The Cameroonian international’s vacation in Gabon is a nice publicity stunt for Gabonese tourism, which has been heavily affected for more than a year by the Covid-19 pandemic.
For his family vacation, the former Cameroonian footballer Samuel Eto’o Fils chose the destination of Gabon. The information is given by the footballer on his Facebook page in a post published on the night of July 7-8, 2021. “Vacation in beautiful Gabon with my family,” he wrote. He does not give details on the date let alone on the place where his holidays take place in the country.
The announcement of the presence of the former Pichichi of the Spanish Liga on Gabonese soil served as a pretext for the Ministry of Tourism to promote Gabon’s tourism potential. “The beauty of its coasts and its magnificent beaches leave no African or world celebrity indifferent. This is what motivated the Cameroonian international footballer Samuel Eto’o to choose our country to spend his family vacations to the detriment of Dubai and other tourist destinations in the world. What to be proud of, confident and serene about the will of our authorities to make Gabon the most popular destination in Central Africa in order to better develop our sector to allow it to contribute considerably to the GDP ”.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a number of inconveniences in a sector which was already fragile“, recently underlined the Minister of Tourism Pascal Houangni Ambouroué, on Gabon 1ère.
New Gabon recalls that due to this situation, turnover in the tourism, hotel and catering sector in Gabon fell by 20.5% to 1.3 billion FCFA in the first quarter of 2021, according to the latest data from the Ministry of the Economy. According to the president of the Libreville Tourism Club (CTL), Jocelyne Halajko, in a recent interview with Gabonese media, operators in the tourism sector saw their turnover fall by 80% at the end of 2020.
The Ministry of Tourism and industry players have been trying for some time to find solutions for the revival of this sector which for the moment contributes only 3% to the country’s GDP. And the choice of the Gabon destination by celebrities such as Samuel Eto’o could only help to support the sector.
