The future is Africa – study

THIS is a golden decade for travel,
with a great opportunity for
travel players to provide more
personalised services.
That was one of the conclusions
of a thought leadership study on
factors shaping the future of travel by
Oxford Economics, commissioned by
Amadeus.
The bright future of the travel
industry in Africa was also the
message local gm, Peter Long,
put to finalists and winners at the
technology company’s gala awards
evening in Sandton last week.
Personalisation was the future, he
said. In the Oxford Economics report
the conclusion was that the use of
mobile devices by travellers was
growing exponentially. Personalisation
was key and apps could be tailored
to reflect individual contexts such as
preferences during certain times of
the day or at certain locations.
Peter also showed how the research
indicated that travel in the Middle
East and Africa was expected to
grow at rates that dwarfed developed
countries. It was the aviation sector
that could be expected to grow the
fastest, he said.
Peter added that while Amadeus
was engaged in 48 countries in
Africa, South Africa was still clearly
the springboard for sub-Saharan
Africa.