South Africa, protagonist at Fitur

About twenty African Tourism ministers, 93 participants with tourism projects based in 35 African nations, thirty possible Spanish counterparts, and 368 meetings for developing common initiatives. These are the provisional numbers provided by the Forum for Tourism Investments in Africa (Investour), which will be held for the second consecutive year at Fitur, by the hand of the veteran Spanish fair, the World Tourism Organisation and Casa África.

The 2011 edition, which will take place on January 20th, also includes the collaboration of the Regional Tourism Organization of Southern Africa (RETOSA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which is the region that houses five of the ten African countries with the most tourist visitors: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mauritius and Namibia. Of the African ministers who will be present at Investour, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the person responsible for Namibia´s Environmental and Tourism portfolios, stands out (Namibia has led the SADC since this past August).

Investour recognises the importance of tourism in Africa as a catalyst of socio-economic development: it´s the industry in which the African government will grow more than the worldwide average during the next decade.