Yvette De Vries, senior tour consultant with the Connecticut-based African Portfolio, has taken over as president of the Association for Promotion of Tourism to Africa (APTA). De Vries succeeds Kathryn Monaco of Primary Sales Consulting.

De Vries has been active in the African travel industry since she moved from Stellenbosch, South Africa, in the 1990s, where she worked in public relations for the South African wine industry. In the North East chapter of APTA, De Vries served as membership chair, program chair and vice president, before joining the APTA national board to serve as director of corporate membership, and more recently, trade events. She was instrumental in bringing APTA to the attention of the organizers of the New York Times Travel Show, and has been coordinating its "Focus on Africa" trade seminar for three years.

APTA is an all-volunteer, business-to-business trade association formed by a group of industry leaders in 1980 to promote tourism to Africa as a whole. It creates networking and marketing opportunities for its members, and serves as a platform for buyers and sellers in the African travel and hospitality industry to meet.

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