HDE Connect

16/05/2026

This week’s conversations at the Africa Forward Summit and Africa CEO Forum reinforced something I believe many leaders across hospitality and travel are starting to recognize:

Africa’s next tourism growth phase will not be driven by hotels alone.
It will be driven by ecosystems.
Across both forums, there was a visible shift in how tourism and hospitality are being positioned — not simply as visitor economies, but as strategic drivers of investment, connectivity, trade, talent mobility, and long-term economic development.

One theme stood out strongly:
The destinations likely to lead over the next decade will be the ones that successfully connect:
• Aviation & accessibility
• Hospitality & experiences
• Infrastructure & investment
• Technology & AI
• Sustainability & conservation
• Business travel & MICE
• Public and private sector collaboration

In many ways, the conversation is evolving from:
“How do we attract more tourists?”
To:
“How do we build globally competitive destination economies?”

This matters because the global traveller is changing rapidly.
Travellers today increasingly evaluate destinations holistically — ease of access, digital experience, safety, sustainability, authenticity, service quality, and connected ecosystems all influence decision-making.

For Africa, this creates a significant opportunity.
The continent possesses some of the world’s strongest natural, cultural, and experiential assets. The next step is scaling the supporting ecosystems around them with the same level of ambition.

For hospitality leaders, tourism boards, airlines, governments, and investors, collaboration may now become the biggest competitive advantage.
The future of African travel will likely belong to destinations that think beyond individual assets and focus on integrated long-term value creation.

What do you think will define the most competitive African destinations over the next 10 years?

Learn more at https://lnkd.in/dWXZMuPH
HDE Connect | East Africa Guide

27/03/2026

Hotels are losing revenue to a system that no longer works.
Fragmented distribution. Rising acquisition costs. Invisible to AI search.

We fix the commercial system — not just the symptoms. Find out more at https://www.hdeconnect.com/solutions

14/01/2021

Very positive indicators in the wounded tourism sector. Hopefully other key destinations will follow similar measures.

The Indian Ocean archipelago relies on tourism for around 65% of its GDP

01/09/2020

In a move to restore traveller confidence, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has launched a Safe Travels stamp.

The idea is to give travellers peace of mind by revealing which governments and destinations have adopted Safe Travels – WTTC’s global standardised health and hygiene procedures following Covid-19.

These are based on experience and guidelines from the World Health Organisation and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The good news is All kinds of travel companies can apply for the industry stamp, including hotels, restaurants, airlines, cruise lines, tour operators, attractions, short-term rentals, car rentals, outdoor shopping providers, transportation, airports, and national and regional tourist boards.

29/06/2020

Taipei, Taiwan has won the "best leisure destination in Asia" Leisure Lifestyle Award hosted by Global Traveler magazine for the third consecutive year.

Singapore and Seoul, Korea came second and third, followed by Tokyo, Japan , Phuket, Thailand , Hong Kong , and Bangkok, Thailand .

05/06/2020

"Tourism industry has shown a strong resilience to adapt, innovate and recuperate from adversity. Tourism has a tremendous ability to rapidly transform into a much-needed source of income for public and private stakeholders alike, and lead in areas ranging from consumerconfidence, entrepreneurship, women and youth employment to technological innovation."

share this content Share this article on facebook Share this article on twitter Share this article on linkedin UNWTO Launches Global Guidelines to Restart Tourism All Regions 28 May 20 The United Nations specialized agency for tourism releases guidelines for strong and sustainable recovery Recommend...

14/02/2020

Google is adding more than 1,000 new images to Earth View, which it says is its biggest update yet to the collection of colorful landscape images from Google Earth.

Users now have the ability to use google maps as a background layer, as well as use the Google address search and address at coordinate services.

Business leaders now have immense opportunities to groom strong generation of global minded leaders who can confidently navigate any tech-driven business environment. Tech savvys who can authentically use location intelligence information to strengthen decision making as well as improving business results.

The rise of location intelligence in today's business models does not give any excuse for tech driven institutions and businesses to narture spatial business transformers.

Earth View is a collection of thousands of the most striking landscapes found in Google Earth. See the full collection at https://g.co/ev. Download the Chrom...

12/02/2020

A great meeting with Expedia Group market leaders. Incredible insights on dynamic distribution and market strategies.
Forging a stronger working relationship to deliver on our key strategic partnership goals.