e-Tourism Africa Summits for Cape Town, Joburg

© Zarya Maxim – za.fotolia.com

Both events will once again be bringing together some of the world's leading online tourism and travel experts, including Facebook, Trip Advisor, Expedia, Twitter, Google and a fresh new set of local and international innovative speakers and solutions. South African Tourism is the title sponsor of the summit in Cape Town and Joburg, and Gauteng Tourism Authority is supporting the summit in Joburg.

Damian Cook, the CEO of E-Tourism Frontiers, emphasised the importance of online tourism: "With over 59% of travel now being researched, booked and bought online, attributing to over USD400 billion in travel sales, ensuring that the African tourism sector is partaking and benefiting from this fast-growing space is essential for the sector's growth and survival." Cook continued by saying: "As a local example of the effect and benefit of online tourism, a Neilson report shows that in 2012 over 200,000 travellers went online to book their trips to South Africa, resulting in more than R790 million for the country's economy."

Mobile will also be a key feature of this year's summit. The E-Tourism Frontier's CEO said that the statistics for travel bookings made on smartphones and tablets was increasing each year. "According to a recent PhoCusWright study, 7% of total hotel bookings in 2013 were made via tablet and mobile phones, a figure 12 times larger than that of 2010, this number is expected to jump to 20% by end of 2014. Expedia.com also reports that one in five of its consumers books travel on via mobile (apps or mobile website), while a majority of its customers use mobile devices to research elements of their booking," said Cook.

The latest tools and trends

"The summit will showcase the latest tools and trends on how to best leverage social media for your travel and tourism business factoring in the vast growth of smartphone usage in the travel space. This year's summit will also focus on offering practical training and solutions to grow and improve your day-to-day business," Cook explained.

Jan Hutton, chief marketing officer of South African Tourism, expressed her excitement for the forthcoming e-Tourism Africa Summit. "Following the success of previous e-Tourism Africa Summits, we are looking forward to once again partnering E-Tourism Frontiers for what will surely be another bigger and better event through which the tourism sector is able reconnect and learn about the latest online tourism and travel developments and technologies. The role of online is imperative for the growth and success of our tourism sector. The summit will be a great chance to showcase local solutions, partnerships and opportunities from the South African tech trade and from South African Tourism that the travel trade can access. I am also delighted that this year we will have two events both in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Registration for the e-Tourism Africa Summit - Cape Town and Joburg is open now: www.e-tourismfrontiers.com.