The VA TourismPodcast

2023 Kriol Jazz Festival makes a glorious return

Today’s special episode was recorded from the capital city of Cabo Verde, Praia host of the Kriol Jazz Festival. Making a glorious return after a 3-year break, the artists were full of praise for the organizers and the municipality of Praia for the Morabeza hospitality accorded during the festival. Dr. Pratt, a Barcelona-based music group on this podcast expressed their adoration for the African vibes and look forward to collaboration with their African counterparts.
 
Performing for the first time at the Kriol jazz festival, Cabo Verdean songstress Lucibela was grateful for the opportunity offered to her to showcase her craft and hope to take it further in Africa. The Major of the municipality of Praia Francisco Carvalho is determined to consolidate the gains made with events such as the Kriol jazz festival and is committed to making tourism a priority sector for the capital.
 

Ghana’s e-visa program to go live by end of year

In today’s episode, the Deputy CEO in charge of finance and administration at the Ghana Tourism Authority Ben Anane Nsiah on the sideline of this year’s ITB Berlin reveals that Ghana’s e-visa program will be rolled out at the end of the year while the Authority is also looking to consolidate its share of the market in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
 

Is Africa doing enough to tap into the Halal Tourism Market?

My conversation today is about how Africa can tap into the growing Halal tourism market. Fayrouz Holiday October a Halal Tourism expert dives deep into the $160 billion industry and how it is reshaping the sector globally.
Travel Designer, Tourist Guide and Owner of Halaal Hopper, Mrs Fayrouz Holliday-October took a leap of re evaluating her experience and position within the Tourism Industry in South Africa. With the 23 years experience in the local and international tourism sector and as a Muslim woman and a Muslim woman traveller she realised that there was a great need to cater to the needs Muslim Traveller with halaal offerings. From food, accommodation and Muslim Tourist attractions the passion grew to join the already main stream of other Muslim operators to give further quality service and options to the Muslim Traveller Fayrouz comes with, a wealth knowledge of the Middle East, being a Dubai Tourism Top Graduate from the Government of Dubai Tourism & Commerce Marketing (DTCM) in 2001 No local formal qualification but still continue to study through the University of Life She is the Executive member of Women in Tourism Western Cape Interim Chairlady of Halaal Tourism Association of South Africa She runs community projects with other women focusing on entrepreneurship for kids Fayrouz is also a mentee of Table Mountain Aerial Cableway- making Table Mountain accessible for disadvantaged local communities My Mat Matters is a prayer mat project which was born in 2020, to alleviate unemployment of local community ladies since there was no longer tourist coming to South Africa during 2020 because of COVID19 and many other ongoing projects in up skilling, training and development of women and youth The list is quite long, but a cat out of the bag.. Fayrouz was the first girl to play cricket for Western Province in a boys team in 1979 and is also a cricket coach Other than that Fayrouz love people, places, spaces and food and believes not to do different things but to do it differently with collaboration and that whatever is meant for you will come your way. GOD WILLING (IN SHA ALLAH)

Ethiopian Aviation University will help develop highly skilled aviation professionals and leaders

In today’s episode, the Acting President of Ethiopian Aviation University Mr. Kassie Yimam discusses the upgrade of the then-Ethiopian Aviation Academy into a University and what that means for the growth of the airline and the opportunities it offers the continent.
The Ethiopian Aviation University, the largest and most modern specialized institution in Africa, is recognized as a ICAO regional Training Center of Excellence. Kassie believes this new step will help develop highly skilled aviation professionals and leaders that meet the growing human resource needs of a competitive aviation industry.

Make women empowerment a business imperative to sustain growth in the Tourism Sector- Aradhana Khowala

In today’s episode, the CEO of Aptamind Partners Aradhana Khowala dives deep into a series of reports released by her outfit underscoring the need to make women empowerment a business imperative to sustain the growth and promotion of women in the tourism industry.
Aradhana Khowala is one of the most influential leaders in the luxury hospitality, travel and tourism sector. Her career has spanned 23+ years, five continents, and more than 75 countries. Today, she is the CEO of Aptamind Partners, a strategic consultancy, which combines hard data and decades of experience to advise governments, emerging destinations, public and private organisations on futureproofing their business. Previously she was the Managing Director of Tourism at NEOM - the US$ 500 Billion land of the future purpose-built for a sustainable and a new way of living in Saudi Arabia.
An active board member, she has an impressive portfolio of non-executive board roles, currently serving as Chair of the Group Advisory Board of Red Sea Global in Saudi Arabia, the developer behind the Red Sea Project as well as AMAALA - the world’s first integrated wellness destination. Aradhana also serves as a Board Member of Elaf Group, the leisure arm of a sustainable listed holding company – SEDCO where she also chairs the compensation and remuneration committee. In the past she has worked for Jones Lang LaSalle, covering UK, Benelux and Scandinavian markets, a Strategy Consulting practice in Europe and Asia as well as in Hospitality Operations in India.

My vision is to make Tourism Number One foreign Exchange earner - Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Tourism

My conversation today is with Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Tourism, Wildlife, and Heritage Peninah Malonza. She tells me the vision of the Ruto-led government is to make tourism the number foreign exchange earner for the East African giant as well as diversify its tourism products to meet the needs of the evolving traveler.
 

Kriol International Jazz Festival makes a return

Ahead of the return of the Kriol International Jazz Festival to be held in Praia, Cabo Verde from 13-15 April, I had an exclusive conversation with the lead organizer of the event Da Silver. He tells me the festival since its inception 13 years ago has been the platform to celebrate the Kriol culture and its rich history.
 

Mozambique’s e-visa rollout and its impact on Tourism

My Guest is the Director General of Mozambique’s National Institute of Tourism (INATUR) Marco Dos Anjos. Marco breaks down the numbers of its new e-visa program and what it means for the tourism sector.