ROUTES AFRICA 2013 COMES TO THE PEARL OF AFRICA
Routes Africa, which just celebrated their most successful meeting ever in terms of African and global participation, will move to Uganda, the Pearl of Africa for next year, dates in July 2013 due to be announced soon. The just concluded 2012 conference was held earlier in July at the Kempinski Seychelles Resort on the main island of Mahe. Main host next year will be Ugandas Civil Aviation Authority, which in the past has held a series of very successful regional and continental aviation meetings for ICAO and IATA. The capital Kampala is known to offer first class meeting facilities plus a range of pre- and post conference tours to the countrys national parks, providing the experience of a lifetime. The Ugandan team attending the Routes Africa Conference made history in their own right by presenting a compelling case to the conference organizers that Uganda should be selected as the country for the 2013 event and to no surprise there that they secured the rights to host Routes Africa 2013 in Uganda, which was for the first time ever announced before the ending of the current meeting.
By hosting Routes Africa 2013, the Uganda CAA intends to create added visibility for Entebbe International Airport and Uganda as a whole, to showcase themselves to airlines and the world at large. Speaking during the handover lunch at Routes Africa 2012 in the Seychelles, David Kakuba Mpango, Deputy Managing Director of The Civil Aviation Authority of Uganda said We are absolutely delighted to have been selected as host of Routes Africa in 2013 as there is no better way to push what the country has to offer than for people to come and see it for themselves. We will be opening the doors of Uganda to all Routes delegates and enabling them to enjoy first-hand the hospitality and wonders of the country. We have been attending the Routes Africa and World Routes events for a number of years and were pleased to have been able to agree a new air service with Qatar Airways during the 2010 event in Vancouver in Canada, so we are fully aware of the important role these forums take place in the aviation industry.
David Stroud Executive Vice Present, Routes in his response was quoted as having said: After such a successful event here in the Seychelles we are eagerly awaiting next years event in Uganda; it is the first time we have secured and announced a Routes Africa event host at the previous years event and it is down to the drive and commitment of the Ugandan team. We look forward to Routes Africa 2013 in Uganda next year.
Upon their return home to Entebbe has the Uganda CAA already formed a team to prepare for the 2013 event and make it yet bigger and better, while at present also seeking partnerships with airlines from the region and tourism businesses from within Uganda to promote pre- and post conference tours to see the countrys prized mountain gorillas in the two national parks of Bwindi and Mgahinga, see the main national parks of Queen Elizabeth and Murchisons Falls or visit East Africas adventure capital of Jinja for a spot of rafting the white waters of the upper Nile or spend a few nights enroute there in the RainForest Lodge in Mabira Forest. One thing is sure though already now, the 2013 event is one the aviation industry from the entire Eastern and Central African region will be looking forward to hosting within for the first time and Uganda can be proud to have been selected host country. Well done indeed.
