The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and the Africa Travel Association (ATA) have formally renewed their wide-ranging cooperation partnership.

 

Both important bodies have signed a new memorandum of understanding to strengthen their cooperation in developing the visitor economies of the two fastest growing regions in the world.

 

According to “PATAmPOWER statistics”, the number of Africans visiting Asia reached 797,000 in the first nine months of 2013, a rise of 3.3% over 2012.

 

The United Nations World Tourism Organization statistics show strong tourism growth for both regions with some 63.6m international visitor arrivals to the African continent in 2012, compared to 233.6m in the Asia Pacific region.

 

FAST GROWING TOURISM ECONOMIES

International tourism receipts for Africa contributed $43.6bn to various economies in the continent in 2012, compared to $323bn in Asia Pacific. PATA notes that among the emerging economy destinations in both regions there were stellar performers in 2012 – for example Thailand (+25%), India (+22%), and Vietnam (+18%). In Africa, some of the top performers with double-digit growth were South Africa, Morocco, Egypt and Madagascar.

 

Meanwhile, PATA says that the new MOU commits both regional travel trade associations to share knowledge through research and publications, to reciprocate participation in meetings and events, to support mutual advocacy positions, and to enhance two-way marketing and market access.

 

“The rise of Africa as an inbound and outbound tourism force is well documented,” said Martin Craigs, PATA CEO (pictured above). “Closer cooperation with Africa on tourism will bring many benefits – not just to PATA members – but to African tourism stakeholders too.”

 

Edward Bergman, ATA Executive Director, said: “We are pleased to renew this important partnership between ATA and PATA. It will boost connections and business opportunities for travel and tourism between Africa and Asia.”

 

This MOU is the fourth such agreement signed between the two organizations. Previous agreements were signed in 2005, 2008, and 2010.