Kenya leads other countries in visa requirements, while Ghana, Benin and Egypt are renovating archaeological and memorial sites to attract more tourists.
SPECIAL REPORT | POULTRY AGENCY | Tourism in Africa is experiencing a moment, two years after the sector hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some countries are pushing to end intra-African visas, while others are renovating monuments, installing new archaeological sites and introducing longer visas for the number of tourists.
By the end of the first quarter of 2023, foreign arrivals in Africa had reached 88% of pre-pandemic grades, and North Africa exceeded 2019 degrees by 4% during the same period, according to data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). ).
Kenya is waging a competitive crusade for African integration, adding the removal of visa restrictions for citizens of African countries traveling to the country for business.
Over the next five years, the country has set itself the ambitious goal of increasing its tourist numbers to 10 million, about five times the number of arrivals ever recorded, recorded in 2019.
The new control of the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB), a government company for marketing the destination, showed those goals.
“The new council begins its project as the tourism sector recovers rapidly from the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic that has brought tourism to its knees. The focus will be on quick wins to strengthen arrivals,” said KTB President Francis Givhaba. said in a statement.
Kenya’s tourism recovery rate in terms of arrivals is already 72. 4% of pre-pandemic figures, to a global recovery figure of 63%, according to Kenya’s 2022 Annual Tourism Performance Report.
Since May, Kenya has announced the removal of visa restrictions for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Djibouti and the Comoros.
In February, the governments of Botswana and Namibia signed an agreement allowing citizens of the two southern African countries to cross their borders with passports.
Botswana also has talks with Zimbabwe to remove passport requirements between their countries. Other countries that have recently begun talks to remove visa barriers are the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
Memorial tourism is gaining traction in Africa as governments invest in reclaiming cultural and ancient sites.
Ghana needs to see one million tourists each year stopping at the newly renovated Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park. As the first African country to gain independence from colonial rule, this cultural heritage site is of great importance to all other people of African descent and the domain has been closed for renovation since 2015.
New attractions come with a presidential library and Freedom Walk.
“Kwame Nkrumah’s burial place will have to be commensurate with his status as a notable pan-Africanist of this generation and his remarkable contribution to the liberation of Africa from colonialism and imperialism,” Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo said at the park reopening. . -opening.
The country now plans to build more parks and museums.
In Benin, a vast tourist and memorial complex is being built in the coastal city of Ouidah. The city was once one of the busiest slave trading ports in Africa. Door of no return.
Work to improve the domain began in 2020 and will come with the historic reconstruction of a slave ship, gardens of reminiscences and memorabilia, an artisan village and a hotel. The task is expected to position the country as a top destination for diaspora tourists.
In Egypt, several archaeological museums, one of the oldest, the Greco-Roman Museum, are being renovated and modernized, as the country accelerates the commercialization of its “civilization journey. “
The country’s latest project, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), which is expected to be the world’s largest archaeological museum complex, housing more than 100,000 artifacts, can be imagined until the end of 2023, according to independent news site grandegyptianmuseum. org.
The advent of a 5-year multiple-entry visa, the extension of some tourist visas to 3 months, and cashless bills at museums are just some of the measures taken to increase arrivals in Egypt and inspire longer stays.
Between January and June, Egypt recorded more than 7 million tourist arrivals and the country expects this figure to exceed 15 million by the end of the year, up from 11 million in 2022.
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SOURCE: By Conrad Onyango, Bird Story Agency