At the hugely successful Magical Kenya Expo which ended on the 10th of October at KICC Nairobi.
The East African countries participating at the event adopted Akwaaba African Travel Market as the official tourism expo in West Africa.
At a meeting of the inaugural East Africa tourism stakeholders forum which held at
Sarova Stanley hotel as part of the Magical Expo, the participating countries identified five international events and three regional events as the ‘’must attend’’ events for East African countries.
The three regional events are Magical expo in Kenya, Kwita Izina in Rwanda and the Matyr event in Uganda. The five international events are WTW London , ITB Berlin, JATA Japan , Indaba South Africa and Akwaaba for West Africa.
This decision was made known by Dr Mohammed the principal secretary of Kenya tourism ministry. Magical Kenya which was declared open by acting president of Kenya Hon. William Ruto, attracted 179 hosted buyers from 39 countries, and was hugely successful.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) adopted Akwaaba as the Official travel expo in 2009, while Nigeria had earlier chosen Akwaaba as its official travel expo in 2007. Akwaaba had been the event partner of New York based African Travel Associate (ATA) since 2008 and is in partnership with Tour Operators Union Of Ghana (TOUGHA) National Association of Nigeria Travel Agents (NANTA) and the Nigerian Association of Tour Operators (NATOP), United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) listed Akwaaba as the only tourism expo in West Africa since 2008.
Akwaaba is the only African member of International Tourism Trade Fairs Association (ITTFA)
