Articles tagged “africa”

This column has always celebrated the innovators and those who elevate hospitality to new levels. This year, I made it a point to try a lot of new things and break out of my normal patterns. Here are the great products, places, and people that I have found to be exceptional.

Not only did the travel bans force widespread cancellations for South Africans planning to go abroad during the country's summer, but they may also represent the death knell for many tourism businesses that had already been significantly hit hard by the initial blast of Covid.

The discovery of a new Covid variant has sparked panic across the globe and left many event professionals dealing with mass cancellations. While it’s still early days, it’s crucial to unpack Omicron’s impact on our industry and understand how we can move forward. 

Alina Peter is on the frontlines fighting the rise of poaching in Africa. Here, she shares how she works, the situation on the ground, and why it's important to weave science, indigenous knowledge, and technical expertise to derail the growing commercialization of illicit poaching, all of which has deep implications for tourism.

The African travel ban is rooted in media alarmism and politics, not science. And it will have disastrous consequences for a continent that has already been beaten down by Covid. Here's why it is just plain wrong.

The gloom-and-doom narrative that mainstream news loves to associate with Africa is no reflection on its tourism future — if its travel industry seizes the chance to innovate post pandemic.

It’s a powerful nod for Africa, giving it a solid competitive tourism advantage on the other side of the pandemic, from leisure to events. Will its destinations rise up to the opportunity?

What is required for the new normal of crossing borders while living with Covid is government coordination, user experience, simplicity, and accessibility when it comes to registering and sharing data. The best countries with the smartest, most streamlined approaches will win out.

Throughout the pandemic, people started to realize that we’ve loved our planet nearly to death — quite literally. Will we be able to heal our relationship with Mother Nature as the industry attempts to redefine sustainable travel?

Many innovations have been born from constraints. In the case of safari lodges in Africa, the remote settings and lack of infrastructure forces architects and teams to get creative. Here are examples from the bleeding edge of innovation in sustainability, along with some hints about what is to come in developed markets around the world.