The Conference on Rethinking Africa: Rethinking Tourism for Africa: Addressing global challenges; Promoting investment and partnerships brought expert African perspectives to global challenges, highlighting the need of investments towards a greener tourism sector and access to finance within the sector and the need to further strengthen public-private collaboration at every level.
Reflecting the heightened relevance of tourism as a solution to a range of global challenges and pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Conference was structured around two thematic sessions with a ministerial panel on Addressing global challenges followed by a second one focusing on “Promoting Investment and Partnerships in Tourism for Economic Development.
Steven Obeegadoo, Deputy Prime Minister, other Ministers from DR Congo, Ghana, Kenya, the UN Resident Coordinator for Mauritius and Seychelles, Vice-Chair of the UNWTO Executive Council joined Albert Muchanga lauded the tourism role.
UNWTO Executive Director Natalia Bayona opened the session with an overview of the tourism investment climate.
The conference culminated with the presentation of the Mauritius Declaration by the host country and UNWTO.
The program of actions proposed in the Mauritius Declaration, aims to promote sustainable and resilient tourism ecosystems through multi-sectoral partnerships, ethical practices, investment promotion, nature-based solutions, decarbonization, coordination of public health, policy alignment and data-driven decision-making.
