AYTIS – AFRICA YOUTH IN TOURISM INNOVATION SUMMIT A SELL OUT
(Posted 29th August 2019)
The Youth Summit, introduced to the ATLF programme following a resolution taken last year in Accra / Ghana, where the inaugural Africa Tourism Leadership Forum and Awards took place, proved to be a massive crowdpuller and will no doubt play a pioneering role for other tourism and aviation conferences across Africa to follow suit.
The next generation was represented in the room which was filled to capacity and more chairs had to be added to allow summit participants to sit down after there was for a while only standing room left at the back of the conference hall.
Sponsored by the Government of KwaZulu Natal, the Durban International Conference Centre, notably BDO South Africa and supported by UNWTO did the day long summit address pressing issues for the many young people who had made their way to the Durban ICC, seeking answers to the challenges of start ups, the availability of financing and importantly the question of mentorships, which could guide young entrepreneurs through the difficult launch period and support students in tourism and aviation fields to secure internships.
Kwakye Donkor, CEO of Africa Tourism Partners, opened the conference on Tuesday morning before Kenya’s Judy Kepher-Gona delivered an insightful and at times provocative lecture on Thought and Innovative Leadership.
Presentations chased Panel Discussions which gave way to more presentations, interactive sessions and a ‘Speed Dating Round‘ where potential mentors engaged with the students and young entrepreneurs for a good hour.
As a result were several Youth Summit participants then able to join the main #ATLF2019 meetings under the guidance of their mentors. The ATLF Conference started yesterday, Wednesday and will continue up to Thursday night, when the ATLF Award winners will be announced.
Updates from the proceedings of yesterday will be filed by www.ATCNews.org later today once this correspondent had delivered on his last official assignment.
