Ministry of tourism and cultural affairs and National Tourist Board welcome German and Swiss Press Team on a Tourism Familiarization to Sierra Leone.
The Press team from Germany and Switzerland visit to Sierra Leone is as a result of the aggressive tourism positioning pursued by the dynamic leadership at the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and its sub vented agency National Tourist Board to promote Sierra Leone International (ITB BERLIN 2019) being one of such venture that has yielded this visit.

ITB Berlin is the most popularly attended Travel and Trade Show in Europe by the crème de la crème of tourism worldwide.
The display and engagement of sector players on the potentials of tourism Sierra Leone exhibits outside of the continent is critical to image rebranding process of a competitive and multidisciplinary industry.
The Press team will be in Sierra Leone for seven days familiarizing themselves with our rich, unique and authentic tourism destination, scaling for themselves our niche that will be promoted in the global tourism sphere (destination marketing) a key driver or pull factor that informs tourism growth.
Tourism can contribute substantially to developing the people of our country as it is a highly labour intensive industry accommodating a wide spectrum of skilled and semiskilled labour thus the importance been placed on tourism by government as a priority sector and conduit for economic diversification.
The Acting General Manager National Tourist Board in her opening highlighted the exigency placed by the Ministry to domestically and internationally market Sierra Leone’s vantage tourism potential in the global market. Our engagements gave birth to the historic visit of a German and Swiss Press led by our agent KPRN to get an empirical research of the destination, a critical data that destination marketing Companies will rely on as magnets of travel choice to prospective tourists.
Sierra Leone has strong potentials for tourism development which is the crux of the Fam Tour. It has excellent beaches and islands, mountains and rich biodiversity, interesting wildlife, friendliness and rich social and cultural capital packaged as a surprising tourism destination.
The German Ambassador to Sierra Leone Horst Gruner in his statement welcoming the team emphasized that within a short stay in Sierra Leone, he can authoritatively state that the country is a fantastic tourist destination little known worldwide but with special qualities that will magnetize any visitor. He reiterated that Sierra Leone is a gem for tourists globally that may want to see new trends in the industry.
Such visit by journalists from Europe is a major effort in generating interest and impressions outside of the country which is a viable platform for partnership, trade, investment and the tourism promotion.
Dr. M’baimba Lamin Baryoh the Sierra Leone Ambassador to Germany in his submission noted, that Sierra Leone is ripe for tourism bearing in mind the indicators of political stability, political will to support and leverage the tourism infrastructure for the transformation of the sector.
Germany and Sierra Leone enjoy friendship over decades but tourism is opening new frontiers of development worthy of effective collaboration and entreat the team to be brand ambassadors of our tourism globally.
Sierra Leone under this government is positioning the country as a viable global trade partner that attracts investment in priority sectors tourism being key.
Hanna Kleber is head of KPRN network one of the leading communication, public relation and marketing agencies for the travel industry and Sierra Leone’s tourism representative in Germany and Switzerland also leads the Familiarization mission to Sierra Leone.
My passion for the continent of Africa to realize a valuable market share of the tourism value especially that Sierra Leone to benefits from the tremendous tourism potential is critical to the data sought by this Fam Visit says Hannah.
Knowing well the industry the government inherited, various strides were facilitated by a dedicated team in the ministry and its sub vented agency to upscale our tourism marketing and promotion internationally by attending significant Trade Fairs and Exhibitions thus rebranding Sierra Leone a success we are feeling tonight by this Fam Visit of German and Swiss Press says Madam Memunatu Pratt Sierra Leone’s Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs.
Relaunching Sierra Leone in the global competitive tourism sphere requires a framework developed to match our competitors. That experiential model for travel agents, tour operators and other tourism professionals is Familiarization Visit/Trip or Tours. The visit to Sierra Leone constitute the promotion of the host destination directly to selected and targeted tourism pro’s that are given empirical experience of the vantage pedestal that the specific destination offerings to visitors.