News from ATTA
News from ATTA consists of a combination of news from the African continent with relevance to African Tourism along with news about ATTA for the benefit of our members.
30 July 2021
Air France is set to fly to Zanzibar as from October 2021
ATTA®The French national carrier Air France, part of the Air France-KLM Group, will in October this year commence flights to Zanzibar, as the airline seeks to further strengthen its presence in East Africa.
Read More30 July 2021
Zimbabwe reintroduces black rhinos to second largest national park
ATTA®Zimbabwe is re-introducing black rhinos to its second-largest game reserve, Gonarezhou National Park, the first time that the wildlife sanctuary will be home to the critically endangered species in nearly 30 years.
Read More29 July 2021
Podcast: ‘Stubborn optimism’ for elephants fuels Indigenous conservation effort
ATTA®Today we’re looking at Indigenous-led projects and the latest research informing conservation of elephants, the largest land animal in existence and one of the world’s most widely recognized and beloved wildlife species.
Read More29 July 2021
Boost for Zimbabwe's vaccination drive as more vaccines arrive from China
ATTA®Zimbabwe's fight against the coronavirus pandemic received a major boost when the country took delivery of another batch of Sinopharm vaccines from China on Wednesday.
Read More28 July 2021
New flights to Gqeberha (PE)
ATTA®Domestic and regional carrier CemAir has announced it will operate flights between Johannesburg OR Tambo and Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) from this coming Friday, July 30, adding 390 seats a week to the route.
Read More28 July 2021
Zimbabwe maintains strictest lockdown despite decrease in COVID-19 infections
ATTA®The Zimbabwean government said on Tuesday it will maintain the strictest level-four lockdown despite a 49.5-percent decrease in new COVID-19 infections over the past week.
Read More28 July 2021
Africa Travel Week Launches Unlock Africa Podcast
ATTA®In the spirit of #MakingTravelHappenAgain, Africa Travel Week, in conjunction with its headline shows World Travel Market Africa and International Luxury Travel Market Africa, expands its promotion of tourism to the African continent with the launch of a new podcast in August.
Read More27 July 2021
Tanzania receives 1M coronavirus vaccines from US via COVAX
ATTA®Tanzania received more than 1 million doses of the Jansen coronavirus vaccine donated by the US through the World Health Organization’s COVAX initiative.
Read More27 July 2021
Lift Airline to resume flights 1 August
ATTA®Lift Airline has announced they will resume flights from 1 August after cancelling the majority of their flights in July.
Read More26 July 2021
South Africa moves to adjusted level 3 lockdown – here are the new rules
ATTA®President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that several of South Africa’s lockdown regulations will be relaxed as the country moves to an adjusted level 3 lockdown with immediate effect.
Read More26 July 2021
Eurowings Discover launches with first flight to Zanzibar via Mombasa
ATTA®Eurowings Discover, Lufthansa Group's latest subsidiary, has launched operations with a flight to Zanzibar via Mombasa.
Read More23 July 2021
Obligations around cancellations and the current UK Traffic Light System
ATTA®Travelling today brings a number of challenges and one of the biggest hurdles, for travellers from and to the UK, is the current traffic light system that governs the regulations for arrival into the UK. Currently 60% of the countries in Africa where ATTA® members are based are on the Red List.
Read More22 July 2021
France opens to SA travellers
With effect from Monday, July 19, fully vaccinated residents of South Africa (and of all France’s red-and amber-list countries) are permitted to travel to France without needing a compelling reason to do so, without requiring a PCR test or any test before departure, and without having to undergo any self-isolation or quarantine on arrival in France, according to a release from A Tout France, the French Tourism Authority.
Read More22 July 2021
Air travel and Covid-19: Long term view for post-Covid passenger travel demand
ATTA®The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Tourism Economics have released a long-term view for post-Covid-19 passenger demand recovery which demonstrates that people remain eager to travel in the short and long-term.
Read More21 July 2021
Africa’s largest rainforest removed from ‘World Heritage in Danger’ list
ATTA®Africa’s largest tropical rainforest reserve, the Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been removed from UNESCO’s ‘World Heritage in Danger’ list.
Read More21 July 2021
Limited Edition: These Gorgeous Wildlife Prints Are Raising Money For African Parks And Animals
ATTA®At the beginning of 2020, Africa’s tourism industry looked set for another successful year.
Read More20 July 2021
Air Seychelles to establish direct connection with Kazakhstan this Summer
ATTA®Air Seychelles will mark another historic milestone this August by operating for the first time into Kazakhstan’s largest metropolis and most popular cultural hub, Almaty.
Read More20 July 2021
Kenya EVisa Reminder
ATTA®Please ensure that you / your clients use the official Kenya Government website for e-visa applications
Read More19 July 2021
African Youth Summit to amplify young voices for ocean conservation
ATTA®In the first-ever virtual event of its kind on the continent, a youth-driven marine group called Youth4MPAs (Youth for Marina Protected Areas) has launched an African Youth Summit focusing on unifying youth across Africa, engaging with global marine experts and amplifying their young voices to advocate for the protection of its oceans during the summit in August this year.
Read More19 July 2021
Monday Smile: The beauty of collective power
ATTA®“If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” African proverb Great Plains Conservation sent a communication to trade this week about Africa’s annual Great Migration, currently about to cross into Kenya.
Read More18 July 2021
David Simelane appointed SANParks Air Services first black Chief Pilot
ATTA®Taking the helm of All SANParks Air Services, chopper pilot Ndabenhle David Simelane has been appointed as the new SANParks Chief Pilot, SANParks announced.
Read More18 July 2021
Livingstone takes charge to boost tourism
ATTA®Tourism stakeholders have seen some success in boosting tourism to the Zambian town of Livingstone since the establishment of the Destination Livingstone campaign.
Read More15 July 2021
Mauritius welcomes back international travellers
ATTA®Mauritius has opened its borders to international travellers, both vaccinated and non-vaccinated, from today, 15 July 2021.
Read More15 July 2021
Fastjet shows commitment to JNB – VFA route
ATTA®Victoria Falls tourism businesses canvassed by Travel News report that they have been able to salvage a significant number of bookings after the news broke of increased South African and Zimbabwean travel restrictions and BA Comair temporarily shutting down its flights for the duration of South Africa’s adjusted Level 4 lockdown.
Read More15 July 2021
CemAir adds more flights between Johannesburg and Durban
ATTA®Due to the current unrest in KwaZulu Natal, Fly Cemair has added additional flights to cater for the lack of capacity between Johannesburg and Durban, the airline stated.
Read More14 July 2021
Zimbabwean gov’t extends lockdown to vaccinate 1 mln more people
ATTA®Zimbabwe will extend Level 4 lockdown by another two weeks, aiming to inoculate 1 million more people, President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced Tuesday.
Read More14 July 2021
Comair to extend suspension of services
ATTA®Following President Ramaphosa's announcement that South Africa will remain on an adjusted Level 4 lockdown for at least the next two weeks, Comair will extend the suspension of scheduled kulula.com and British Airways flights until 31 August 2021.
Read More13 July 2021
RwandAir, Qatar Airways Sign New Partnership
ATTA®The national carrier, RwandAir announced Monday, July 12 that it had signed a loyalty partnership deal with Qatar Airways.
Read More13 July 2021
CPT to JFK, via NBO
ATTA®Delta Air Lines and Kenya Airways have expanded their codeshare agreement, extending Kenya Airways’ reach in North America via New York-JFK International Airport. This will take effect on August 11.
Read More12 July 2021
Zim initiative will reassure pax
ATTA®Seal of COnVIDence – a joint initiative put in place between Harare’s Healthpoint Hospital and Ace Emergency Ambulances, which is intended to rebuild tourist confidence in healthcare in Zimbabwe – is encouraging tour operators, accommodation suppliers and other tourism businesses to sign up for the new initiative.
Read More12 July 2021
Wild Crimes: A Natural History Museum podcast
ATTA®A new and highly relevant podcast has been launched by the Natural History Museum exploring the most shocking, sensational and sinister crimes committed against the natural world, and hears from the people working to end them. The first episode highlights the plight of the pangolin.
Read More08 July 2021
News Focus: YouGov Global Travel Report 2021
ATTA®An insightful Global Travel Report from YouGov on the views of approximately 185,000 respondents from 25 markets globally. This representative sample shines a light on the travel plans, considerations and motivations of over 2.5 billion consumers. Whilst not focussed on travel to Africa, the report provides interesting statistics of the international consumer, highlighting opportunities for our industry to embrace, helping us meet the expectations of our future clients / guests.
Read More07 July 2021
Elephants to be moved from UK Wild Animal Park to Kenyan wild in 'world first'
ATTA®An entire herd of elephants from a British zoo will be released into the wild in Kenya in what conservationists have hailed as a world first.
Read More06 July 2021
ATTA Travel Trends 2021 Report Launched
ATTA®The survey for the 2021 ATTA Travel Trends Report is now live and will remain open until the beginning of August. There is still a chance to take part if you would like your customers to be involved in the survey.
Read More06 July 2021
Business of Conservation Conference 2021 is now open for registration
ATTA®The annual African Leadership University’s School of Wildlife Conservation’s Business of Conservation Conference 2021 is now open for registration
Read More05 July 2021
What's On At The Waterhole?
ATTA®Travelling to Kenya from the UK - what's the situation? | CALL TO ACTION: help stop the open cast copper mine planned for the Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia | Someone is looking for a Tour Operator into Senegal - can you help?
Read More05 July 2021
Kogatende Covid-19 Sample Collection Centre now open.
ATTA®The centre is open from 08h00 – 11h00 daily. All samples are collected each morning and flown directly to Arusha for analysis. No one airline is being dedicated to this as final arrangements are made the day before, based on schedules. By limiting the window to just these 3 hours, they are ensuring they do not need to store samples overnight, whilst also being in a position to offer the 48 hour turnaround time.
Read More05 July 2021
Online Discussion: ‘Global Britain’ in an age of travel bans
ATTA®The United Kingdom leads much of the world when it comes to getting Covid jabs into arms. But extensive foreign travel bans remain, justified by the government as necessary to keep the UK safe from the ongoing threat of coronavirus. As the British and Irish Lions ready their rugby jerseys to depart on a historic tour to play the world champions, South Africa, they will do so without the legions of fans who have made the tours so famous. The fans, and indeed all UK tourists, will be deprived of the rugby, wildlife and culture for which South Africa is famous.
Read More04 July 2021
Comair temporarily suspends all services for three weeks
ATTA®Comair is temporarily suspending all of its scheduled kulula.com and British Airways flights for three weeks. This follows the President's announcement of a move to an adjusted Level 4 lockdown and the prohibition on all non-essential travel in and out of Gauteng.
Read More02 July 2021
Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi extends the validity period of different categories of temporary visas
ATTA®South Africa’s Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has extended the validity period of legally issued visas which expired during the lockdown period to 30 September 2021 for short-term visas, issued for a period not longer than 90 days, such as a tourist visa.
Read More01 July 2021
Uganda reduces PCR test time to 72 hours
ATTA®Uganda’s health authorities have, with immediate effect, reduced the time frame for PCR testing from previously 120 hours to now only 72 hours.
Read More01 July 2021
Government updates level 4 lockdown rules for South Africa – including schools and travel
ATTA®Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has published an amendment to the country’s adjusted level 4 lockdown regulations, clarifying a number of key issues.
Read More01 July 2021
Cape Town launches new cruise line tourism project
ATTA®The tourism and maritime industries in the Western Cape have welcomed the launch of a new tourism project, “Cruise Cape Town,” hoping to capitalise on a growing cruise tourism trend, Times Live reports.
Read More