urged to liberalise their airspaces and open up skies to promote the tourism industry in the region.
The Chairperson of the East African Tourism Platform (EATF), Mr. Fred Odek, says that the existing different restrictive Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs) among the Partner States were disrupting the harmonisation of air transport services in the region.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 24th September, 2022: East African Community (EAC) Partner States have been urged to work together through various initiatives such as joint tourism promotion, standardization of tourism services and management of tourism resources if they are to realise the full potential of the sector in the region.
Burundi’s Vice President Prosper Bazombanza said that despite EAC Partner States benefitting significantly from tourism through its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product, foreign exchange earnings and creation of jobs, the potential for the sector across the region remains largely untapped.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 17th August 2022: The East African Community will be organizing the 2nd EAC Regional Tourism EXPO (EARTE’22) that will be hosted by the Republic of Burundi in Bujumbura from 23rd – 30th September, 2022.
The main objective of the EXPO is to promote EAC as a single tourism destination, provide a platform for tourism service providers’ business to business (B2B) engagements, create awareness on tourism investment opportunities and address the challenges affecting the tourism and wildlife sectors in the region.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 24thNovember, 2021: The East African Community (EAC) has today launched the EAC Regional and Domestic Tourism Media Campaign set to publicize national and regional tourism products and services, in a move aiming at stimulating intra-regional travel.
The campaign dubbed, ‘Tembea Nyumbani’, seeks to entice East Africans to travel in their specific countries and around the region, in an effort to revive domestic and regional tourism across the region, amid the pandemic.
The campaign is set to run for three weeks, from 1st December, 2021. It is part of implementation of the EAC Tourism Marketing Strategy and EAC Recovery Plan supported by German Development Agency, GIZ.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 11th October, 2021: The President of Zanzibar and Chairman of the Revolutionary Council, H.E. Dr. Hussein Mwinyi, has called upon EAC Partner States to develop a coordinated approach that will be instrumental in overcoming the challenges facing the tourism sector occasioned by the outbreak of COVID-19.
Speaking during the closing ceremony of the 1st EAC Regional Tourism Expo 2021 at the TGT Grounds in Arusha, Tanzania, President Mwinyi said Partner States should continuously refine national policies and devise new programmes to deliver responsible, inclusive and sustainable tourism products that will attract more visitors from all over the world.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 9th October, 2021: East African Community Partner States lost 92% revenues in the tourism sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Making the disclosure, EAC Secretary General Hon. (Dr.) Peter Mathuki said that tourist arrivals to the region fell from 6.98 million arrivals in before the pandemic to 2.25 million arrivals occasioning the losses, adding that the tourism sector was the worst hit by the pandemic.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 7th October, 2021: Tourism players are upbeat of the sector’s recovery in the region, with the upcoming 1st EAC Regional Tourism EXPO already attracting over 2,000 visitors from across the globe and 100 exhibitors confirming their participation at the TGT grounds in Arusha, Tanzania.
The expo set for 9th to 11th October 2021, aims at creating awareness on tourism investment opportunities amid the pandemic and promote EAC as a single tourism destination. Currently, EAC Partner States’ Ministers of Tourism and Government officials from Botswana, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo have confirmed their participation.
