Africa set for tourists’ boom as summer bookings soar 6%

Africa is set for boom in tourist arrivals this year as summer bookings to the continent soars 6 percent ahead of last year’s record. The development is evident that global tourists are beginning to take advantage of the weak currencies across the continent to enjoy quality holidays, especially this summer across Africa.

According to the latest data from ForwardKeys, which monitors future travel patterns by analysing 14 million reservation transactions each day, the figures show a 5.9 percent increase in forward flight bookings from May to October compared with 2015, with robust growth in arrivals from across the globe as well as from within the continent.

However, Europeans are leading the summer flight bookings into Africa. Forward bookings from Europe, which holds 57 percent market share of Africa’s arrivals, is up by 6 percent, bookings from The Americas that control 15 percent of the market share also went up by 6.2 percent, while travel within Africa this summer is also impressive with 6.2 percent increment.

As well, going by ForwardKeys’ data, Nigeria is trailing behind other African destinations in global bookings into Africa for summer because the country attracts mainly business travellers, which accounts for 17 percent of the bookings this summer into Africa, while 53 percent of the bookings are for leisure purpose, which the country have not developed to appeal to global tourists like other African countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa, Kenya and even Gambia.

Explaining rationale behind the soaring bookings, Jonathan Worsley, chairman, Bench Events, which partners ForwardKeys in the data collation, said: “Many of us in the industry see the most promising opportunities for growth emerging from air travel within the continent and a number of factors are helping to drive this increase including simpler visa processes and increasing use of e-visas, as well as, improved infrastructure and lower air fares.”

According to the data, bookings made for the beginning of May onwards show that nearly all the top African destinations are seeing an increase in international arrivals. Namibia tops the list, up 31.2 percent on the previous year, with Kenya in second place, up 27.7 percent, followed by South Africa with 21.6 percent.

Sadly, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, three of the top 15 destinations in Africa, had fewer advance bookings. Olivier Jager, CEO, ForwardKeys, attributed the decline in tourism number in these countries to recent events that had negatively impacted North African region.

But while sub-Saharan Africa seems to be doing well against North Africa, Nigeria with its population, natural resources and influence has wooed less summer flight bookings from across the world.

Though a sad reality, according to Olamide Oke, a travel expert, but the fact remains that tourism and hospitality infrastructure are lacking in the country, while culture, which should have been the biggest export is grossly neglected.

“Figures from airport authorities, Immigration and other relevant bodies keep showing in-bound visitors as mainly business travellers. Yes, that is not a problem. All we need is collaboration between those that invite the business travellers into the country, the companies, government and individuals to work with tour agencies that will show them Nigeria beyond the oil. The so-called business traveller, will turn tourist afterwards and will repeat visit to the country soon,” Oke lamented.

Citing example with Johannesburg, which heads the list for scheduled international air capacity to airports in Africa and Addis Ababa, is a close second with planned total seats increase of 22 percent for the 2016 summer season.

Kelvin Akpa, a destination manager/promoter, noted that “a country must fix her infrastructure and manpower deficits in order to compete at global level or else countries that have invested over the years in infrastructure and manpower will always woo tourists in their thousands no matter how pristine the attractions in your country are.

“Imagine how much the country is losing from its underdeveloped tourism and hospitality sector, and inability to develop an aviation hub for the West African region here. We need to wake up, or else smaller African countries will be outshining us, especially now that oil is no longer a huge revenue earner.”