African Destination to
Watch Out For.
BY ADEGBULU KAYODE
Tourism in Africa has taken an upward turn,
Africa is becoming the next destination for
tourists all over the world. The once labelled
Dark Continent in recent times has begun
to create value by harnessing her potentials
particularly in the area of tourism serving
the rest of the world. Countries like Ghana,
South Africa and Seychelles are currently
making waves and are big players while
other countries like Nigeria, Liberia, and
Kenya etc. are beginning to take
revolutionary steps in transforming their
tourism industry all together accounting for
a small part of the world’s tourism market.
According to a 2016 United Nations world
tourism organization report, the continent
of Africa records 53.3 million international
tourist arrivals in the year 2015. This
statistics perhaps projects Africa as a
destination to watch out for when it comes
to international tourism.
Inadvertently, the continent secured
$33billion in tourism the same year with 3%
of global market share in terms of revenue
and 5% in terms of tourist numbers, making
it a prime zone for investment for
interested investors and also opening up
future market for other businesses. South
Africa has enjoyed a 3% rise in gross
domestic product (GDP) growth in 2016,
also created 575,000 new jobs in 2015 and
730,000 in 2016. In Ghana, the tourism
industry employed an estimated 393,000
people directly and indirectly from hotels,
restaurants, travel trade, entertainment,
recreational etc.
Seychelles