E-Tourism East Africa was our biggest event yet- with our Nairobi venue sold out for both our tourism and technology conference and training seminars. Over two days, a capacity crowd of over 280 delegates from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the Seychelles were educated and entertained by 27 presentations from international and local online tourism experts and 110 tourism professionals and students took part in an intensive 3 day series of seminars.

The event (October 13th-17th) hosted by Safaricom and sponsored by VISA, Microsoft, Kenya ICT Board and Coca-Cola- was officially opened by Kenya’s Minister of Tourism the Hon. Najib Balala- who stressed the urgent need for e-commerce reform to facilitate e-tourism in the region. The 284 delegates from across East Africa then relaxed in Nairobi’s Sarit centre Cinemas for a full two day program of multimedia presentations from some of the world’s leading online travel firms- including Expedia, Eviivo, New Mind, Trip Advisor and many more- as well as successful South African travel and media firms such as Nightsbridge and Southern Africa Direct TV.

The CEO of Kenya’s ICT Board, Paul Kukubo urged more local integration of ICT into tourism and local innovative companies presented their experiences of developing and using online tourism technologies- including Africa Point and Reception Book.

A technology fair presented exhibitions of new products and services- and a meeting space for visiting international firms who were impressed by the levels of interest and opportunity in the East African market.

To be sure that the tourism business leaders of tomorrow are aware of the opportunities afforded by technology, a group of leading young tourism and business students attended the event- and a separate motivational lecture on entrepreneurship by Pete Ward, founder of Wayn.com- held in conjunction with Coca Cola and the Kenya ICT Board and introduced by the Vice President of Kenya- drew a crowd of over 200 young people.

Following the conference, 110 delegates were given intensive training in online tourism marketing and management by professional international trainers and guest speakers.

In response to the phenomenal interest in both or Southern and East African events, we are now planning a series of roadshows in both regions early in 2009- visiting major cities and tourism centres- with a programme of seminars and multimedia presentations.

Contact Us for more information.

A full video and delegate review for our East African event will be online soon- in the meantime you can see our Southern Africa event here

Dates for our North and West African events will be announced soon.