Bangkok--Nov 21--eTurboNews
Geoffrey Lipman President of tourismpartners.org (ICTP) said the new partial open skies arrangement would be a boon for passengers, feisty airlines and the tourism driven economies of both regions. It's a welcome step on the essential road to a true open skies regime, where any safe and financially sound airline can offer services in either region, where investors can freely own shares in those airlines, regardless of nationality and where air transport is dealt with in the World Trade Organization like any other commodity.
Now it's time for the aviation community to turn its attention to Africa where the fares are the highest in the world, where the regional services are the most limited and where the need is the greatest. Because tourists - which only good low cost air service can deliver - are a key factor in Africa's development agenda.
There are real new possibilities for air transport growth on the continent. The African leaders are finally making air transport liberalization an implementation priority after decades of talk. The WTO-OMT and ICAO have developed a brand new approach to help poor countries receive air service funding in the same way the European and US help poor markets inside their own regions. The World Bank is now poised to make tourism a higher priority than in the past and like the G8 it has Africa in the middle of its development radar screen. Air transport infrastructure and services are the best way to deliver on the tourism export potential and frankly without those essentials all of the other tourism development programs will have sub-optimal results.
Perhaps most importantly the idea of Europe and the US turning to Africa for transport support has to be seen within the framework of both that G8 commitments to development and to "asymmetrical" trade where simply put they give more than they get in order to respond to the poverty imperative. They will not only have to deliver on innovative market access and route support but intensify the safety and security capacity building. It's a big agenda - but its the best way to bring the full benefits of tourism export income - which all African countries have the capacity to generate.
Tourismpartners has just launched its Mission Africa campaign, which seeks "to help Africa sustainably triple its tourism export income by 2015. Comprehensive air deals with Europe and the US would go a long way towards achieving that goal. And in the process it would make a massive contribution to the War on Poverty.
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