Angola received 129,733 tourists in 2022, 40.2 percent less than the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, when 217 thousand entered the country, reflecting, however, a recovery compared to 2020 and 2021, the general director of Angola Tourism Promotion Institute (INFOTUR).Afonso Vita told our reporter that arrivals were led, in 2022, by tourists of Portuguese origin, followed by South Africans and Chinese, and that the main Angolan destinations were places and tourist attractions in Luanda, Benguela, Malanje and Namibe.

With the boom in the tourism industry after the Covid-19 pandemic, 17,344 jobs were created, with the activity having a weight of 3.00 percent in the formation of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a target set out in the Master Plan of Tourism.

The country has a network of 364 projects, offering a notable offer of hotels, aparthotels, lounges, resorts and other areas that have emerged in recent times, capable of providing 18,482 rooms, a reasonable capacity, according to Afonso Vita.

The restaurant sector has 4,982 restaurants and similar, with 482 tourism agencies.

"The results are reasonable, which leads to more investment in the sector which, in terms of attractiveness, has a lot to offer international and domestic tourists", declared the source to define the moment of the Angolan tourism sector.

Growth strategy

One of the strategies adopted to generate attractiveness is the transformation of tourist resources into tourist products, that is, aggregating resources and making them stop being just natural resources, defining them as profitable products, so that they can have weight and improve life. of populations.

Another objective is to meet the sector's expected target and attract 10 million tourists to the country by 2030, create one million direct and indirect jobs, as well as position Angola among the 10 main tourist destinations in Africa.

For this to come to fruition, he announced, investments are underway that will boost the sector, with the implementation of three tourist development centers, one in Luanda, with an area of ​​3,096 hectares, another in Calandula, Malanje, and the Thirdly, the Okavango Hub, including the Kaza cross-border project, which brings together Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In this project, Angola will have to make major efforts, as the four partner countries are developed, holding more capital and infrastructure involved.

Resources with the potential to be transformed into tourism products are abundant, including concepts and categories such as "Culture Tourism" and "Memory Tourism", aimed mainly at the diaspora.

The list of resources available in Angola, he pointed out, includes the Miradouro da Lua, which is in the process of installing tourist equipment capable of attracting visitors; the Calandula Falls, Pungo Andongo Rocks, Tundavala Cracks, Massangano Village, Mbanza Kongo Historic Center, Maiombe Forest and the Namib Desert.

Flexibility of entries is an achievement for the sector

The tourist visa exemption for citizens of 98 countries, adopted by the Government in September, including the main sources of tourists in the world, as well as the expected opening of the Dr. António Agostinho Neto International Airport and the process of transforming resources in tourism products constitute a virtuous association of factors that can decisively boost this economic activity in the country.

These statements were made by the general director of INEFOP, who noted that such acts and decisions were not the only ones in State policy established for the vitalization of tourism, also counting as the launch of campaigns to promote tourism in Angola in media of national and international media and holding meetings such as the Investors Forum of the Angolan Okavango Region and the International Tourism Exchange in Angola (BIUR 2024).

"It was a great victory to hear about visa exemptions for 98 countries, but, in addition to those that were announced, there are others that are being included", explained Afonso Vita, who considered this Government action for the Tourism sector as a great achievement, for the selected countries are the main sources of tourists in the world.

95% of travel agencies have gone bankrupt

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in constraints on the tourism sector around the world, having a fatal impact on the Angolan market, where 95 percent of travel agencies closed and hotel businesses suffered negative effects.

According to world tourism data, in 2019, the tourism sector represented 10.4 percent of global GDP, falling to 5.5 percent in 2020.

According to Afonso Vita, the situation was negative for the business class, which out of 334 million companies, and in 2020, started to own half.

This year, the tourism context changed positively, an act that represents the strength of tourism whenever combined with transport. At African level, recovery is around 88 percent.