Guests from 40 African Countries Gather to Attend Africa Celebrates 2022

Addis Ababa October 18/2022 (ENA) About 600 guests from 40 African countries are in Addis Ababa to attend the three-day Africa Celebrates 2022, and 50 of those have visited tourist destinations in the capital city today.

The Africa Celebrates 2022 program is intended to promote African assets, facilitate tourism, business, investment and trade.

Tourism Marketing and Operation Senior Expert, Mohamedhabib Jebel told ENA that the ministry identified 50 to 60 guests that can help promote Ethiopia's tourism to visit tourist sites in the capital city.

They have visited the National Museum, Science Museum, and Unity Park, today.   

“We identified 50 up to 60 African guests who directly relate to the tourism sector, out of about 600 African guests, that came to attend the Africa Celebrates 2022 event at the African Union,” he said.  

Stating that Ethiopia has unique tourist destinations that attract African and other tourists, the expert added that his department “believes that this visit will hugely contribute to the promotion of the tourism sector and facilitate intra-Africa tourism and Africa’s integration.”

According to him, Ethiopia has many special tourist attractions. We are at the top in terms of the number of heritages inscribed by UNESCO, following Tunisia and Morocco in Africa. We also have many unique heritages that can never be found elsewhere.

The country is bestowed with unique natural, historical, religious, cultural and artificial tourist attractions that require more investment, promotion and marketing, the senior expert noted.  

Among the guests who visited the tourist attractions, South African journalist Jackie May told ENA that the visit will stimulate Africans to visit Ethiopia.

“It is amazing. I mean it is fantastic to be here and fantastic to see what you can do with your time here as a tourist; and there is so much to learn but also so much enjoyment. I feel completely privileged to be here for Africa Celebrates 2022 and I am really hoping to be able to spread all the news to my community.”

The journalist pointed out that African countries should make travel easy to tourist destinations to facilitate tourism in Africa.

“I just think that the faster that we can make it easier to get to places across Africa, the better will be for all the countries because it is hard to fly around Africa. So, I just want to be able to go to destinations easily,” she said.

Other visitors from Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria and Kenya also told ENA that their visit to the sites in Addis Ababa along the Africa Celebrates 2022 at AU should encourage Africans to visit Ethiopian tourist destinations and encourage intra-Africa tourism.

The event facilitated by the African Union, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nigerian Embassy in Addis Ababa is scheduled to be held from the 19th to 21st of October 2022.   

Africa Celebrates 2022 is aimed at celebrating Africa’s unity in diversity, foster integration through its rich cultural heritage which can be explored as a catalyst for social and economic growth, promote intra- and inter- African trade and tourism and encourage Africans and the rest of world to patronize things made in Africa.