The VA TourismPodcast

Ahead of the return of the Kriol International Jazz Festival to be held in Praia, Cabo Verde from 13-15 April, I had an exclusive conversation with the lead organizer of the event Da Silver. He tells me the festival since its inception 13 years ago has been the platform to celebrate the Kriol culture and its rich history.

My Guest is the Director General of Mozambique’s National Institute of Tourism (INATUR) Marco Dos Anjos. Marco breaks down the numbers of its new e-visa program and what it means for the tourism sector.

In today’s episode, the Chief Destination Marketing Officer of WESGRO Monika Iuel discusses the remarkable tourism recovery of the western cape province in South Africa. She was impressed with the return of this year’s ITB Berlin and also excited with the appointment of South Africa’s new Tourism Minister Patricia de lille.

Monika has a long-standing passion for Southern African tourism, a deep knowledge of the international marketplace, and strong industry relationships at home and abroad. She has extensive experience in the industry, spending the first half of her career in the inbound tourism industry, including 13 years at Tourvest Destination Management.

Monika then spent 4 years at South African Tourism, initially as Regional Director for the Americas and ultimately as General Manager International Marketing, supporting all international SA Tourism offices in Europe, Americas and Australasia. Returning once again to the private sector, Monika served for 5 years as CEO of Private Safaris, a Destination Management Company operating from offices in Cape Town and Windhoek. At the helm, she successfully steered the business to its new owners, Fairfax Financial Holdings (based in Toronto) in 2017, and together with her team, led the resultant reinvention of the business.

Deepening her love for her country and ready to promote the Western Cape province to the world, in January 2021 Monika accepted the role of Chief Marketing Officer at Wesgro, the Official Tourism, Trade, Investment and Film Agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape, where she leads an inspiring team of place marketers and aims to make the region the top choice in Africa for tourism or business.

Episode 175 is a conversation with the General Manager of the Hilton Garden Inn Nairobi Hotel, Lorenzo Baleri. Lorenzo who opened the Airport based-hotel in 2018 is proud of the achievements of the property as it turned 5 years this year. He singles out the staff as a key driver of the feat and aims to become a training hotel.

Today’s episode is an exclusive with Malawi’s new Minister of Tourism, Vera Kamtukule. The former labour minister reveals her vision for Malawi’s tourism sector and its role in the economic transformation of the country.

Vera Kamtukule is a Malawian author, writer, and publisher and was first appointed a minister of Labour on 26th January 2022.

Hon. Vera Kamtukule is a life and leadership coach; a writer and a keynote and motivational speaker who has dedicated her life to the development of people especially women and girls of all ages across the world. She achieves this by employing unequivocally non-conventional methods which inspire people to draw motivation from deep within themselves in their quest to achieve both large and small goals they never imagined were possible.

Vera is a former Chief Executive Officer for Malawi Scotland Partnership (MaSP) Even though she is not a Member of Parliament yet, Vera was appointed as a Minister of Labour in 2022 after President Dr Lazarus Chakwera dissolved his cabinet. She had served as a Deputy Minister in the same Ministry since 8th July 2020; she is the youngest female member of the cabinet.

In today’s episode, the outgoing CEO of the Namibia Tourism Board Digu Naobeb reveals the reasons behind his resignation and gives an assessment of his 20 year leadership at NTB.

My podcast today is coming to you from one of Arabian peninsula’s oldest cities of Alula where the second edition of the Best Tourism Villages is being held. Sandra Carvao, the head of Market Intelligence and Competitiveness at UNWTO unpacks the objectives of the Best Tourism Villages project and its unique role in transforming rural communities.

In today’s episode, the deputy CEO of the Uganda Tourism Board Bradford Ochieng on the sidelines of this year’s Meetings Africa outlines Uganda’s main pillars in its recovery efforts. He also delves into air access to the east African country and invites the world to the upcoming Pearl of Africa Expo.

My conversation today is with the managing co-owner of Nairobi-based African Adventure Specialists Andrew Kitema. Andrew along with his business partner Martin Tobiko Koipa have carved a niche for themselves as one of Africa’s leading young tourism businesses offering authentic and bespoke services. He takes a deep dive into Kenya and Africa’s tourism recovery while imploring the continent's governments to eliminate bottlenecks to spur growth

In today’s episode, the portfolio Director of Africa Travel Week Megan De Jager outlines activities planned for this year’s show scheduled to take place in Cape Town, South from 3-5 April. She believes the maiden WTM Africa Awards offers an exciting opportunity to reward outstanding personalities and entities who have impacted the tourism sector.

Her role includes taking full accountability for the planning and operational management of all aspects of the portfolio, contributing significantly to the development and implementation of Reed’s strategy and to deliver exceptional performance through effective collaboration, management and development of others.

As part of Megan’s role, she builds closer relationships with the key players within the industry and gains a broader insight into the fundamental issues affecting each show’s industry.

After almost 8 years working in Marketing with Tourvest, Megan joined Reed Exhibitions in 2015 as the Marketing Manager for WTM Africa and IBTM Africa where she oversaw and drove world-class branding and communications for two successful travel trade exhibitions. In 2017, Megan then assumed the role of General Marketing Manager adding the brand ILTM Africa to her portfolio. In this role, she passionately promoted the WTM Africa, ILTM Africa and IBTM Africa brands and oversaw all the events’ relative marketing aspects.

In May 2018, Megan was promoted to Portfolio General Manager for Reed Exhibitions South Africa’s Travel, Tourism and Sport department which includes various dynamic trade and consumer shows namely; WTM Africa, ILTM Africa, IBTM Africa and FIBO Global Fitness Africa. Following a year as GM, Megan was made Portfolio Director in May 2019.Megan and her team passionately use the exhibition and eventing platforms to create opportunities for Travel & Tourism industry brands to market their products and services to a captive audience through face-to-face interaction using all of the 5 senses.