After Gambia, which quickly flashed across the Russian tourist horizon, another African novelty - Cape Verde - has appeared.  From early July there are offers of package tours with beach vacations in the Republic of Cape Verde in the line of package offers of ICS Travel Group tour operator. Tour packages are based on regular transportation of Tap Portugal flights from Moscow with connections in Lisbon. 

The tour operator continues to discover and develop exotic destinations in Africa. Following last year’s experiment with Gambia and after entering Tanzania this year, the company opened a sale of group tours to another African country. 

Ethiopia’s national flag carrier Ethiopian Airlines (ET) launched services to Moscow, Russia from 18 December 2018 after a gap of 27 years. "Moscow is a vital addition to our European service, a very important region. It's going to take our total number of weekly flights to European destinations to reach 54 passenger flights a week," said the carrier's executive director Tewolde Gebremariam as the first flight took off from Addis Ababa.

Gastrodiplomacy in Jordan, plans for Expo 2020 in Dubai, opportunities in Africa and the latest travel trends for the region were all hotly debated topics in the Middle East & Africa Inspiration Zone on Day Three of WTM London – where Ideas Arrive. Increased security, rising demand and growing competition in the Middle East and Africa region is opening up tourism, according to Euromonitor’s Travel Trends research.

WTM Africa is thrilled to announce that it will launch an African edition of the International Travel & Tourism Awards. These awards will set out to consolidate the various standalone awards that bring merit to outstanding travel and tourism businesses across the continent.

In response to meeting luxury travel trade professionals and taking their feedback into consideration, ILTM Africa is thrilled to announce that its show will take place in the spectacular Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. In light of this venue change, the dates for ILTM Africa will also be moved to ahead of WTM Africa, to take place from 7-9 April.

Following on the success of the WTM Africa Tourism Investors’ Forum in 2018, WTM Africa has announced that it will expand on this successful initiative dedicated to highlighting investment potential and opportunities on the continent.

International visitors to one of the dazzling Shimansky showrooms in Cape Town or Johannesburg already benefit from the cost savings associated with the brand’s ‘mine to finger’ philosophy, which cuts out middlemen – but now, taking advantage of the Rand’s favourable exchange rate against foreign currencies and claiming back up to 15% Value Added Tax (VAT) makes purchasing in some of the world’s most stunning jewellery pieces, even more attractive.

The tour operator's booking system already offers package tours with a flight to this West African country from Moscow and St. Petersburg. The first flights start in early November 2018, when beach season begins in Gambia. Intourist offers package tours to Gambia (the arrival airport is Banjul) from Moscow and St. Petersburg by air wings of Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines, Turkish Airlines with 1 connection.

WTM Africa 2018 is excited to announce its inaugural WTM Africa Tourism Investors’ Forum, a platform dedicated to connecting ministers of tourism from countries across the continent, with eager investors.

The Egypt experts predict the number of foreign visitors in 2018 in the event of returning of Russian market. As they believe, taking into account the current dynamics, the country in 2018 can host about 10-10.5 million foreign tourists. In the case of the returning of Russians to the Red Sea resorts, this figure can reach 12 million tourists. Recall, the record year for Egypt was 2010, when the country was visited by 14.7 million foreign guests. In the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism called the figure of 2 million Russians for 2018 but in the case if there will be direct charters from Russian cities.

“Introduction of the visa-free regime with the Republic of South Africa will boost the tourist flow from Russia to this country”, - said the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR). "The increase will occur due to the tourists from the regions, who were required to present in person at the consulate in Moscow for several years to obtain the visas", - said in a statement.