Organizers of the Akwaaba African Travel Market are using the momentum ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, to strengthen collaboration between Africa’s sports and tourism sectors through the second African Tour Operators Summit.
The summit, scheduled to bring together East and West African tour operators, will focus on developing travel packages for the continental football tournament while promoting tourism, trade and regional integration across Africa.
According to the organizers, the event will connect tour operators from major football travel markets with counterparts in AFCON 2027 co-host countries Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to create opportunities for sports tourism.
The organizers described West Africa as the continent’s football powerhouse, with the region consistently producing a significant number of AFCON qualifiers, while East Africa has grown into one of Africa’s leading tourism destinations. They said the partnership between both regions presents an opportunity to combine football and tourism on a continental scale.
“AFCON 2027 will be hosted jointly by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya and is expected to become a major tourism celebration across the three countries,” the organizers said.
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They added that participants at the summit would spend three days networking, exploring business opportunities and developing travel packages designed to enable more Africans to attend the tournament while encouraging intra-African travel.
The summit will also host the Africa Travel 100 Awards for African Tour Operators, which will recognize operators promoting African destinations to travellers across the continent.
“The awards will honour African tour operators that promote and market African destinations to Africans. It is the Africans for Africa Awards,” the organizers said.
Beyond sports tourism, the event will feature exhibitions, business-to-business meetings, the Africa Food Fair, African Medical Tourism, the African Tourism Conference, a Destination Wedding showcase, African Youth Tourism Bantaba, Travel Technology and CHINET Aviacargo, highlighting opportunities across Africa’s expanding travel ecosystem.
The 22nd Akwaaba African Travel Market will hold in Lagos from Sept. 13 to Sept. 15, with participants expected from more than 20 countries across Africa and beyond.
The expo, recognised in 2022 with an Award of Excellence in Tourism by the Nigerian Government and the United Nations World Tourism Organization, has grown into one of Africa’s leading travel marketing platforms, covering tourism, aviation, hospitality and cross-border travel.
NAN
