#BreakingNews #AfricaTravelWeek yields to #COVID19 concerns and postpones

#WTMAFRICA2020 – #IBTM2020 #ILTMAFRICA2020 ALL POSTPONED AMID GROWING #COVID19 CRISIS

(Posted Friday the 13th of March 2020 – from the Observatory by Geolodges, Rubirizi District, Uganda)

What up to a few days ago seemed the impossible choice, has now entered a new phase after Reed Exhibitions just officially postponed the Africa Travel Week.
The early April event series includes the hugely successful World Travel Market Africa but also the International Luxury Travel Market Africa and the International Business Travel Market.
All three events have been postponed and Reed Exhibition’s Megan Oberholzer just sent the following statement to ATCNews, which we hasten to share with our world wide readership:

AFRICA TRAVEL WEEK 2020 POSTPONED
Reed Exhibitions Africa has confirmed that Africa Travel Week, which comprises of World Travel Market Africa and International Luxury Travel Market Africa, due to take place in April this year, will now be postponed following the escalation of COVID-19 Coronavirus around the world. The event will now take place again in 2021.

In a statement released today, Carol Weaving, Managing Director of Reed Exhibitions Africa said: “We have had to respond to the current coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and the ongoing conversations with our customers whose welfare is our number one priority. Due to the uncertainty in the region and around the world, with many of our clients facing company travel bans, we have taken the decision to postpone the event to 2021, which was due to take place from 02 – 08 April 2020. Our thoughts are with all those affected in these difficult times.”

Megan Oberholzer, Portfolio Director for Africa Travel Week added, “We would like to thank the industry for their support in these unprecedented times. All buyers and exhibitors and industry partners will be contacted in the coming days.”

Megan Oberholzer
Megan Oberholzer
Portfolio Director:Travel, Tourism & Sports

ATCNews has for the past several years been a Gold Media Partner for the events
and deeply regrets this turn of events, more so as many tourism stakeholders were
looking forward to the presentation on Ethiopia’s return to the African MICE scene
besides the moderation of two panel sessions between the 06th and 08th of April.

WTM Africa launched in 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa. Around 5,000 travel industry professionals attend Africa’s leading inbound and outbound travel and tourism market. WTM Africa delivers a proven mix of hosted buyers, media, pre-scheduled appointments, on-site networking, evening functions and invited travel trade visitors. http://africa.wtm.com/.

Reed Travel Exhibitions is the world’s leading travel and tourism event’s organiser with a growing portfolio of more than 22 international travel and tourism trade events in Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Our events are market leaders in their sectors, whether it is global and regional leisure travel trade events, or specialist events for meetings, incentives, conference, events (MICE) industry, business travel, LGBTQ+ travel, luxury travel, travel technology as well as golf and spa travel.