The resurgence of Egypt and global tourism sector will not happen before the end of 2021, as it depends on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection rates and the distribution scale of vaccines, according to tourism expert Randa Al-Adawi.
Regarding African tourism, Al-Adawi said that Africa lost 13% of its tourism flow during the period from January to March 2020, while it lost 47% of the inbound tourism from January to May 2020, compared to the same period last year.
She continued that African tourism in the current period needs more solidarity, to mitigate the economic impacts of COVID-19 that have negatively affected small, emerging, and large tourism companies.
Al-Adawi attributed this decline to the fear of COVID-19, stressing that it is a health crisis and not related to the tourism sector.
In her opinion, the solution lies in forming an electronic model for the African tourism union, led by Egypt, to review the different experiences and solutions, in addition to identifying the epicenters of coronavirus in daily infographics.
Al-Adawi noted that the tourism sector in the Middle East and Africa region represents more than 50% of service exports and about 9% of total exports.
She asserted the need and the importance of coping up with the technological variables and set up an electronic union, especially in light of the recent crisis that has restricted international aviation.
Al-Adawi also said that the African tourism sector needs a raft of different ideas divided between promotion, entertainment, economy, crisis, and resources management to lure more global tourism.
“Without scientific and technological planning and thinking, the African tourism market will not be able to increase its share of the global tourism sector, which is estimated at about 1.1 billion international tourists last year,” she said.
