CATCH-UP: Investment Driving Africa’s Travel & Tourism Value Chain

Elcia Grandcourt
Regional Director Africa Department, UNWTO

Originally from the Seychelles, Elcia joined the World Tourism Organisation, a United Nations specialised Agency for Tourism in 2013 as Director, of the Regional Department for Africa.

She began her tourism career studying Hotel Management in Singapore at the Singapore Hotel Association and Education Centre (SHATEC). Thereafter, she occupied various positions in operations, reservations and sales mainly in hotels, including leading international brands such as Le Meridien and Hilton Worldwide Resorts. She was part of the rebranding team when Hilton Worldwide Resorts took over the management of the then Northolme hotel in Seychelles.

She worked with the Seychelles national airline and destination management companies before joining the public sector to Seychelles Tourism Board as deputy CEO before being promoted to Chief Executive Officer, a position she occupied prior to joining UNWTO. Passionate about tourism, Elcia is honoured to be able to contribute towards sustainable tourism development in Africa.

Elcia also holds a Master in Dynamics of Cooperation, Conflicts and Negotiation in International Relations and Diplomacy

Jacques Nel
Head of Africa Macro of NKC African Economics

After completing his MComm Economics at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, Jacques joined the Insight & Reach Department at Mxit, a pioneering social media platform. In 2013, Jacques joined NKC as a junior economist, covering a number of African economies and tasked with the in-house forecasts for several commodity prices. Since then he has developed a focus on Southern and East Africa, and is now the Head of Africa Macroeconomics at NKC African Economics.

Ramsay Rankoussi
Vice President,  Development: Africa & Turkey
Radisson Hotel Group

Based in Dubai, Ramsay leads Radisson Hotel Group’s strategic growth across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa with a team based in Dubai and Cape Town. He recently expanded his role as the Head of Development for Africa, further demonstrating the commitment of the company across the continent.

Tasked with increasing the Group’s hotel portfolio and footprint in his assigned markets, the Group’s largest geographical area, Ramsay is an expert dealmaker, leading transactions from sourcing through to execution. 

He is proficient in legal contract negotiations, due diligence and financial analysis. He oversees the underwriting, strategic planning, investment analysis and asset management activities for all type of deal structuring, including conversions and take overs, financial commitments, franchise and straight management agreements.

A Belgian national, Ramsay is fluent in multiple languages and with a multi-cultural background. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and an MBA specialized in Hotel Real Estate Finance and Asset Management from the ESSEC Business School (IMHI) in Paris.

Rick Taylor
International Tourism Consultant
and CEO of The Business Tourism Company

Rick Taylor is a South African with a solid foundation rooted in the advertising industry having served as Managing Director of two leading international advertising agencies.

Rick has over 25 years experience in the tourism industry dealing at the highest levels of international, national and local government, and the private sector. He served as CEO of Cape Metropolitan Tourism for 7 years where he established the first convention bureau in Africa – Cape Town Convention Bureau – and later as Head of the National Convention Bureau for South African Tourism.

Rick is a former board member of a number of African and international tourism associations (for example Destination Marketing Association International USA; South African Minister of Tourism and Environment’s Strategic Management Team; Chair – Western Cape Tourism Board; Tourism Business Council of South Africa; Chair – South African Meetings Industry Federation; Chair – South African Federation of Convention Cities; Cape Film Commission; and Chair – Great Wine Capitals of the World amongst others).

Rick has been CEO of The Business Tourism Company since 2005 during which time he has delivered more than 100 diverse tourism projects in Southern Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Europe, Australia, Asia and the Caribbean on both leisure and business tourism strategy development. He is the strategic architect of eight Convention Bureaus’ in Africa (SANCB, Cape Town, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Togo, Tanzania and Kenya).

He was the IMEX 2011 Africa and Middle East Academy Award winner in Frankfurt, and the Africa Meetings Industry Personality of the Year 2016 presented in Addis Ababa.

Alexander Woods
Membership and Partnership Manager:
Invest Africa

In his role, Alexander manages UK members and global partnerships for the leading pan-African business platform that promotes trade and investment in Africa.

Invest Africa has a global footprint of more than 400 member companies, comprising multinationals, private equity firms, institutional investors, development finance institutions, professional service organisations, government bodies and entrepreneurs.

David Goodger
Managing Director of Tourism Economics EMEA

David Goodger is the Managing Director of Tourism Economics EMEA. His team produces global forecasts of travel and tourism flows based on Oxford Economics’ global macroeconomic outlook. This includes the global tourism database of tourism flows and spending, covering 185 countries; the global city travel database of 300 cities; the air passenger forecast database; as well as the hotel performance forecast models developed in conjunction with STR; and custom forecast models. David’s team also carries out economic impact analysis including TSA calculations and custom studies for specific tourism markets. This has included a range of diverse topics such as the importance of online interactions for destinations; and the importance of events for city destinations including the development of the Event Impact Calculator. David regularly presents on the economic and tourism outlook as well as key forecast risk factors.