Month: November 2016

A list of Africa’s most visited cities has been released and Johannesburg has been ranked as the most popular destination city for the fourth. According to the 2016 Mastercard Global Destinations Cities Index, a number of African cities faired in the list.

Johannesburg topped the list attracting 3.6 million international overnight visitors in 2016 while Cairo in Egypt is the second most visited African city with 1.5 million international overnight visitors followed. The third in the list is Cape Town of South Africa (1.4 million visitors) followed by Casablanca in Morocco (1 million visitors), and Durban in South Africa (831,000 visitors).

The 13 African cities ranked in the Index are Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Cairo, Casablanca, Accra, Nairobi, Beira, Dakar, Kampala, Lagos, Maputo and Tunis.

The Index provides more than a ranking of the 132 most visited cities around the world. It projects visitor volume and spend estimates for the 2016 calendar year, while delivering a deeper understanding of how people travel and spend around the world.

The world’s top destination cities

Bangkok, the top-ranked destination city by international overnight visitor arrivals, is projected to receive 21.47 million international overnight visitors in 2016, just ahead of second-ranked London, with 19.88 million visitors. Paris (18.03 million), Dubai (15.27 million) and New York (12.75 million) complete the top five.

Ethiopia’s tourism revenue has been reported to have fallen by over $7m in the wake of anti-government protests that started a year ago. The Horn of Africa country is projected to lose about 400 million dollars from tourism in the current budget year.

According to the BBC’s correspondent in the country, millions of dollars was lost in tourism revenue. He refers to the tourism ministry’s disclosure that income from the sector had fallen by more than $7m (£5.5m) over the last quarter alone.

A local media portal said the country had planned to generate 3 billion dollars from tourism this year but the current shortfall had forced the government to revise its targets.

The government declared a six-month long state of emergency in October as part of efforts to quell the protests. Most of the protests were in the Oromo and Amhara regions. The clampdown by security agencies led to international calls for the government to respect the rights of protesters.
Ethiopia is a preferred tourist destination for people from around the world. It is estimated that in 2015, over 900,000 tourists visited Ethiopia – famous for its rock-hewn churches, highlands and national parks.

But tour operators report of increase in cancellation of reservations by tourists after the US, UK and several other countries issued travel advisories, warning citizens against all but essential travel to Ethiopia.

RwandAir, the national carrier has acquired another Boeing 737-800NG that is named Kalisimbi. The plane left Seattle in the United States on Monday and landed at Kigali International Airport at around 5h:30 PM.

The Boeing aircraft is the first of two new orders from the American manufacturer. This plane is a property of the RWANDAIR and is labeled “Boeing 737-800 Next Generation”..

The new aircraft is expected to increase the airline’s fleet to ten aircraft and it is expected to facilitate the carrier’s growing routes on the continent and beyond.

The airline in September acquired brand new Airbus 330-200, -nicknamed ‘Ubumwe’ (unity).

The expansion of the fleet is at a time when the airline is preparing to start flights to Gatwick, London’s second-busiest airport next year and is also eyeing the American market in the course of 2017.

In recent months the airline has launched flights to Cotonou, Benin and Abidjan, ivory coastbring the total number of destinations to 19 destinations.

Others include including Nairobi, Entebbe, Mombasa, Bujumbura, Lusaka, Juba, Douala, Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Cotonou, Johannesburg, Dubai, Lagos, Libreville and Brazzaville.

The airline is also set to open routes to Harare in Zimbabwe and Mumbai, India in coming days.

The expansion is also based on projections that the airline’s capacity could grow from the current 500,000 passengers annually to more than 3,000,000 in the next five years.

Radisson, a known international hotel brand is to open its second Nairobi hotel next year. The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group has set February 2017 as the opening date for its second outlet in Nairobi. The upcoming four-star Park Inn hotel deepens Carlson Rezidor’s presence in Nairobi where the firm already runs the high-end focused Radisson Blu which opened mid – last year; with another one located near the Nairobi Arboretum planned to open in 2018.

Park Inn Nairobi features five meeting rooms, gym, roof top pool bar, swimming pool, and underground parking, the hotel said. The mid-market hotel brand is banking on its locality in Westlands, regarded as a hub for expatriates, and proximity to the United Nations diplomatic district of Gigiri, to capture business travellers, meetings, conferences and exhibitions.

Other upcoming hotels in Nairobi are Best Western Premier Collection The Alba, Pullman, Hilton Garden Inn, Ramada, Mövenpick Hotel, Four Points by Sheraton, JW Marriott, Sarovar’s Lazizi Premiere airport hotel, City Lodge at the upcoming Two Rivers mall, and Wyndham Amboseli Golf Resort and Spa.