The Africa Travel Association (ATA) announced this week that dates have been set for the 38th Annual ATA World Congress in Cameroon , a country of more than 20 million people located in West Central Africa. The event will be held from May 29 to June 2 under the auspices of Honorable Minister Bello Bouba Maigari of the Ministry of Tourism and Leisure.

The 2013 event will take place in the English-speaking Southwest part of the country with a focus on Buea, the capital of the Southwest region, and Limbe, a seaside city on the southern slopes of Mount Cameroon, one of Africa’s highest peaks and largest volcanoes. Known for its rich and fertile soil, the Southwest is home to a range of
plantations, including tea, palm oil, rubber and bananas.

The region is also home to the Limbe Wildlife Center . A former zoo, today it’s a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation project with critically endangered wildlife species including gorillas, chimpanzees, and several species of monkeys, among some reptiles and birds. The Botanical Gardens next to the center offers tourists an overview of Cameroon ’s flora and fauna. Another top tourism site includes the historic eighteenth century slave trade port at Bimbia, which once was one of the busiest slave-ship departure points on Africa’s Atlantic Coast to plantations in North and South America and across the Sahara .

Delegates should plan to fly into Douala International Airport.

Africa Travel Association, info@AfricaTravelAssociation.org; www.africatravelassociation.org