African, Spanish and Portuguese companies have dealt with new business opportunities and cooperation today at INVESTOUR

African, Spanish and Portuguese tourism companies have today dealt with new business opportunities and cooperation in the fifth edition of Tourist Investment Forum and Business in Africa, INVESTOUR held in Madrid. The event, organised as part of FITUR, the International Tourism Fair is an annual platform where African and Spanish companies, which this year also added the Portuguese, enhance their partnerships.

The Forum is an initiative promoted by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), FITUR and Casa África in order to promote sustainable tourism in Africa by providing a platform to facilitate dialogue on new business opportunities and cooperation between representatives of African tourism and potential Spanish and Portuguese investors.

The session has analysed tourism in Africa and its relationship with Spain and Portugal, with the participation of high ranking representatives from the public and private sector of Africa and the Iberian peninsula. In the afternoon, a Business to Business (B2B) meeting was held, business meetings between African and Spanish and Portuguese companies and institutions, with a previously closed meeting agenda. Furthermore, during the meeting,  Ousmane Ndiaye, former Director of the Africa Programme of the WTO, was given an award for his important work relating to African tourism.

In her speech, Elcia Grandcourt, Regional Director for Africa for the WTO, referred to INVESTOUR as an initiative that starts off as  “a long term strategic association of the WTO together with Casa África, FITUR and IFEMA, which hopes to serve in developing tourism in Africa and so that future and potential Spanish investors will meet up and set up new links and collaboration opportunities”.

Meanwhile, Santiago Martinez-Caro, Casa África's Director General, stated that INVESTOUR generates "real business opportunities for Spanish and African companies." And he explained that Casa África "makes known the opportunities the continent offers to professionals and Spanish companies" to promote the territory's development. Furthermore, "it supports the internationalisation of companies already operating or those who want to do so there."

In his view, African countries "could compete with other tourism regions of the world if they effectively plan how to integrate tourism into the economy." Furthermore, "the vast tourist experience in Spain and its access to European markets must be capitalised by African countries," which should help boost the economy and increase jobs here and in Africa.

A competitive industry
Luis Eduardo Cortés, President of IFEMA, recalled that tourism is an important industry in the world, "with a long way to travel but also with much more to go." Cortés stressed that in the 5 years that INVESTOUR has been held 550 projects in 45 countries have been presented, which means that the Forum "is doing well" and that the idea is "good and useful." "Africa-he said-has much in the present, but also a splendid future and tourism is the path that can lead us down the road to obtain many successes."  Among the major issues discussed at the Forum, he referred to hotel infrastructures, where the value for money relationship should be imposed, together with improved air links and visas to gain access to the various territories.

Taleb Rifai, WTO's Secretary-General, explained that INVESTOUR works to open up African destinations to Spanish investors' markets because "we believe in the great potential of African tourism and we have great confidence in what we do." As he pointed out, in 2013 more than 56 million tourists arrived in Africa, representing a growth of 5%.

However, although tourism has increased considerably in recent years, he warned that there are still some barriers to its development, among which he highlighted the lack of air connectivity, problems in issuing visas and scarce infrastructure funding both for hotels as well as roads and railways.