The African Sports Tourism Summit – the pan-african platform where sports and tourism stakeholders exchange a hand of fellowship, towards socioeconomic growth for Africa and her nations – will return on the 25th of August, 2018, following its postponement because of Russia 2018 World Cup.

The event, which is one of the activities of African Sports Tourism Week, will gather pundits and stakeholders from both tourism and sports landscape, as robust discussion on how the two can work together to maximize the opportunities in sports tourism on the continent, will be held.

On the panel of discussants are:

1. Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi – The 1st Vice President of Nigeria Football Federation and Lagos FA Chairman

2. Shehu Dikko – The 2nd Vice President of Nigeria Football Federation & League Management Company Chairman

3. Abimbola Ilo – CEO, Integral Sande & Exclusive Sales Agent for Nigeria, FIFA Match Hospitality Programme

4. Tega Onojaife –Renowned Sportscaster & Founder, Ladies In Sports

5. Mozez Praiz – SuperSports Presenter

6. Michael D Williams – Head, Marketing &Media Sales, EbonyLife TV

7. Abiola Bakare – Sales Manager, Kenya Airways

8. Kayode Tijani – Veteran Sports Journalist & Curator, Nigerian Sports Library

9. Vinod Kaurani – Tripberry

Sam Adeleke and Biola Kazeem will be moderating either of the two panel sessions.

Also scheduled is a session where representatives of different sports association join in the conversation on the peculiarities of their beloved sports of choice and how tourism can be applied.

The venue is Golfview Hotel & Suites, 12, Gen. Adebayo Adeyinka Street, Ikeja GRA. It starts by 10am prompt.

Speaking on the event, the CEO, African Sports Tourism Week, Deji Ajomale-McWord said “ the question on my mind is: why have many African countries failed to understand that it is inadequate to start the bidding process – at the first place – for the hosting right of a sporting event, without carrying along sport hospitality experts? It’s like a company that hosts management meetings every week, without the presence of the Corporate Communications Manager. When such has PR disaster on its hands, who swings to its defense? Who remedizes the bad press? Who advises on the likely public perception implication of the corporate decision about to be taken?

This was exactly what happened in Asaba, this past week. 90% of the logistics disaster that characterized the opening of The African Senior Athletics Championship is traceable to loose travel and hospitality details, which are sports tourism experts forte, if only the LOC recognized that and consulted the right quarters. This is far from a blame game. It is rather a marriage proposal detailing how much the sports industry needs the tourism trade to reach its full potentials.

The truth is tourism will exist with or without sports, because there are medical, culture, business, education, culinary and other aspects of tourism. But without travel and services in its value chain, Russia 2018 would have been a pipe dream.

If only we know that survey backs the fact that sports tourists spend more than other tourists, Africa will stop trivializing sports tourism and do it right.”

When asked about what motivated African Sports Tourism Week, he said “Africa has a peculiar opportunity in sports tourism. Take golf for an example. Safari tops the list of reasons why wanderlusters come to Africa.

Coincidentally, golf is the only sport that can be blended with safari, because golf itself assembles nature on a crafted piece of land. Safari and Africa are like word and synonym. This means that Africa is a prime destination for safari golf.

We came up with African Sports Tourism Week as a platform to showcase these fine African offerings. Aside the summit, there is the Safari Tee, a golf tournament and The Travel Cup, a soccer competition between travel professionals and travel writers/media”.

The event is designed to be hosted by different African countries, every year. Interested participants can register here https://bit.ly/2vw6ugK