Speaking via a TourismKonnect live chat organised by Uganda Tourism Board titled, "Tourism in the wake of Covid 19 ", Ms Elcia Grandcourt, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation director regional department for Africa, said domestic tourism is more likely to recover faster that international tourism.
"There will be need to stimulate domestic tourism by embracing intra travels of tourists at continental and regional levels because this is where the market will be and we do not know when many countries especially overseas will open up again to facilitate international arrivals," Ms Elcia says.
To Ms Elcia, continental flights are likely to open faster than international ones because with international tourist arrivals, this will heavily depend on how faster the international countries will open their airports and how the even social distancing rules will be applied.
Impact of Covid on the sector
According to the World Tourism Organisation, globally all regions have suffered a strong decline in the number of tourist arrivals in the first quarter of the financial year.
In Africa, we were on a positive trajectory since last year but now in the first quarter for the period between the month of January and March 2020 a decline of 12 per cent in domestic tourist numbers was recorded and for international tourist arrivals a decline of 44 per cent was registered.
