The last word goes to Sarah-Jayne Aldridge, a former Business Travel Awards judge with a wealth of experience of managing travel to and within Africa. “It is a grave mistake to look at Africa as one destination,” she says. “There are some intra-national similarities but, from a travel management perspective, the continent is as diverse as it is vast. The op- portunities – and the travel management challenges – vary enormously from country to country.”
She points out that various countries in Cotonou, Benin
WARNINGS FOR THE UNWARY From the travel management company (TMC) perspective, Sonja Hamman, di- rector at South Africa-based Wings Travel Management’s global oil and gas division, has a catalogue of warnings for the unwary. “Operating in certain areas of Africa is not easy – if it was, everyone would be here themselves,” she says. “Many global TMCs rely on local agencies in Africa to supply services via a joint-venture or fran- chise affiliate.
“In our experience, there is very little alignment between the services offered by the global TMC and their partners in Africa. This often results in frustrating inconsisten- cies with processes, data capture, reporting and, most importantly, service levels. “Bookings made with travel agents ‘in
country’ are often not handed off to the company’s third party security vendors lik International SOS, resulting in a serious gap in traveller tracking and reporting. Additionally, there are multiple low-cost carriers operating within these markets that are booked via travel agents or company travel coordinators in country. “Again, these bookings are being missed
from any travel tracker reporting, thereby significantly impacting the company’s duty- of-care to their travellers.” So far, so bad – but Hamman remains optimistic. “Oil and minerals have been a key component of the growth of the continent and, at present, the slump in consumption is having an effect. But the middle class will grow as new industries move into the continent – in some ways it is a chicken-and-egg situation. “Ghana is an area that is showing real promise and one where we are working
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“Africa is one to watch – with caution for now, but also with confidence for the future”
with clients to explore opportunities. The most-likely spin-off benefits of an African middle class would be a larger choice, and improved quality, of hotels and restaurants, plus – hopefully – it would also result in a decrease in crime and an improvement in the standards of the general infrastructure.”
The ‘clean’ list
BERLIN-BASED TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL’S latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) shows that Botswana is reckoned to be the ‘cleanest’ African nation, ranked 28th in the table of 177 countries (the UK shares tenth place with Germany and Luxembourg). The monitoring
organisation has been publishing the annual
CPI since 1995, ranking countries “by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys”. The organisation
generally defines corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”. Of the 177 countries included in the report, Somalia shares bottom place with North Korea, and 14 of the 25 “most
corrupt” countries are in Africa.
After Somalia, African nations with the worst corruption records, in ascending order, are Sudan, South Sudan, Angola, Libya, Guinea Bissau, Eritrea,
Zimbabwe, Burundi, the Republic of the Congo, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Uganda.
BBT JULY/AUGUST 2016 81
Europe have wide disparities, and are not viewed as a homogenous entity. “That said, there some common denominators that travel management professionals need to bear in mind,” she says. “Africa encompasses some of the poorest countries in the world, and that means that crime and corrup- tion remain rife in many, but by no means all, countries.” That poverty and a relatively small affluent middle class often means a lack of travel/transport infrastructure. “Gener- ally speaking, the roads are awful, the rail network is all but non-existent, and aviation safety and security standards are, in many instances, questionable.” But on the plus side, she says: “In
my experience, customer service deliv- ery is generally excellent – low wages mean that travel suppliers and inter- mediaries can afford to maintain labour- intensive workforces.” Aldridge adds: “Inward investment, notably from China, is already having a significant positive economic effect in many parts of the continent. Africa is one to watch – with caution for now, but also with confidence for the future.”˜
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