Nomad_Africa_Edition12

Tourism Updates
destinations are still there and they are left
to deal with the consequences and how
they affect their lifestyles.”
According to Professor Lipman, tourism is “a
growing and substantive part of all
economies of all countries in the world.
Every country has the capacity to be an exporter
of their own product.”
“We know it’s a particularly good thing for
small island states and countries, and we
can make tourism a discipline in schools because
up until now, tourism is regarded as
a sub section of geography. Even at universities,
there is a limited amount of education
around travel”.
“Tourism has not been put together in a
comprehensive fashion and therefore we
think that there is huge scope around the
world for bringing the concept of Impact
Travel into our education systems.”
Professor Lipman concluded that if the
tourism industry is to meet the demands of
the modern world, it has to “prove its sustainability
and the challenge of carbon
emissions has to be put on top of the priority
list.”
Very insightful words by one of the world’s
leading experts and a former top executive
of IATA (International Air Transport Association),
WTTC (World Travel & Tourism Council),
WTO (World Trade Organization) and
current president of ICTP (international
Council of Tourism Partners) and the Green
Growth Travelism Institute.
Nomad Africa Magazine spoke to the Mauritian
Minister of Tourism, Mr Anil Gayan SC,
who explained the implications of digitalisation
and the collecting data in terms of it
affecting the tourism sector.
“I personally have learnt a lot, I am sure that
all those who attended this conference will
look at digitalisation in a different way, not
only at what it can do to improve the industry
and our daily life, but also the dangers
that digitalisation can bring.”
“There are a few trends worldwide towards
digitalisation on a massive scale such as the
impact of China on the tourism market,
where millions of bookings for tourism are
made on a mobile telephone, the enormous
collection of personal data, as well as
the implementation of The EU General Data
Protection Regulation on 25 May 2018.”
Mr Gayan also emphasised the very important
need for privacy data protection regulations
and how this will affect tourists. The
dissemination of such data is a sensitive
issue, which stakeholders will need to navigate
through within the context of digitalisation
and how they conduct their business.
“All these are issues that prompted us to
have this conference so that all stakeholders
in the industry will be aware of what is involved
and to prevent any mishaps in the
handling of personal data. We think that our
operators need to know all the implications
of what is happening in the world.”
“I want to make it very clear that we are very
concerned that there should be no attempt
of any kind on the privacy of an individual.
We need to protect the privacy of the individual,
but of course, as modern life goes
on, there will be a lot of personal data that
will be collected. We cannot get out of the
system but whether, - we get out of the system
or not, and since we have no choice
but to be in the system, we need to have an
environment, where we can protect personal
data. If data is going to used, we have
to make sure it is going to be used with the
consent of the person and that the person
Issue 12 | ...Celebrating the world’s richest continent | www.nomadafricamag.com | 83