{"id":10816,"date":"2026-11-06T09:15:50","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T09:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/06\/africas-next-tourism-boom-could-come-from-own-travellers-new-study-finds-businessday-ng\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T09:15:50","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T09:15:50","slug":"africas-next-tourism-boom-could-come-from-own-travellers-new-study-finds-businessday-ng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/06\/africas-next-tourism-boom-could-come-from-own-travellers-new-study-finds-businessday-ng\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa\u2019s next tourism boom could come from own travellers, new study finds – Businessday NG"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa is emerging as one of the world\u2019s most promising sources of international travellers, with outbound tourism spending across five major African markets expected to reach $30.4 billion by 2030, according to new research launched at World Travel Market London this November.\n<\/p>\n

The study, Africa in Motion: The Next Great Traveller \u2013 produced by Skift, a global travel intelligence company, and commissioned by the Millat Group, challenges an industry that has traditionally viewed Africa as somewhere international tourists visit, rather than a market generating significant travel demand of its own.\n<\/p>\n

Examining Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, the research forecasts that outbound trips from the five markets will increase from $13.3 million in 2025 to $19.4 million by 2035. Outbound spending is projected to rise by approximately 61 percent over the five years to 2030.\n<\/p>\n

But the findings of the study, which was researched by Skift between December 2025 and July 2026, also expose serious weaknesses in the infrastructure needed to support that growth, including inadequate air connectivity, high travel costs and a shortage of accommodation aimed at middle-income travellers.\n<\/p>\n

Speaking on the study, Hamza Farooqui, founder and CEO, Millat Group, said that the international tourism industry needs to fundamentally rethink Africa\u2019s place in the global travel economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor decades, the conversation has been about bringing tourists to Africa. That\u2019s important, but it\u2019s only half the story. Africans are travelling, spending money and supporting tourism industries around the world. Yet we still haven\u2019t built a travel and hospitality system that properly serves them,\u201d Farooqui said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to stop treating the African traveller as an afterthought. This is a serious market, and it deserves serious investment.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

One of the study\u2019s most striking findings concerns Nigeria. Although it ranks seventh of eight markets examined for outbound departures, it leads in spending at $7.7 billion, approximately 41 percent more than South Africa despite generating only around one-fifth as many trips.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cRank African markets by trip counts and you will back the wrong ones,\u201d Michelle Gounden, director, Insights, Skift, said. \u201cNigeria sends a fraction of South Africa\u2019s travellers abroad and outspends them by 41 percent. In this corridor the money follows family, faith and business, and anyone chasing headcount\u2019s will miss it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The research also reveals a substantial mismatch between interest in visiting Africa and actual knowledge of its destinations. Across 14 international source markets, potential visitors expressed greater interest in visiting African destinations than their familiarity with those destinations would suggest.<\/p>\n

India and the United Arab Emirates showed the strongest forward travel intentions at 32 percent and 29 percent respectively, compared with 16 percent in the United States of America.\n<\/p>\n

The findings raise questions about why so much African destination marketing remains concentrated on traditional Western markets.\n<\/p>\n

Air connectivity presents another challenge.\n<\/p>\n

Although intra-African travel accounts for around 40 percent of international arrivals on the continent, only around 19 percent of intra-African routes are served by direct flights.
Passengers departing African airports pay the world\u2019s highest taxes and charges, averaging $68 per international departure compared with $32 in Europe. In West Africa, the figure reaches $109.50.\n<\/p>\n

According to the research, African airlines generated just 90 US cents in profit per passenger in 2024, compared with $15.20 for Middle Eastern carriers.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Africa\u2019s hotel development pipeline of 123,846 rooms remains heavily concentrated in the luxury segment. Only 14 of the 168 hotel brands with signed deals in Africa sit in the economy or midscale categories where much of the future growth opportunity lies.\n<\/p>\n

Farooqui said that these imbalances require a coordinated response from governments, airlines, hotel operators and investors.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot keep talking about Africa\u2019s tourism potential while making it difficult and expensive for Africans to travel across their own continent.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need better connections between our cities, more accessible capital and accommodation that reflects how people actually travel. And we need to develop African businesses and operating expertise, not simply rely on international brands to deliver that growth,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

The research identifies the Middle East as a critical link in Africa\u2019s expanding tourism economy, both as a destination and as an aviation hub connecting African travellers to Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n

Approximately 28 percent of South Africa\u2019s connecting traffic to Europe travels through Gulf hubs, demonstrating the increasingly important role of the Africa\u2013Middle East\u2013Europe corridor.
Farooqui believes the findings provide a starting point for a new discussion about investment and tourism policy.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAfrica does not need another conversation about its potential. We know the opportunity exists. What we need now is to connect the markets, finance the infrastructure and build businesses that allow Africans to participate fully in the global travel economy,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

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Businessday NG<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa is emerging as one of the world\u2019s most promising sources of international travellers, with outbound tourism spending across five major African markets expected to reach $30.4 billion by 2030,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}