By Dipo Olowookere
The 2017 Jumia Travel hospitality report on the African continent has identified terrorism as the biggest bane of the continent’s travel and tourism sector, and countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Tunisia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Egypt are the biggest victims.
According to the report, which was presented to the media and major stakeholders in the travel industry recently in Lagos by the Managing Director of the company, Mr Kushal Dutta, the terrorist attacks in these countries have impacted negatively on their tourism revenue.
Meanwhile, the report has predicted that the continent will attract 64 million international arrivals before the end of 2017 as compared to 58 million in 2016 – an 8 percent growth year-on-year.
Still, it is not clear how the affected countries will benefit from these figures if the terrorist attacks are not curtailed.
On the other hand, internet and mobile penetrations have improved significantly in the continent.
In 2016, internet penetration stood at 27 percent with more than 300 million users while mobile penetration stood at 50 percent with 557 million users, and smartphone users accounted for 28 percent of the users.
Despite the continent’s low contribution to world’s air traffic at 3 percent, International Air Transport Association (IATA) has predicted a 4.8 percent increase in number of passengers in the next 5 years starting in 2017.
The feasibility of this is made firm due to the increase in international flights to the continent.
