Amadeus, UNWTO and Kenya Partner to Foster Job Creation in Travel and Tourism Sectors

Juan Torres, East Africa Regional GM, Amadeus IT Group; Taleb Rifai, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General; and Lazarus Amayo, the High Commissioner in the UK from the Kenyan Ministry of Tourism, signed the global CSR plan.

Amadeus, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Tourism Ministry of Kenya have signed an agreement to provide youth and women of underprivileged communities with access to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in travel and tourism.

The pilot programme, to be launched in Kenya before the end of 2017, will include training for local communities through Amadeus customers. The initiative is expected to be replicated in countries around the world.

Amadeus will be encouraging multiple stakeholders in the travel and tourism sector in Kenya – including hotels, travel agencies, tour operators, and airlines – to support the project’s development and implementation.

“This industry-wide collaboration is necessary to ensure that these young people gain experience with businesses throughout the travel and tourism sector during and training, and develop practical skills needed to enter the job market or the supply chain”, Amadeus said in an announcement.

“With 1,186 million international tourist arrivals in 2015, tourism is not only a catalyst for development but also for inclusion”, Taleb Rifai, UNWTO Secretary-General, said.

“Though in most regions women make up the majority of the tourism workforce, they tend to be concentrated in the lowest paid and lowest status jobs, and perform a large amount of unpaid work in family tourism businesses. We thus need to work together to ensure women can access better jobs in tourism.”

“Tourism is a key backbone to the region’s economic development, with a projected growth of 16% by the end of 2016. This initiative enables us to empower women and our youth whilst building our local tourism and travel industry”, Najib Balala, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Tourism, said in an announcement.

Amadeus invites other travel industry partners and governmental institutions to join the initiative in continuing to shape a better and more sustainable future for all, through travel and tourism.