African Tourism to grow in 2024 following Visa-free regime

African Tourism to grow in 2024 as more countries tear up visa regulations, high numbers in Intra-Africa tourism is coming up.

With more nations continuing to remove visa requirements and open their borders to other African nations, African nations will rise in 2024.

The majority of African nations made great progress in 2023 towards liberalising their visa policies;

Rwanda and Kenya, together with Gambia, Benin and Seychelles are the most recent to fully do away with need for visas for all African tourists.

Kenya’s move to a visa-free travel policy is resulting in nearly 10,000 applications for the new Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA). This permits foreign people to enter or exit the nation by air in just the first week of January 2024.

According to Kenya’s Immigration Principal Secretary Julius Bitok, the Immigration Department processes the applications in accordance with the travel schedules that each applicant provides.
Kenya anticipates that the new system will enable it to more than treble its annual tourism arrivals from 2 million to 5 million.

According to the African Development Bank’s 2023 Africa Visa Openness Index, 50 nations increased their openness scores.

The surge in bilateral and sometimes multilateral agreements fully waives visa requirements is the reason for the increase.

Boost Trade and Tourism

To boost trade and tourism, African nations are making a greater effort in the new year to support people’s freedom of movement throughout the continent.

Maintaining the current pace of visa liberalisation is essential to achieving the goals of “Africa We Want.”                                      Adopting liberal visa policies will not only make travel easier but also greatly improve cross-border investment, trade in goods and services.

And shared prosperity, according to Marie-Laure, vice president of the African Development Bank Group for Regional Development, Integration.

The research claims that visa liberalisation has significantly improved throughout the continent.                                                            Even in regional groups like the East African Community and the Southern Africa Development Cooperation.

Angola, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe are a some of the nations that are improving in opening their borders to tourists.

Angola extended its visa-free policy to a number of African nations in October 2023.

A deal allowing citizens of Zimbabwe and Botswana to visit each other for up to 90 days annually without requiring a passport, visa, or work permit was signed later in December.

Uganda and DRC

Uganda and DRC are doing away with the demand for visas for each other’s nationals joining Kenya and Rwanda.                                                                                                                         For the inhabitants of Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan require a visa-on-arrival policy.

All this provides more integration inside the East Africa Community area leading to African Tourism to grow in 2024.

Official government data from Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania indicate that there is a growing receptiveness towards African visitors.

This is evidenced by the already increasing number of Africans who visit adjacent countries.

According to a survey by Kenya’s Tourism Research Institute, African nationals make up 42.19% of visitors that Kenya whereas 34.47% for Europeans, 11% for Americans, and 9% for Asians.

Tourist Exit Survey Report 2023

The Tourist Exit Survey Report 2023 states that leisure, holidays, and recreational activities accounted for 39.4% of the reasons people visited the location; business-related activities accounted for just 27.2% of visits, and visiting friends and family accounted for 20.6%.

Additionally the poll shows that respondents don’t just travel for their primary objective but also for other purposes.                    Researchers from Tourism Research Institute found that 54% of respondents who were on transportation, 50% of them go for shopping as their other main activity.

According to figures from Tanzania’s National Bureau of Statistics 2023 between January and August, Kenya accounted 128,753.        All are African arrivals, Burundi follows with (69,505), Zambia (38,394), Rwanda (37,269) and Uganda (28,594).

Kenya has more arrivals during this time than the United States (84,541) and France (72,009) all together.                                          More people arrived from Burundi than from Germany (57,798), the UK (51,505) and Italy (51,056).

Similar trends are observed in South Africa where Statistics South Africa data shows despite negative attitudes towards other African nationals.                                                                                                                                                                                            A mentality known as “racism,” tourists from the rest of Africa made up a significant 75.8% of all arrivals, or 3.6 million tourists, between January and July 2023.

Tanzania’s National Bureau of Statistics 2023 data, shows Zimbabwe and Kenya stand out for their remarkable growth.

Zimbabwe is seeing an exceptional 115.6% increase in tourist arrivals, totalling 1.2 million.                                                                  While Kenya is recording a 110.2% surge during the period under review, compared to 2022.

Demand for Leisure Travel in Africa

Demand for leisure travel in Africa will remain robust in 2024, according to yet another report.                                                                    The WTM Global Travel Report shows that nine out of Africa’s 10 largest domestic leisure travel markets are likely to enjoy greater amounts of domestic travel spend in 2024 compared to 2019.

“The outlook for leisure travel demand in 2024 remains robust.                                                                                                                  In the post-pandemic era, travel demand has persistently defied the macroeconomic backdrop upon which it typically relies,” the report adds.

Egypt will retain its position as the largest destination for inbound luxury travel receipts, with inbound leisure spending expected to return US$12.2 billion to the economy, according to WTM.

Mauritius is anticipated to jump up the rankings table, from seventh in 2019 to the sixth-largest inbound market in Africa in 2024. Ethiopia is going to enter the top 10 as the eighth largest destination for domestic travel spend in 2024, up from 12th in 2019.

It will likely push Angola from eighth in 2019 to 10th in 2024, and Tunisia from 10th in 2019.

“Consumers are exhibiting a propensity to prioritise spending on travel above other categories of discretionary.

Other top luxury destinations in Africa are South Africa and Kenya.                                                                                                        Nigeria is the only market where domestic demand is expected to remain below 2019 levels in 2024.

Compiled by

World Travel News, Gorilla Trekking Uganda and Gorilla Trekking Rwanda