The Minister of Transport, Ricardo de Abreu, announced at World Tourism Forum the entrance of private in the management of the 17 airports that the country has at the moment.
“We need to bring to the country the major international operators in airport management by the end of this year with the spin-off of ENANA and the new concession regime,” said the minister, speaking on the second day of the World Tourism Forum held in Luanda.
According to Ricardo de Abreu, the public tender should be launched between September and October of this year. In addition, the minister announced the entry of the private sector in the management of the sector and rail network of the country.
Ricardo de Abreu reported that the Ministry of Transport is available – within the framework of liberalization and market opening – to license new domestic flight operators. The objective, he stressed, is to allow more low cost airlines to enter the country to cover the niche of inter-provincial flights.
The minister of Transport recalled that the certification of Catumbela and Luanda airports is at an advanced stage, at a time when the air transport segment is taking 74 percent of passengers to Angola.
In the Forum, it was clear that tourism must take on the inevitable integration with other sectors: Transport, Energy, Water and Environment.
In the panel “Tourism in Angola: reality and perspective”, the ministers of Transport, Ricardo de Abreu, Energy and Water, João Baptista Borges and Environment, Paula Cristina Coelho, showed that tourism in the country will only be possible if there is articulation.
Tourist resorts
The tourism hubs of Cabo-Ledo, Calandula and the Okavango Zambezi (KAZA) will benefit from electricity and water infrastructure until 2022. At this moment, priority is given to the Calandula Tourism Pole, announced the Minister of Energy and Water, João Baptista Borges.
Speaking on the panel “Tourism in Angola: reality and perspective”, the minister recalled that the challenge now is to electrify the country, especially the rural areas and the construction of the Wastewater Treatment Plant in the coastal provinces: Cabinda, Benguela and Luanda. Namibe already has a WWTP.
João Baptista Borges spoke the challenges of the sector and the role it plays in the development of tourism. The minister recalled that the country has an electrical system that already interconnects the north to the center and south, although he affirms that there is much to be done in the field of the production, transportation and distribution of energy. “Private investment is called to intervene in the sector of electricity production,” said the minister.
Tourism and Environment
The Environment sector is currently preparing an investment program for conservation areas in Angola, said Environment Minister Paula Cristina Coelho, who also spoke about the program’s rehabilitation, investment mobilization and contractual models.
The 14 conservation areas of Angola cover 12.98 percent of the national territory. The country has nine national parks, a regional natural park, Chimalavera, and two natural reserves, Luando and Ilhéu dos Pássaros, and two partial reserves, Namibe and Buffalo.
Tourists observe natural beauties in Namibe
A group of tourists, including journalists and delegates who participated in the World Forum of Tourism Angola 2019, held in Luanda from 23 to 25 of May, went to Namibe yesterday to verify the natural potentialities and beauties of the province.
Headed by Angolan Tourism Minister Ângela Bragança, the delegation includes South African, Zimbabwean, Indian and journalist investors from the respective countries. Ângela Bragança said that the visit is an opportunity to show the Namibe to the world for its insertion in the international route of tourist destinations.
“We have come to close the World Tourism Forum and show a little of Namibe, the pearl of tourism in Angola,” said the minister, who said she hopes that tourists, especially foreigners, will be convinced of the potentialities and actions that the Executive intends to develop to create the bases for developing tourism.
The minister spoke of the desert, of the rock paintings, of the sea coast and the Plan of Requalification of the Marginal of Moçâmedes as potential tourist attractions to take into account.
