Improved Transport since AEAC incorporation!

JAMAFEST and FESPAD are the two events taking place in the East Africa, all over the continent, and they are interlinking the EASTFRICAN and/or the PANAFRICAN culture and dance. This has a great role to the socio-economic development of the region, when we consider their impact on regional tourism. It is a process whereby Africans become best teachers to any foreigner sitting with the intention of feeling attracted with the beauty from Africa.

First, JAMAFEST has come as a code name to the EAC Arts and Culture Festival that was created from Jumui ya Afrika ya Afrika ya MasharikiUtamaduni Festival. It is a Branding tool of communication to anybody who is interested and who is willing to invest in Africa especially EACs. In the other hand, FESPAD (Festival Panafricain de la Danse) is also aiming at promoting peace and unity throughout Dance by strengthening the link between people and communities.

How are these two elements pertinent at developing tourism in Africa? Are they related to the globalized African development?

Tourists are travelling people with the aim of exploring by the sense of knowing how other people live, behave and even they sometimes learn to live with different societies. They may be travelling in terms of different purposes such as tourism of research and conferences, leisure and even cultural exploration.

Leisure, always play a great role in easing actions. According to researchers from India, anything which is escorted by entertainment can emerge from the fact that leisure is the center of attraction to everybody. This is to say through JAMAFEST and FESPAD African countries get result from unifying what African people believe as their culture and this belief is seen as a surprise to strangers. Different arts like dance, art exhibitions and sales, workshops and symposiums, live performances, fashion shows are typical elements of the two events that are at the center of attraction to the tourists.

If we have about fifty thousand tourists in Africa, only 30% of them should be coming for the other purpose beside leisure and fun! By having fun they come up with new discoveries, increase their knowledge and spend for the African benefit (lodges, restaurants, sales and having fun of course). It implies that research concentrates mostly on leisure rather than any other kind of exploring the nature. Even the important thing that attracts tourists in a certain area is how much fun they got there, which may be diverse with different personal researches.

By foreigner’s travelling, the African united Dance and Culture can raise the rate of tourism in Africa. When the rate adds value, touristic income will also be at the paramount stage. Cultural tourism has been defined as the movement of persons to cultural attractions away from their normal place of residence, with the intention to gather new information and experiences to satisfy their cultural needs. These cultural needs can include the solidification of one's own cultural identity, by observing the exotic other new beliefs. Furthermore, African cultural success is the result of organizing such festivals relating to strengthen rich cultural heritage by seeking a form of identity to the Africa culture.

It is obvious that cultural tourism has a direct impact on the National revenue for all touristic countries because it has to create new work opportunities, industries, several investments to serve and raise nations’ performances and cultures and also distributes their history, civilizations and traditions. By then, if JAMAFEST/FESPAD attracts tourists in the form of leisure, they will get the maximum of the African exotic people; when at the other side, tourists come for the purpose of cultural exploration this is another angle of the two festivals.

Within this spectrum of tourism development, countries such as Kenya in the east, Mauritius and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, Morocco and Tunisia in the North, South Africa and Zimbabwe in the South, and Ivory Cost and Senegal in the west, (the so-called African success stories), have a well established tourism 14 industry. So Land locked countries like Rwanda, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, and so on, are prepared to get the chance of updating their cultural recognition in the course of JAMAFEST/FESPAD.

The direct result will be got at once because the brand is unifying a global culture in Africa, most of the tourists will be interested to move faster to the identified couple of events that can answer directly to their needs. This identification is leading our culture to the extent to which investors will invest in a specific and organized product that is The Pan-African incorporated culture.
The Africa’s development of tourism in general, and the development of cultural tourism in particular, are at its incipient stage. However there is a great variation in the level of tourism development in the 53 African countries. When this strength is put together the impact will no longer vary in a negative way and it will be a general case to all Africans.

There is broad agreement that cultural resources-like JAMAFEST and FESPAD- generate economic vitality by leveraging human capital and culture to generate economic vitality through tourism, crafts, and cultural attractions. Programs based on such resources may restore, revitalize or strengthen the African community or neighborhood by serving as a centerpiece for redevelopment and cultural renewal.