Africa tourism leaders forum discusses ways to revive the sector post-Covid-19

Africa’s leading tourism operators, counting 450 delegates from 43 countries, are attending a three-day Africa Tourism Leadership Forum in Gaborone, Botswana, to discuss how to revive the industry ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic.

With intra-African travel at the top of the agenda, Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi told attendees they need to focus on ways to encourage travel to and within the continent. “This vital forum will undoubtedly provide the travel and tourism industry in Africa — and indeed the rest of the world — with a platform for exchanging ideas aimed at promoting travel to and around Africa,” Masisi said. “Tourism is a dynamic and competitive industry that requires the ability to constantly adapt to customers’ changing needs and desires as customer satisfaction, safety and enjoyment are the focus of the tourism business.”

While much of Africa looks to foreign tourism dollars, Botswana’s Tourism Minister Philda Kereng said intra-African travel was a top focus of the forum to help rebuild the industry. But African tourism insiders say there are major hurdles to intra-African travel, including poor roads and limited flights in parts of Africa, which too often force travel to a regional hub, or even outside the continent, for connecting flights to neighboring countries. German market and consumer data company Statista says Covid-19 cost Africa’s tourism sector $87 billion when the pandemic hit in 2020. But there are signs of a strong revival, with the data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization indicating that in 2022 international arrivals across Africa were up 171%.