African executives have emphasized the need for policy and legislative changes to unlock the continent’s vast coastal tourism potential.
Speaking on Thursday, industry leaders highlighted the importance of attracting investment to develop key infrastructure, including roads, electricity, clean water, and sanitation, to enhance tourism along Africa’s coastlines.
According to katakenya.org, convened by Africa’s Green Economy Summit and ESI Africa, an information dissemination firm, the virtual forum brought together policymakers, industry executives, and fund managers to explore innovative ways to unlock investments in the continent’s blue and green economies.
Coastal tourism in Africa is projected to surpass 100 billion U.S. dollars in value by 2030, creating 28 million jobs, noted Victor Shitakha, board chairman for Kenya Coast Tourism Association.
According to Shitakha, 80 percent of Africa’s tourism is concentrated in coastal towns, necessitating the urgency to conserve marine ecosystems, improve visa issuance to foreign visitors, revamp road networks, and ease access to critical services like health and banking.
“We need to fast-track implementation of open skies policy in the continent, harmonize travel, conserve beaches even as we engage key actors like divers, tour guides, and artifacts traders to make our coastal areas attractive to tourists,” Shitakha said.
In 2024, Africa received 92 million or 6 percent of the 1.5 billion tourists who traveled around the globe, Shitakha said, stressing the need for the continent to diversify tourist products to boost arrivals.
Africa’s coastal tourism holds the key to accelerating economic growth, creating new jobs for the youth, and enhancing the continent’s resilience in the face of climate change and geopolitical tensions, said Abel Sakhau, chief sustainability officer at Sanlam Group, a financial services group headquartered in South Africa.
Sakhau emphasized that fiscal incentives are key to unlocking foreign and domestic capital flow into Africa’s coastal tourism, stimulating the growth of start-ups aligned with the sector.
Judy Kepher-Gona, founder and executive director of Sustainable Travel and Tourism Africa, a consulting firm based in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, said the sector’s resilience hinges on investors’ willingness to adopt green ethos, upskill the workforce, and diversify to culture and heritage.
Investors should empower local custodians of scenic attractions while forging partnerships with regulators to improve governance in the tourism sector, Kepher-Gona said.
