The workshop was convened by the SADC Secretariat and brought together senior personnel from the five partner states, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, alongside representatives from South Africa in its current capacity as SADC chair.

On the second day, the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance (SATA) delivered its Tourism-Focused Customer Service Training for Border Officials. SATA piloted the course through a train-the-trainer programme in 2024, building a facilitator curriculum, delegate manuals, and role-plays drawn from real border scenarios.

The training was delivered in support of the SADC Tourism Programme 2020-2030, which aims to build a sustainable regional tourism industry and reduce the non-tariff barriers that slow travel between member states. Victoria Falls holds a key position as a gateway to the Kavango Zambezi tourism circuits, where many itineraries cross several national borders. The training recognised that effective border management balances security with empathy, enabling stakeholders to respond professionally to the diverse needs and expectations of travellers.

“Every visitor’s experience begins with the people they encounter on arrival,” said Natalia Rosa, SATA tourism project lead, who facilitated the workshop in Victoria Falls. “For many, the border provides both the first and last impression of a destination, making these stakeholders the gatekeepers of our regional reputation.”

While border officials are primarily recognised for safeguarding national borders, the programme recognised their equally important role in representing the region to visitors. Sessions covered verbal, non-verbal and cross-cultural communication, alongside practical conflict de-escalation techniques for those working in pressured situations. Throughout the training, participants explored how customer service strengthens effective border management without compromising security.

The training also highlighted the wider role tourism plays in supporting the SADC region’s economies. Every visitor who crosses the border supports a network of accommodation providers, restaurants, guides, transport operators and attractions. Participants were encouraged to recognise that the welcome visitors receive at the border can influence whether they return, recommend the destination or choose to explore more of the region in future.

“One of the programme’s greatest strengths was bringing together the people who lead border operations across the region,” Rosa said. “By building a shared understanding of the dual role border stakeholders play as custodians of national security and ambassadors for the region, participants can reinforce that approach within their own teams. That consistency benefits travellers, supports effective border management and strengthens regional tourism.”

Munetsi gave the figure at a side event co-convened by the SADC Secretariat and the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance (SATA) at Africa’s Travel Indaba 2026 in Durban. Visas, border efficiency and air access were all on the agenda, three angles on the same challenge. As SATA Project Lead Natalia Rosa told delegates, “Regional connectivity is the single most important strategic conversation the tourism sector should be having right now. Every other conversation, about brand, about positioning, about the growth of our visitor economy, is downstream of it.”

The machinery to achieve the goals set out in the SADC Tourism Programme 2020-2030 is moving. The SADC UniVisa is working through the inter-ministerial process towards the Heads of State Summit in August, a border post audit begins in July, and the air access study is complete and under review.

What industry is asking for

The private sector used the session to table proposals. Munetsi called for aviation policy, taxation and pilot licensing to be aligned across the region. Jillian Blackbeard, CEO of Africa’s Eden Tourism Association, proposed a SADC-wide border training programme with dedicated tourist channels and consistent procedures at crossings, the kind of standard the July audit could adopt.

Dimakatso Malwela, President of Women of Value Southern Africa, took the conversation somewhere it usually does not go. Her proposal, a supply development pilot across three to five member states, would bring women-led businesses into the tourism value chain and report measurable results inside twelve months. Her point was that connectivity moves visitors, but it does not decide who earns from them.

A live delegate poll showed where the consensus lay. New intra-regional air routes and one-stop posts at the busiest crossings were named as the changes most likely to shift things within two years.

The case for Team Tourism

“Team Tourism” kept coming up, because the reforms now under way only work when government and industry pull in the same direction. Governments can set the visa frameworks, the border procedures and the aviation policies, but none of it reaches a visitor unless the private sector is ready to act on it: itineraries built, operators briefed, agents able to sell the region as one place, not one country at a time.

Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa and SATA Chair, put the obligation on both sides. “Apex bodies across SADC must commit to coordinated action,” he said. “Governments cannot respond to fragmented briefs.”

On the UniVisa, the ICT systems, legal frameworks and revenue-sharing models are built, benchmarked against the KAZA UniVisa and the East African Tourism Visa. The founding group of Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe provides a strong foundation for a pilot, and the August Summit is one of several moments where the pilot could be formalised.

A shared visa already makes travel between Zambia and Zimbabwe easier, so the model is proven. Scaling it is a step only government can take. The UniVisa needs an implementation roadmap and a go-live date. The air access study needs a public position on what proceeds, and by when. The July border audit is the moment to ensure training translates into consistent regional standards.

The private sector is getting ready, which is why SATA will keep pressing for all three together. A visa with no routes behind it, or open borders with no air access to use them, helps no one. Move them as one, hold every party to its part, and Southern Africa finally connects itself.

Some of the continent’s connectivity gaps have narrowed over the past year. Qantas added Perth to Johannesburg, Edelweiss introduced its A350 service to Windhoek, Air Congo announced a Brussels link to Kinshasa, and Ethiopian secured approval to serve Mauritius. If those routes can move from proposal to operation, why do others with similarly strong demand remain unserved?

That question sat at the centre of a discussion at AviaDev Africa 2026 in Gaborone, the continent’s main route development forum, where airlines, airports and tourism bodies meet to build new air links. It was chaired by Natalia Rosa, Project Lead at the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance (SATA).

The panel agreed that none of the stakeholders can make a route work alone. Airports need traffic, tourism boards need visitors and airlines need confidence that travellers have a reason to come. Rosa described it as a relationship, but as Keira Langford-Johnson, Business Development Director at Proflight Zambia, pointed out, not an equal one. The airline carries the risk, committing aircraft, crew and operating costs long before it knows whether demand will materialise.

Those costs do not move with the load. A half-empty aircraft burns much the same fuel as a full one, and no marketing campaign can change that. Airlines therefore look for evidence that demand will persist beyond a route launch. What they need, Langford-Johnson said, is proof that the market can sustain itself once the initial excitement fades. Too often that evidence never reaches the table. “What are people doing after they arrive? Where do they go? How do they move? That’s the data that builds a route,” she said.

Rupert Kraus of Discover Airlines, part of the Lufthansa Group, described a similar approach. Passenger numbers alone are rarely enough. He wants to see broader indicators of growth: hotels being developed, cargo volumes increasing and new industries investing in a destination. “If I only looked at the data in front of me, I’d struggle to justify the route,” he said.

With a limited fleet and a growing list of potential destinations competing for capacity, airlines need confidence that a market can support service over the long term rather than generate short bursts of demand.

The data exists, Kraus argued, yet it remains fragmented. Road transfer operators, charter companies and tourism businesses already collect much of the information airlines need to assess whether a route can succeed: who is travelling, where they are going, when they are travelling and in what numbers. Together, those datasets provide a far richer picture of demand than airlines often receive.

Langford-Johnson illustrated the point with three of Proflight Zambia’s recent routes into Livingstone, Maun and Windhoek, all of which emerged from conversations at AviaDev. None were obvious additions to the network, and Proflight does not launch new routes lightly. What changed was the preparation. Airport authorities, tourism boards and regulators arrived with a 72-page business case covering demand, market potential, operating costs and demographics. When information was missing, the airline asked for it and the partners supplied it. “If you’re not exchanging something, it’s just a meeting,” she said. The partners brought the evidence, helping build the confidence Proflight needed to launch the route.

Gathering the evidence is only part of the process. Keeping stakeholders aligned can be harder. As Tatamo Rakotozafy, Head of Aeronautical Activities at Ravinala Airports, explained, tourism authorities, airports and governments often approach route development with different priorities and measures of success.

The route is more likely to move forward when stakeholders can align around a shared economic objective. That common purpose becomes especially important when political priorities change or commercial pressures emerge.

Rakotozafy was describing alignment within a country. Justice Ofentse, Acting CEO of the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO), argued that the same principle applies across borders. Smaller destinations, he said, are often more effective when they approach airlines collectively rather than competing against one another for the same aircraft and investment.

His argument was that the region should present itself as a single market, rather than a collection of individual destinations each making separate pitches to carriers.

One event could supply exactly the evidence airlines keep asking for. The 2027 T20 Cricket World Cup, shared by South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, is expected to move more than 340,000 people across the three countries.

As Ofentse suggested, the tournament will test whether the three countries can present themselves to travellers as a connected destination instead of three separate markets.

Bronwen Auret, Chief Quality Assurance Officer at South African Tourism, acknowledged that creating that level of coordination requires effort well beyond the tourism sector. The tournament, however, provides a practical opportunity to bring together air access planning, tourism promotion and regional cooperation around a single event.

If the planning is done well, she argued, it could also generate valuable data on how visitors moved through the region and where demand was concentrated.

Those patterns are the evidence airlines keep asking for. Whether the region can bring them together into a convincing demand case may determine which of its long-discussed routes finally move from proposal to schedule.

As Angola took centre stage as the Official Host Country of ITB Berlin 2026, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat convened a stakeholder gathering to report on implementation progress under the SADC Tourism Programme 2020–2030.

The programme, supported by the German Government and the European Union and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, provides a coordinated regional roadmap for sustainable tourism development across the 16 SADC member states.

The session brought together representatives from SADC member states, and delivered evidence that measurable progress is being made on three fronts: visa harmonisation, air access, and cross-border product development.

“Regional cooperation remains central to unlocking tourism’s full potential as a driver of inclusive growth, employment and environmental stewardship across Southern Africa,” said Marygoreth Mushi, Programme Officer for Policy and Market Development, SADC Secretariat.

Air access study charts course for improved regional connectivity

Mushi reported that an Air Access Study has been completed and submitted for ministerial review. The study, which feeds into the Air and Road Access Improvement Programme, identifies the slow pace of Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) implementation as the region’s primary structural constraint, alongside high aviation taxes, insufficient regional and intercontinental routes, and inadequate infrastructure.

Its recommendations include fast-tracking SAATM adoption, harmonising aviation-related taxes and charges, and coordinating infrastructure investment across member states.

“We all understand that tourism might not have a direct mandate over air transport, however it is highly affected,” Mushi noted, explaining the study’s centrality to the region’s broader tourism ambitions.

The Southern Africa Tourism Alliance (SATA), which represents tourism associations across the SADC region, confirmed its role in operationalising the study’s findings once approved: translating ministerial-level recommendations into practical on-the-ground improvements through its private sector networks.

SADC UniVisa pilot delivers cross-border travel progress

Mushi reported substantial progress on the SADC Tourism UniVisa pilot, now operational across Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The ICT architecture for immigration systems, legal frameworks and revenue sharing models have been implemented and benchmarked against the KAZA UniVisa and East African Tourism Visa. A Tourism-Focused Customer Service Training Programme has also been developed for immigration and border personnel, designed to balance security requirements with visitor experience.

SATA has supported delivery of these frameworks through its member networks, including border management training at the Kazungula crossing connecting Botswana and Zambia and a pilot train-the-trainer programme for disaster risk management officials in ministries and national tourism organisations.

Cross-border integration advancing through Transfrontier Conservation Areas

Nick Tucker of Boundless Southern Africa, working with the SADC Secretariat on tourism market development across Transfrontier Conservation Areas, underscored the practical significance of reducing cross-border friction. “Nothing makes regional integration tangible like a functioning cross-border tourism experience. Every time we reduce friction, we increase competitiveness,” Tucker said.

2030 targets

Mushi outlined the programme’s central objective: to ensure that by 2030, cross-border multi-destination tourism in Southern Africa exceeds the global average growth rate. The session reinforced that the partnership model – uniting government, private sector and conservation stakeholders under a shared framework – provides the institutional architecture to deliver on that commitment.

The session was chaired by Shamilla Chettiar, Acting CEO of SA Tourism, who noted that relationships are foundational to how the sector functions: “We all want tourism to work. We collaborate with each other in order to compete.”

That gap was the focus of the panel, Profit, Planet, People: How Global Hospitality is Scaling in Southern Africa Responsibly, hosted at a SADC Tourism Alliance Think Tank.

For developers navigating sustainability requirements, operators under pressure to prove impact, and investors managing international compliance expectations, understanding how ESG translates in this region needs to be reassessed, agreed the panellists.

“We should stop treating ESG as a certificate on the wall,” said Olivier Perillat‑Piratoine, Managing Director for Club Med South Africa. “In our business, it has to be the operating system — the way we design, source, and develop people.” For Club Med, that means recognised building and operating standards, blended with domestic finance, local supply chains, and long-term talent development. It includes sending 200 South Africans overseas for training ahead of the resort’s 2026 opening.

The challenge comes when templates developed in global north markets are applied to Southern Africa without nuance. Infrastructure is uneven, small and rural enterprises play a major role in supply, and job creation remains a critical development goal. The panel’s message wasn’t that ESG is wrong — but that how it’s measured often misses what actually matters on the ground.

“Globally, the centre of gravity is the ‘E’,” said Lopang Rapodile, ESG Manager at Kasada. “Here, the ‘S’ — jobs, skills, women in leadership, township inclusion — is often the licence to operate. If we don’t elevate that, we miss what sustains hospitality in this region.”

Projects with strong environmental metrics but little local impact can glide through ESG review, while others that offer inclusive hiring and local supplier spend get held back because they don’t tick the standard boxes. That’s not just inconvenient — it’s a barrier to building responsibly where it’s needed most.

Focus has fallen on what’s easiest to measure: energy per occupied room, water use per guest‑night, and food waste reduction. These indicators do matter — they also save money. But they don’t tell the whole story.

“You can count diesel consumption,” said Simon Stobbs, Managing Director South Africa at Wilderness. “You can’t count the pride of a parent with a stable job, or the resilience a community builds when its farms supply a lodge year‑round. Those intangibles are the foundation for everything else.” Wilderness, which began as a conservation organisation, sees hiring and sourcing locally not as virtue signalling, but as the only way to operate in remote locations.

Employment metrics can also be misleading. For example, a delegate shared that global companies tend to fixate on staff‑to‑room ratios without accounting for local context. What appears inefficient by European or American standards often enables opportunity in local ones: teams with more time to train, better guest ratios, and broader direct economic impact. Yet this rarely gets acknowledged in reporting frameworks dominated by cost or emissions per room.

This is where global ESG can either support or hinder hospitality’s role in Southern Africa. Done well, ESG frameworks offer access to funding, drive better upfront project decisions, and build stronger awareness of sustainability across operations. Club Med’s approach is a good example: global standards on construction and energy, paired with local partnerships and training built into the rollout.

But rigid frameworks can have the opposite effect. Small suppliers — many of them women-led and township-based — are expected to provide formal documentation, consistent volume, and low costs from day one. Payment schedules are rarely designed for their cash flow cycles. Valuable tools, like food waste tracking systems, exist — but adoption is slow when service support is located offshore and procurement models bypass local tech.

“The scale bias is real,” said Rapodile. “We want to localise procurement, but consistency and volume expectations lock out smaller vendors. That’s solvable — with aggregated orders, practical QA support, and faster payments — but it requires design choices, not just intent.”

So, do global ESG metrics help or harm Southern Africa’s hospitality?

The answer, as the panel made clear, is both. ESG helps when used as a baseline that allows for local realities, and when funders accept meaningful indicators that reflect impact on the ground. But it harms when applied without context, draining time, resources, and opportunity from the very businesses and communities hospitality is meant to support.

If ESG is going to work here, it will need to adapt — not in principle, but in practice. That could mean adjusting how social performance is measured. It could also mean changing the systems surrounding ESG — procurement, auditing, tech access — so more small businesses can participate, and so the value created stays in the region.

“Don’t ask us to choose between carbon and communities,” Rapodile said. “In SADC, social outcomes are the business case.”

Stobbs agreed: “If the purpose is impact, guests feel it, teams live it, and communities back it. The rest follows.”

And Perillat‑Piratoine’s challenge still stands: “Make ESG local and real, and it becomes a competitive advantage, not a burden.”

The frameworks aren’t the enemy — but the way we use them will decide whether hospitality grows in the way this region needs.

Across Southern Africa, tourism ambitions remain stifled not by demand but by policy paralysis. At the recent Southern Africa Tourism Alliance Think Tank, aviation and tourism leaders came together to address a hard truth: despite public commitments to liberalised skies under the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), national policies, political gatekeeping, and fragmented governance continue to ground regional air access. 

The promise of SAATM — a unified, competitive, and affordable air transport market — remains more of a theoretical ideal than a regional reality. And that gap is costing Southern Africa growth, connectivity and jobs. 

Open Skies, Closed Policies 

“We’ve got the commitments,” said George Mothema, representative of the Board of Airline Representatives of South Africa (BARSA). “What we don’t have is implementation.” 

Mothema highlighted that while countries like South Africa have adopted civil aviation policies, many still entrench protectionist elements that directly contradict SAATM’s principles. The result is a region where airlines — particularly private ones — are blocked from expanding viable routes, and governments continue to favour under-capitalised national carriers over more agile players. 

“Most state carriers have downsized. They’re not in a position to compete or benefit under SAATM without recapitalisation — and that’s not happening,” Mothema noted. Meanwhile, more capable private airlines often hit invisible political ceilings. 

FlySafair’s experience on the Johannesburg–Harare route provides a telling case study. When the airline entered the market, it halved ticket prices — and demand surged. 

“It’s a fantastic route. It performs incredibly well,” said Kirby Gordon, Chief Marketing Officer at FlySafair. “We’d love to put on a second daily service. But we can’t. Why not? Politics.” 

That single example captures a broader issue: suppressed demand is not theoretical — it’s measurable. What’s missing is the political will to unlock it. Even South Africa — one of the continent’s most connected countries — is limited by scale. FlySafair, Africa’s fourth-largest carrier by passenger volume, operates just 36 Boeing 737-800s. By contrast, Southwest Airlines in the U.S. operates nearly 700 of the same aircraft. 

“Scale gives them everything,” Gordon said. “In our market, even the biggest operators are small by global standards.” 

Tourism Alone Can’t Fix This — It Needs Allies in Power 

The tourism sector is often at the mercy of other portfolios — transport, home affairs, treasury — when it comes to enabling access. And too often, those stakeholders don’t see tourism as a strategic economic driver. 

“Tourism doesn’t feature highly in national policy,” said Lee-Anne Bac, Advisory Director and Head of Strategy and Sustainability at BDO South Africa. “Political players don’t really understand tourism, or what we’re trying to achieve.” 

She pointed to the Cape Town Air Access initiative as a rare success story of multisectoral collaboration. “It brought together investment promotion agencies, tourism bodies, the private sector, and the airport company. That kind of model shouldn’t be the exception — it should be the norm.” 

Beyond collaboration, what’s missing most is enforceable accountability. “If you’re going to be the custodian of tourism, aviation or transport, we need to put you on the spot and ask: what are you going to achieve?” said Aaron Munetsi, CEO of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA). 

He proposed a practical, results-based framework for reform: 

• Create national baselines for air access barriers — including taxes, permit friction, and operating costs. 

• Commit to incremental reductions (even 5% could be transformative). 

• Build a regional scorecard that monitors real policy delivery. 

“Reducing airline operating costs isn’t just a sectoral goal — it’s an economic one,” said Munetsi. “The business of airlines is the backdrop on which we are building our economies.” 

Air Access Is Economic Infrastructure — Not Just a Travel Issue 

One of the most important shifts, speakers agreed, is conceptual. Aviation cannot be seen solely through the lens of transport or tourism. It is core economic infrastructure — as critical as broadband, roads, or energy. 

“Our Civil Aviation Policy is not just a transport policy. It is an economic policy,” said Mothema. If that principle is accepted, it demands investment, policy coherence, and prioritisation at the highest levels of government. 

“Tourism can’t do this alone,” Bac added. “Aviation must be recognised as a catalyst for national and regional economic development.” 

If Southern Africa is serious about unlocking its full tourism and trade potential, it must stop treating air access as an aspirational goal — and start treating it as a structural reform project. 

That means: 

• Breaking down protectionist policies and opening routes to viable operators. 

• Investing in airline scalability — whether public or private. 

• Building cross-ministerial alliances that treat air access as infrastructure. 

• Tracking and publicly reporting progress with a shared regional scorecard. 

“In a region of 300 million people, flying should not be a luxury or a political favour,” said Bac. “It should be a lever for growth. But we can’t build that future without building the policies, partnerships, and platforms to support it.” 

Until Southern Africa aligns its aviation policies with its economic ambitions, tourism will remain grounded in untapped potential. The demand is there. The business case is clear. Now it’s time for delivery. 

With intra-regional tourism accounting for less than 25% of arrivals and air connectivity remaining critically constrained, the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance’s newly elected steering committee will spearhead efforts to unlock the region’s vast untapped tourism potential.

The Southern Africa Tourism Alliance, established in 2022 as the unified private sector voice for tourism across all 16 SADC member states, brings together national tourism associations and businesses to drive regional collaboration beyond borders and political constraints.

Operating independently whilst engaging with the SADC Secretariat, the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance provides the technical leadership and coordination needed to transform Southern Africa into a seamlessly connected tourism destination.

The Steering Committee appointed today to lead the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance’s mission to unlock Southern Africa’s tourism potential through enhanced regional cooperation over the next three years, comprises:

• Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa (Chair), CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa
• Tojo Lytah Razafimahefa (Deputy Chair), President of CTM Madagascar (Confederation Tourism Madagascar)
• Memory Momba Kamthunzi, Executive Director, Malawi Tourism Council
• Ally Karaerua, Chair, FENATA (Federation of Namibian Tourism Associations)
• Paul Matamisa, CEO, Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe
• Nasser Zauria Usta, Representative of Cotur – Travel Management Worldwide, representing the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), Confederação das Associações Económicas de Moçambique (CTA)

“Each of us faces national challenges – whether it’s airlift in Malawi, skills development in Namibia, or infrastructure in Madagascar. But we’ve learnt that a tourist doesn’t see borders the way we do,” said Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, the newly elected Chair. “When we work together, we can unlock investment, create jobs, and protect our natural heritage at a scale that none of us can achieve alone. That’s not just good business – it’s essential for the communities who depend on tourism across our region.”

The Southern Africa Tourism Alliance represents a significant step towards realising the vision of the SADC Tourism Programme 2020-2030, positioning Southern Africa as a competitive, sustainable, and unified tourism destination on the global stage.

As part of this effort, three critical priority areas were identified by the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance, during a strategic session held to define its roadmap. These include unlocking regional access, strengthening regional reputation and ensuring institutional sustainability.

The Southern Africa Tourism Alliance’s formation and activities are supported by the Joint Action NatureAfrica / Climate Resilience and Natural Resource Management (C-NRM) Programme, co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Government and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

The MOU outlines areas of collaboration such as reciprocal membership benefits, knowledge exchange, event partnerships, and a joint commitment to sustainability. CTM brings national-level advocacy and private sector strength in Madagascar, while Africa’s Eden contributes regional marketing reach and multi-country representation across eight African nations.

Jillian Blackbeard, CEO of Africa’s Eden, spent the past week in Madagascar meeting with CTM representatives and new members, exploring opportunities to amplify Madagascar’s position on the global tourism map. Membership drives are currently underway in both Antananarivo and Nosy Be, as interest in regional tourism alignment accelerates following her visit.

“Madagascar is an essential and powerful piece of the Africa’s Eden vision,” said Blackbeard. “It’s a country that defies expectation. It’s rich in biodiversity, cultural expression, and private sector energy. This MOU marks an exciting step forward as we work hand-in-hand with CTM to build a stronger, united voice for the region.”

During her time in Madagascar, Blackbeard also participated as a speaker at the SADC Industrialisation Week, joining a high-level panel on “Leveraging Tourism for Regional Integration and Economic Development.” From the stage, she urged regional policymakers to embrace harmonised visa-free regimes:

“We need to stop going around in circles. From the tourism private sector’s perspective, talking about Univisas is a step backwards when countries like Zambia and Botswana already have visa-free access for key source markets. We should be moving forward—towards a truly harmonised visa-free regime.” She also advocated for liberalised skies and a unified approach to route development:

“A simple, immediate solution is for member states to upload their commitments under the Yamoussoukro Decision and SAATM. Removing protectionism around national airlines is vital if we are serious about regional integration.”

Tojo ‘Lytah’ Razafimah, President of CTM, echoed the importance of the partnership:

“Business is all about cooperation, networking, and benchmarking good practices. As a private tourism organisation, CTM aims to offer its multisectoral members bold linkages to competitive readiness—through data sharing, pro bono partnerships, and strategic alliances. Africa’s Eden and its members embody this spirit, and I’ve decided with no hesitation to bridge that value to our members. B2B is key to growth. Regional integration can unlock doors.”

Natalia Rosa, Project Lead of the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance, welcomed the development:

“This MOU between the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance’s strategic partner, Africa’s Eden, and our member in Madagascar, the Confédération du Tourisme de Madagascar, is a step towards building the regional tourism corridors we urgently need. It reflects the kind of cross-border collaboration the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance exists to catalyse: one that leverages each partner’s market knowledge, trade connections, and destination strengths to drive multi-country itineraries and investment. CTM’s role as the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance’s representative in Madagascar ensures alignment with our regional priorities, while Africa’s Eden brings a strong track record of turning regional ambition into practical tourism delivery. Agreements like this are how we shie from talking integration to implementing it.”

The partnership follows Madagascar’s inclusion into Africa’s Eden at the 2024 AGM, alongside Malawi, Angola, and Mozambique. This expanded network sets a new standard for how regional tourism can unite for shared impact, increased visibility, and long-term resilience.

“Tourism is much more than leisure and hospitality – it’s a foundational driver of economic resilience, especially in regions facing the profound impacts of transitioning away from extractive industries,” explained Natalia Rosa, Project Lead for the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance.

Tourism’s current economic footprint is substantial yet often understated, influencing around 12% of national vehicle purchases primarily via the car rental sector, and accounting for 12–15% of retail purchases nationwide. Highlighting tourism’s broader economic capacity, Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) and interim Chair of the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance, pointed to the transformative example of Limpopo’s Nandoni Dam. Originally an infrastructure project, the dam evolved into a vibrant economic hub, boosting local hospitality, fishing, and tourism services.

Structured enterprise development programmes have proven their ability to rapidly scale tourism-related businesses across the region. Akash Singh, CEO of Sigma International, detailed how his organisation currently supports 300–500 businesses, ranging from local tour operations to catering enterprises. He underscored the critical role digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, play in empowering rural entrepreneurs – especially women – to develop competitive businesses remotely, significantly enhancing local economic inclusion.

Corporate success stories further reinforce tourism’s growing role in economic restructuring:

• City Lodge Hotel Group has incubated 47 SMEs in three years, successfully integrating 16 into their national operations in vital sectors such as waste management and landscaping.
• Anglo American’s Zimele programme, in collaboration with Sigma International, demonstrates the effectiveness of mining-tourism partnerships. The initiative has supported over 22,000 jobs and distributed over R500 million in small business loans, achieving an impressive 92% recovery rate.
• Nedbank’s Women in Tourism programme has directly created more than 1,600 jobs across nine provinces, enabling significant business growth, access to finance, and the formation of valuable joint ventures.

A key insight from the forum was tourism’s distinctive capability to meet the dual mandates of Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG). This strategic convergence positions tourism as uniquely attractive for corporate investment aimed at sustainable and inclusive growth.

Participants strongly advocated the establishment of a dedicated Tourism-JET Working Group to streamline coordination, scale successful initiatives, and enhance public-private collaboration throughout the region.

“Tourism must sit at the heart of Southern Africa’s Just Energy Transition. It offers the type of inclusive, scalable economic foundation needed to build long-term resilience,” concluded Rosa.

The Nedbank/Nepad Business Foundation Networking Forum is a collaborative initiative of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) Business Foundation (NBF) and Nedbank. It serves as a strategic platform to foster dialogue, partnerships, and actionable solutions aimed at driving inclusive and sustainable economic and social development across the African continent. As a key proponent of Africa’s growth agenda, the NBF is dedicated to advancing initiatives that promote long-term prosperity and resilience for communities and businesses alike. 

This strategic forum was also supported by the Joint Action NaturAfrica / Climate Resilience and Natural Resource Management (C-NRM) Programme, co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Government and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

The session, moderated by Natalia Rosa, Project Lead for the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance, brought together senior tourism and economic development officials from Zanzibar and South Africa’s Western Cape Government. Together, they unpacked the persistent gap between aviation policy and tourism growth and called for a shift from fragmented policy discussion to coordinated, action-driven delivery.

“We do not have a knowledge gap in this room,” said Rosa. “Everyone in this room believes in the importance of liberalising aviation across Africa to unlock economic growth and tourism. What we have is an action gap. And until we focus on implementation and getting the right people around the table to put those words into actions – not more frameworks – we’re going to keep having the same conversation every year.”

From Policy to Practice: What Zanzibar Got Right

Zanzibar’s experience offers a practical model for cutting through interdepartmental silos. Hafsa Mbamba, Tourism Delivery Manager of the Presidential Delivery Bureau, explained how embedding oversight of tourism, infrastructure and aviation within a single coordinating unit, backed by the Office of the President, has enabled decisive action on long-standing infrastructure and connectivity barriers. Terminal upgrades are already underway to match anticipated demand.

“The policies are there,” said Mbamba. “The challenge is people working in silos. The Bureau exists to break through those silos. We have oversight across tourism, infrastructure and aviation, and we work with all stakeholders to actually implement – not just plan.”

Mbamba, who also sits on the board of the Zanzibar Airport Authority and previously led the Zanzibar Commission for Tourism, explained how the Bureau’s direct line to the Presidency had created space for cross-sectoral action.

“We don’t have to convince every ministry individually as we represent His Excellency’s vision. That gives us leverage and political backing,” she said. “In five years, we’ve seen real results. Infrastructure has improved, coordination has improved, and visitor numbers are up.”

Western Cape’s Approach: Fund It, Own It, Scale It

Rashid Toefy, Deputy Director-General for Economic Development and Tourism in the Western Cape Government, echoed the urgency of moving beyond theory. He outlined the practical approach that has made Cape Town Air Access one of Africa’s leading regional air access initiatives.

“Every year since 2015, we’ve funded a dedicated team that wakes up every day and focuses solely on air access,” said Toefy. “This is not a side project. It’s embedded. And we’ve asked the private sector to co-invest because they’re beneficiaries too.”

Toefy stressed that trade, tourism and investment must be treated as a single, interconnected agenda.

“It’s not just about flying tourists in for sun and sand,” he said. “It’s about moving blueberries to Dubai, mussels to New York, executives to markets. That’s what makes the economic case. It’s why the biggest investment banks and media houses pay to sit at our table.”

He also highlighted how provincial governments can and should take initiative even in the face of national constraints.

“We’re not an island of success. We lobby upwards and sideways, to national government and metros. We’ve had to do the economic studies ourselves, fund the red tape reduction unit ourselves. But we keep pushing because every direct flight means jobs.”

Rosa challenged delegates to rethink the positioning of aviation within government, suggesting that it belongs under trade and industry ministries, not just tourism or transport.

“Tourism is still viewed as if it’s only about palm trees and pina coladas,” said Rosa. “But this is a supply chain issue. It’s about exports, logistics, job creation, investment. If your flowers and seafood can’t fly out, and travellers can’t fly in, your economy suffers. It’s that simple.”

Reframing the Case for Open Skies

Throughout the session, speakers returned to the issue of aviation liberalisation and how economic framing can shift political resistance.

“In our case, the narrative matters,” said Mbamba. “Zanzibar doesn’t have its own national carrier. But because connectivity is tied to economic competitiveness, we’ve been able to reframe the conversation and the political will is there to act.”

Toefy added that more regional blocs need to move ahead on liberalisation now, rather than waiting for continental consensus.

“If you keep waiting for everyone to come to the table, nothing moves. Start with bilateral open skies between high-potential city pairs. Prove the model. Scale from there.”

In a live poll of attendees, the top two priorities identified for advancing African aviation liberalisation were:

• Ending protectionist policies that favour national carriers
• Focusing on bilateral open skies between strategic city pairs rather than waiting for full continental harmonisation.

The session closed with a shared message: the building blocks for change exist. What’s missing is coordinated, resourced action.

About the Tourism and Aviation Connectivity Forum

AviaDev Africa is the continent’s only dedicated aviation development conference, focused on improving air connectivity to, from, and within Africa. It brings together airlines, airports, tourism authorities, and government stakeholders for route development discussions grounded in strategic partnerships.

As part of the 2025 edition, the Tourism and Aviation Connectivity Forum was introduced as a practical forum addressing one of the most critical – and often missing – components of route development: meaningful tourism engagement.

Featuring perspectives from tourism CEOs, airlines, and airport authorities, the session explored how poor coordination between tourism and aviation can undermine route viability, and how targeted collaboration can not only secure air access, but ensure it is sustainable.

Administered by the NEPAD Business Foundation, the Tourism Alliance unites apex private sector bodies, along with private and public sector tourism stakeholders and partners, to drive enhanced value, quality, and sustainable growth of tourism within the SADC region.

Our initiatives are supported by the Joint Action NaturAfrica / Climate Resilience and Natural Resource Management (C-NRM) Programme, co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Government, and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

Rosa concludes: “As the co-host of AviaDev’s opening day, the Southern Africa Tourism Alliance will continue convening public and private sector leaders to drive forward a regional roadmap for aviation-tourism integration. That includes documenting replicable models, brokering multi-stakeholder coalitions, and advocating for strategic coordination at the highest levels of government.”

Ends

Media Contact:
Natalia Rosa
Project Lead – Southern Africa Tourism Alliance
natalia.rosa@thenbf.co.za