Conference to discuss benefits of e-tourism

East African tourism industry stakeholders are set to benefit from discussions on e-tourism to be presented at a regional conference set for next week.

The conference, which will feature global online giants such as Trip Advisor and Expedia, will focus on how East Africa’s tourism sector can harness the potential of the web, especially following the enormous interest generated in Africa by the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The conference comes in the wake of increased optimism in Kenyan tourism following a peaceful referendum and the impending promulgation of the new constitution on Friday.

This, coupled with impressive results in tourist arrivals in the past half year compared to 2007 is set to add impetus to the stabilising industry growth.

Speakers at the event will include Trip Advisor’s Head of Emerging Markets, Helena Egan, and leading Internet innovator Jerome Touze — the company’s CEO and one of the founders of WAYN.com, the world’s leading travel social network which has over 16 million members globally.

Mr Touze spoke at last year’s e-tourism Africa Summit in Johannesburg.

He has since worked with South Africa tourism on a social media campaign called the Face of South Africa, which has been hugely successful attracting over five million views.

“We have achieved some amazing results through social media for South Africa tourism and I am pleased to be travelling to Nairobi to speak at the E-Tourism East Africa Conference. It’s great to see much more awareness and understanding from tourist boards about the importance of the web and social media as a strong marketing tool”, said Mr Touze.

E-tourism Frontiers CEO Damian Cook, the conference convener, said that alongside international speakers at this year’s summit, there will be an impressive number of Africa based companies and projects presenting new and innovative ways of promoting and selling Africa online.

“Since our first conferences in Johannesburg and Nairobi in 2008, we have seen major changes in the way African tourism companies and destinations are using the web. We have some amazing projects in our lineup this year — including South African company Wild Earth who stream game drives live to the world via vehicle mounted webcams and provide Twitter updates and interactions with viewers as they go”, said Mr Cook.