Week
In terms of the tourism business, Sub-Saharan Africa’s youth inhabitants must be seen as one of many continent’s best strengths. With 70% beneath the age of 30, there’s a generational alternative to drive a brand new type of business. One which promotes native values, inclusive development, local weather motion, and solidifies a brand new voice for the continent within the international enviornment.
Tourism is among the world’s nice equalizers—at the very least in concept. It guarantees cultural change, financial alternative, and shared expertise throughout borders. However because the business begins one other peak season, we should ask: who’s writing the script? And who’s being overlooked of the body?
This Could, the UN might be asking these questions once they elect their new Secretary Common for Tourism. This position leads the worldwide agenda—shaping coverage, mobilizing funding, and figuring out which voices set the course for one of many world’s most impactful industries. It’s time for a forward-looking voice that prioritizes South-South cooperation, understands the youth perspective and works with companions within the area to construct inclusive tourism techniques.
First, it’s time to decenter the business and put native African innovation first. For too lengthy, a handful of establishments, locations, and gatekeepers have formed the agenda. The International South—dwelling to a few of the most culturally and ecologically wealthy areas on Earth—wants greater than a seat on the desk. It wants co-authorship of the business’s future.
That begins with elevating tourism ministries from underrepresented areas, investing in rural and Indigenous-led tourism, and redirecting capital towards sustainable infrastructure the place it’s wanted most. Throughout Africa, we’re already seeing steps to showcase and assist the following wave of entrepreneurs. The EU’s Areas of Tradition 2025 is a programme geared toward collaboration between Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. Initiatives like this could result in additional journey to the area and alternatives for cultural industries to drive financial development in lots of nations. It’s about strategic storytelling and creating cultural ecosystems that convey accountable tourism and deepen native influence.
Second, we should modernize. Africa’s technological panorama has skilled vital development lately, marked by elevated web penetration, cellular connectivity, and startup investments. Know-how shouldn’t be a luxurious. AI, information analytics, and good cellular platforms have to be used to personalize journey, optimize flows, and make tourism extra equitable. Small and medium-sized operators want entry to the identical digital infrastructure and coaching as international manufacturers. Africa’s younger inhabitants are digital leaders who’ve grown up related like no technology earlier than. This represents a possibility to include new tech, create jobs, and switch connectivity into shared prosperity.
Lastly, we should lead with native values. Regeneration—not simply restoration—must be the business’s North Star. Which means embedding sustainability into procurement techniques, incentivizing eco-design, and measuring success not simply by arrival counts, however by group well-being and environmental stewardship. Examples like TUI Group, who’re partnering with native organizations to develop funding initiatives in socially sustainable methods, must be the norm. When tourism is aligned with native values, it turns into constructed on resilience.
This UN election is greater than a management alternative—it’s an opportunity to resolve the type of tourism future Africans need. The query isn’t whether or not tourism will develop—it’s going to. The query is: will there be a system that’s inclusive, resilient, and climate-aligned with the following generations or will we merely develop the previous mannequin, with all its embedded inequities?
Tourism can do greater than generate jobs and income—it might empower communities, strengthen local weather motion, and elevate African voices on the worldwide stage. It’s time for the continent not simply to take part within the tourism financial system, however to steer it—by itself phrases.
To compete and lead on this new period, that should change. Africa is not only a vacation spot—it’s a driver of tourism’s future. I consider we are able to make it inclusive, climate-aligned and fit-for-purpose for our new international period.
Shaikha Al Nowais is the UAE’s candidate for Secretary-Common of the United Nations World Tourism Group.
