Open Africa

Engen Petroleum Limited is the founder sponsor of Open Africa. The company's commitment to Africa is substantiated through this initiative, with a specific focus on job creation, spreading wealth, and conservation. 

Open Africa is an indigenous, strategic African initiative to optimise the potential of sustainable tourism. Enlisting common allegiance to a cause in which all Africa's people can genuinely believe, Open Africa's vision is to turn the nature and cultural heritage of Africa into one of the most valuable resources on Earth. Nelson Mandela is its patron. 

Africa Reviewed

Open Africa is motivated by Africa's immediate needs of job creation coupled with social and economic upliftment. Most of Africa's unique resources are in rural areas, where job creation needs are greatest. Qualities of flair, friendliness, hospitality, and charisma - essential for a healthy tourism industry - are intrinsic to Africa's people. Open Africa proclaims that Africa's extraordinary visual and spiritual qualities are a resource of exceptional value in an increasingly environmentally agonised world. Stirred by humanity's severance from its soul, leaders of vision have begun to place nature and culture-based experiences high on personal, political and tourism agendas. As the birthplace of humankind, Africa is the ancestral home of all the world's people. Open Africa's vision sees a new kind of tourism as a catalyst through which the dynamic imbalance between the financial wealth of the advanced nations and the spiritual richness of Africa's heritage can be blended in a mutually beneficial exchange. 

Afrikatourism

Afrikatourism - drawn from Open Africa's vision - is a restorative, sustainable and profitable tourism sector, particular to Africa's circumstances and characteristics. It defines an entirely new, responsible, and essentially African industry, with community participation and conservation as its cornerstones. Afrikatourism highlights a niche for African supremacy in nature-interactive tourism. It can be found and experienced only in Africa. The symbol of Afrikatourism integrates the footprint from a fossilised imprint of original modern humankind recently unearthed in Southern Africa. 

The Africa Dream

To link the splendours of Africa in a continuous network of Afrikatourism Routes from the Cape to Cairo has spontaneously been called The African Dream, and the means to achieve this is the website www.openafrica.org. Route networking is the easiest and most effective way of planning and marketing tourism. There is no other form of enterprise in Africa that will create more jobs, quicker, and for less capital expenditure, than Afrikatourism. Featuring leading-edge Internet technology, the website details route participants according to their exact geographical coordinates on a map of Africa. 

Participation

To participate in The African Dream, which is free of charge, the only criteria is adherence to the values and principles of Afrikatourism. These, quite simply, entail utilizing resources sustainably in a manner that embraces community participation. The African Dream route network: 

• stimulates the development of Afrikatourism Routes, both new and existing 
• gathers information on Afrikatourism resources 
• disseminates information on Afrikatourism to potential participants and consumers. 

Developing a Model

A model of the system embracing The African Dream is being developed in South Africa, defined by principles of Afrikatourism. Namibia is the next point of focus. Once Namibia is mapped, the same process will be followed throughout Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and so on, to collectively create a tourism product unmatched anywhere in the world. Facilitated by Extension Officers in the field, each route and each participant is accurately mapped with Ground Positioning Satellite (GPS) instrumentation. Information gathered is of a spatial nature, co-ordinated for the benefit of planners & other relevant bodies. Website viewers will be able to zoom in on areas of interest and explore mapped routes. Each route displays background features & details, with listed participants and contact information. Through The African Dream, corridors of tourism development will become a reality, visibly snaking their way across the continent. The African Dream is the biggest transcontinental project ever undertaken. Despite this, it is relatively easy to accomplish. This visionary project has been developed by Noel De Villiers, founder of Open Africa.

Partnerships 

Team Africa is a partnership of corporations from all sectors, who share a commitment to the values, principles and objectives of Afrikatourism. They have the right to use the Footprint Icon and in return render expertise and assistance to Open Africa. Open Africa also has strategic alliances with leading global institutions and professionals, such as the National Monuments Council and The World Travel and Tourism Council. Influenced by Open Africa's philosophy, Pretoria University has established a Centre for Afrikatourism Studies and, among others, the Foundation for Research & Development (FRD) has mounted an Afrikatourism Thrust. Can you see beyond the "what is" of today, to the "what could be" of tomorrow? Contact us. Let's make Africa an inspired continent with a clear sense of purpose, direction and destiny. To join Open Africa, contact: 

Open Africa
P.O. Box 44814
Claremont, 7735
South Africa

Tel/fax: 27(21) 6839639 

To explore the African Dream Website:
www.openafrica.org

To send an email message:
africandream@openafrica.org