Africa: Online Marketing 'Crucial for Africa' - AllAfrica.com

Julius BaumannJohannesburg

CELLPHONE engineering will play a critical function in Africa when the continent is merchandising and selling itself as an international touristry finish online, states Damian Cook, mendelevium of Vitamin E Tourism Africa.

The continent is lagging behind in footing of technological entree and advancement.

But with cellphone usage far outstripping the use of PCs and even land lines on the continent, mobile entree to the web may well be the manner forward for the online traveling sector.

"A million users around the human race are signing up as cellphone users every hr and mobile engineering is clearly the manner forward. Africa, where cellphones are already the preferable manner of communicating, could take the remainder of the human race in mobile access," states Cook.

He states most tourers now go with their telephones and would increasingly look to them to entree information about their finish or even book hotels or flights. "There is some exciting mobile engineering that volition let users to transact using their telephones with ease."

E Tourism Africa is a continental enterprise to develop a sustainable and just online touristry sector in Africa and Cook is in the state to establish the first Vitamin Vitamin E Tourism conference in Sturmarbeiteilung to take topographic point in Johannesburg in September. A similar conference will take topographic point in Cape Town in June adjacent year.

The conferences purpose to educate and supply resources to both public and private sectors to enable the displacement from traditional gross sales channels to online channels.

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Cook states while in the United States more than 70% of travelers book through the internet, in Africa barely 2% of all touristry gross sales are done online. "This is mainly because outside of Sturmarbeiteilung and Egypt, e-commerce is not allowed in most African states in the sense that there is no enabling statute law to allow trading online," states Cook.

He warns that if Africa makes not catch up to the remainder of the human race quickly, most of its hotel and air hose stock list could stop up being sold offshore by large online participants overseas.

The focusing of the conferences will be on 2010, which Cook believes could profit more than than just SA. Many of those approaching to Sturmarbeiteilung for the 2010 Soccer World Cup are long-haul visitors and may look to widen their stay in Africa. Cook states online selling will be important for African finishes in attracting these visitants to their shores.