联合国世界旅游组织日前发布《世界旅游业晴雨表》显示，2023年，到访非洲的国际游客数量达到6640万人次，恢复至疫情前水平的96%。其中，北非地区的国际游客数量超过疫情前水平。旅游业快速复苏为非洲国家的经济增长注入动力。当前，面对安全、交通等方面制约因素，非洲各国不断推出新的旅游行业帮扶措施，争取实现旅游业可持续、包容性增长。 Increase income and promote employment

According to data released by Statistics South Africa, from January to November 2023, the number of international tourists visiting South Africa reached 7.6 million, a year-on-year increase of 51.8%. More than half of international tourists come from outside Africa. Among them, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States are South Africa's largest sources of international tourists. In addition, the number of tourists from Asia has also increased significantly, with the number of Chinese tourists increasing by 232% to 32,000.

According to Namibian media "CONFIDENTE", in 2023, the country's tourism revenue will reach N$7.7 billion, accounting for 3.7% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The arrival of large numbers of tourists has stimulated consumer spending growth and provided key support to Namibia's hotels, restaurants and other industries. Relevant departments expect that the recovery of Namibia's tourism industry will be stronger this year and a large number of job opportunities will be created for it.

Tourism will become Zimbabwe's fastest-growing industry in 2023. According to Zimbabwe's Herald, with the recovery of global tourism and the development of Zimbabwe's transportation infrastructure and tourism, in the third quarter of 2023, Zimbabwe's tourism revenue reached US$272 million, a month-on-month increase of 24%; the number of tourists reached 495,000., a year-on-year increase of 41.9%.

The vigorous development of tourism has not only increased the foreign exchange earnings of African countries, but also provided a large number of jobs for African countries. In early November 2023, the World Travel and Tourism Council released the report "Unlocking Growth Opportunities for Travel and Tourism in Africa", showing that Africa has the potential to achieve US$168 billion in annual tourism revenue and create more than 18 million new jobs in the next 10 years. Job. By strengthening aviation infrastructure, streamlining visa processing processes, and implementing tourism marketing strategies, Africa can provide an annual growth rate of 6.5% for Africa, generate more than US$350 billion in revenue, and reshape Africa's economic landscape.

Assistance measures continue to be implemented

In order to facilitate the entry of tourists, in 2023, Angola issued a presidential decree announcing that starting from September 29, 2023, it will unilaterally implement a visa-free entry tourism policy for citizens of 98 countries, including Chinese citizens. On November 10, 2023, the new International Airport in Luanda, Angola, was completed, and international flights are planned to open in June this year. The airport has dual runways that can park and land large passenger aircraft such as the A380, and plans to handle 15 million passengers annually. After the opening of international flights, the airport will become the main gateway for interconnection between Angola and other countries around the world.

安哥拉首都罗安达拍摄的安哥拉中央银行大楼。李亚辉摄（新华社）

The federal government of Nigeria attaches great importance to the development of tourism. In the second half of 2023, it has specially established the Federal Ministry of Tourism. It has also separated the tourism management functions under the former Federal Ministry of Information and Culture and assigned them to the Ministry of Tourism, so as to better promote the country's rich cultural heritage and tourist attractions.

In September 2023, the National Tourism Administration of Morocco signed a cooperation agreement with a British airline to launch multiple direct flights from 2023 to 2024 and add more than 90,000 additional seats. The agreement aims to provide a convenient solution for European tourists to travel to Morocco. It will enable direct flights from European cities such as Paris, Geneva, Lyon, Nantes, Nice, Bristol and Porto to Rabat, Marrakesh and Agadir and other tourist cities in Morocco.

At the end of 2023, the Economic Community of West African States innovatively established a digital platform project for tourism accommodation agencies. This digital platform ranks hotels in the region based on the ECOWAS Tourism Accommodation Agency Classification Supervision Standards and provides real-time statistical data on hotels and tourists., not only increases operational transparency and fairness, reduces departmental management costs, and strengthens institutional building, but also enhances the industry competitiveness of ECOWAS countries as tourism destinations. It is reported that the platform also sets up digital spaces such as tourist attractions, tourism capacity building, tourism statistical database, and tourist reviews, which will further promote the development of regional tourism.

Actively respond to challenges

According to the forecast of the United Nations World Tourism Organization, the international tourism industry will fully return to pre-epidemic levels in 2024. The good news is that the significant improvement in visa processing and international travel facilitation will bring a large number of tourists to Africa. However, it is worth noting that the worrying security situation in some regions and the relatively lagging infrastructure construction have also become problems facing African countries. In addition, the development of tourism will put pressure on the environment. How to balance the relationship between tourism and environmental protection and achieve truly sustainable development is also the future direction of African countries.

According to Cape Verde's Island Express, Cape Verde Minister of Tourism and Transportation Carlos said that the difficulty of inter-island connectivity is one of the important factors restricting the development of local tourism. Therefore, in the 2024 budget bill, the local government mentioned solving problems such as inter-island transportation. In the next step, it plans to assign connectivity tasks to local airlines to improve flight punctuality, safety and sustainability.

On January 25, the Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism of South Sudan and the African Tourism Authority signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a strategic partnership. According to the content of the cooperation agreement, South Sudan will strengthen cooperation with the African Tourism Board and plans to hold a South Sudan tourism promotion conference within this year, aiming to showcase South Sudan's rich tourism resources, increase investment efforts, and actively shape South Sudan's positive international image and accelerate the development of South Sudan's tourism industry. Joseph Oroto, head of the Ministry of Tourism of South Sudan, emphasized that currently, there are no security issues in South Sudan, and tourists can freely visit the country's 6 national parks and 12 wildlife reserves. At the same time, South Sudan is also committed to improving infrastructure such as roads, airports, and hotels to provide better services to tourists.

Seychelles has a unique geographical environment and is the first country to write environmental resource protection into its constitution. Sustainable travel is a travel experience project that the country has been vigorously promoting. Currently, the Seshel government is promoting the "Seychelles Sustainable Tourism Certification"(SSTL) within the local hotel industry and plans to promote this certification to other tourism-related industries. Tourism practitioners in Seychelles continue to improve their service levels and launch travel products with different themes, such as cruise experience to the outer islands of Seychelles, sustainable travel experience, cultural experience, sports cultural experience, wellness spa experience, etc.