I love travelling. Seeing new places. Meeting new people. The works basically. It’s always a refreshing experience and it definitely gets my mind off a lot of things. Experts highlight how travelling has its fair share of benefits to the mind, body and soul. It opens your mind to new ideas and makes you open minded generally. You get to see new things and see others in a different light. It broadens your mental horizon.
Opposition to this trail of thought is the fact that the youth are challenged by numerous obstacles in achieving leadership positions. They are taxed with power influences and the long-lasting leadership. Countries in the SADC region of Africa are characterised by leadership in tourism which does not accommodate the youth into its upper echelons. It does not assimilate the youth into its operations.
Our lack of knowledge of the importance of tourism negatively impacts the adoption rate of youths into the sector. Most African countries especially in Southern Africa generate a lot of income from tourist attractions. Tourist attractions such as the Victoria Falls and the Kruger National Park attract a lot of foreigners especially from Europe and the Americas. It is also a well-known fact that tourism also gives countries access to foreign currency.
As Africa, the question to be asked is where are the youth in all this? Do we contribute at all to tourism and tourist activity? This is a huge concern as the youth make the majority of any population. The trend and pattern is that the youth tend to be side-lined when it comes to investment and the ability to grow the sector. In most African countries, poverty is rife especially due to the fact that most youths are unemployed and turn to drug abuse and illegal activities to make ends meet.
In terms of innovation, the youth are lacking in contributions to the tourism sector. It is safe to say that the tourism industry is lacking in terms of new technology and ideas to advertise and market the tourist regions. There is also a lack of fresh qualified staff in the relevant departments that can be filled by the youth. In light of the recently held Africa Youth in Tourism Conference, we need to consider covering technology and innovation in the hospitality sector such as the efforts been done by Virtual Tours Zimbabwe which offers 360-degree tours of any facility, at a cost of course.
This means that as the youth and the technocrats of our time, we need to do something to update the sector and not have to wait for our governments to make opportunities for us but instead come up with our own ideas and start-ups to tackle challenges and problems we see in this area.
Article by @nelson.madzima
