Celebrating the launch of the World Tourism Network (WTN) with a month of interesting events from all over the world, Mafia Island came into focus and the work it is doing as a strategy model during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mafia Island is a beach resort island in Tanzania.

Peter Byrne who is a member of the Board of World Tourism Network and the Director for Mafia Island has worked on an approach on how to continue tourism in this COVID-19 environment. In this WTN presentation, he talks about the sustainability side of the tourism industry and how this is taking form on Mafia Island.

Growth over the last few years has been incredibly strong, Peter explained, with Mafia having strong ties with Yemen and Oman and everything from small to medium to large new hotels coming online. However, due to COVID-19, this surge has gone.

In the last month, they have been developing travel contracts made with Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today, they are receiving 500 to 1,000 tourists a day who are staying on average for about a week. This is great news causing new challenges.

Now Mafia Island is dealing with keeping up with the demand for services in areas such as the capacity to deal with food and solid waste. The old attitude of leaving waste on the beach or throwing it in the bush and letting the environment deal with it is no longer an option.

One positive thing the pandemic has given us is the opportunity to take a breather on the environment and see what work needs to be done in the realm of sustainability and the “green-ness” of the industry. The new trend has travelers seeking good clean natural places to visit.

To hear more about this topic, watch the video:

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz, founder of the World Tourism Network, said as WTN launches, they have already had around 12 events, all of which can be viewed and listened to here.

Want to become a member of World Tourism Network? Click on www.wtn.travel/register

ABOUT WORLD TOURISM NETWORK

World Tourism Network is the long-overdue voice of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the travel and tourism industry around the world. By uniting efforts, WTN brings to the forefront the needs and aspirations of these businesses and their stakeholders. The network provides a voice for SMEs at major tourism meetings along with essential networking for its members representing more than 120 countries.

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