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Travel warnings costing Africa
16/09/2003 14:56 - (SA)
Addis Ababa - Travel alerts and advisories issued by the United States and Britain warning of terrorist threats in East Africa are damaging the impoverished region's fragile economies, a tourism official said on Monday.
David de Villiers, deputy head of the World Tourism Organisation, said the United States and Britain should consult more widely with African governments before issuing the alerts, describing the warnings as a "worrying trend."
"The tourism advisories of governments is a very important aspect that is worrying us," de Villiers told reporters at the start of a five-day Africa tourism conference in Addis Ababa. "It's a problem that we need to look at in a broader way."
Renewed advisory
On Friday, the US State Department renewed its travel advisory for the region "to remind Americans of the continuing high potential for terrorist actions against US citizens in East Africa."
Travellers to East Africa should "carefully review their plans accordingly," it said.
Britain also warns of a high terrorist threat in the region.
On May 15, Britain suspended flights to Kenya, which borders Ethiopia, because of security concerns. The ban was lifted for Nairobi, the capital, on June 26, and the coastal city of Mombasa on September 4.
Kenya has twice been the scene of terrorist attacks. In November, at least 10 Kenyans and three Israeli tourists were killed when a car bomb outside a hotel on Kenya's coast. Minutes earlier, anti-aircraft missiles were fired at an Israeli-owned charter jet as it took off from Mombasa airport.
In August 1998, 219 people, including 12 Americans, were killed when a car bomb exploded outside the US Embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. An almost simultaneous blast outside the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed another 12 people.
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network has been blamed for the attacks, and U.S. officials say the terrorist group is still active in the region.
More consultation
De Villiers said countries couldn't be blamed for warning their citizens of potential threats, but he said there should be more consultation with governments and private tourism groups.
"Kenya has worked with the security instruments of the United States and United Kingdom and then, out of the blue, flights are canceled and tourism dropped," he said.
Tourism is a major source of foreign currency for Kenya.
De Villiers said African countries should also do more to develop their tourism industries, saying tourism has the potential to be a "powerful tool in their anti-poverty strategies ".
- SAPA
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