A couple of years ago at a dinner, I was sitting next to a Nigerian nonprofit executive who divides her time between Washington and Lagos. Exasperated by persistent stereotypes about Africa, she told me about Ghana’s edgy street-art scene, clubs in South Africa, fashion shows in Senegal and “Nollywood,” Nigeria’s booming film industry, which some years ago released a saucy television series about midlife crisis and menopause called “Fifty.”
It definitely made me want to visit some of these places. But Africa isn’t just attracting intrigued Europeans like me. Today, my colleague Saikou Jammeh writes about the rise of African travelers who increasingly see their own continent as “sophisticated and worth exploring.”
For most of my life, the dream travel destinations for young Africans with money lay outside the continent. Everyone with cash to spare wanted their social media to be filled with photos from the Champs-Élysées in Paris or Times Square in New York City.
That’s why I’ve been surprised by something I’ve noticed over the past few years. In the summer of 2024, I moved to Dakar, the capital of Senegal. And ever since, I’ve gotten a steady stream of texts from friends and acquaintances from other parts of Africa telling me they’re in town. For work? For a conference? Nope — on holiday.
It’s not just my circle of friends. Something is changing when it comes to travel and Africa.
The number of tourists visiting African countries grew by almost 8 percent last year — the fastest growth in the world, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. This surge isn’t being driven only by visitors from Europe or Asia. It’s being driven in large part, experts say, by a growing African middle class that is exploring the continent for the first time. And the most visible travelers — millennials and Gen Z-ers — are changing African ideas about leisure, travel and even Africa itself.
“Travel is increasingly seen as part of identity and everyday life, rather than a luxury,” said Jillian Blackbeard, chief executive of Africa’s Eden, a nonprofit that promotes African tourism. “African travelers are viewing their own continent as aspirational, sophisticated and worth exploring.”
New flights and no visas
Historically, the odds have been stacked against leisure travel here.
Most Africans still need visas to visit other African countries. Flights, too, are a challenge. Prices for flights within Africa are some of the highest in the world, and there are few direct ones. (I once had to travel via Doha, Qatar, on my way from Gambia to Namibia.)
But both issues have been improving in recent years.
Demand for air travel within Africa has been growing, and the more demand, the more airlines can put in place better routes. New airlines have sprung up across Africa; a journey from Accra, Ghana, to Johannesburg that once had to go through London or Dubai can now connect through, say, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said Omoniyi Kolade, the chief executive of SeerBit, a company that handles cross-border transactions in Africa.
And many countries, including Benin, Gambia, Kenya, Ghana and others, have scrapped visas for African passport holders in recent years. That shift, one travel influencer told me, has been a game changer.
In Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, you can now spot advertisements for groups offering “stress-free weekend getaways” to neighboring Benin for around $150.
In Dakar, I often pass by the African Renaissance Monument, an enormous bronze statue not far from where I live. Whenever I do, I hear languages and accents from across the continent. I see young people posing for photographs and filming videos that will, presumably, earn a spot on their social media timelines that might have once gone to Times Square.
“Beautiful Africa for Africans”
The perception of leisure tourism as a largely Western pursuit is changing, Blackbeard of Africa’s Eden told me.
Across Africa, television commercials and billboards promoting tourism largely feature Western-looking faces. But the internet has given rise to an explosion of travel entrepreneurs and social media influencers who are driving educated, urban young people here to see Africa as a big and beautiful place that is worth their time.
Berthold Ackon, a Ghanaian travel influencer known online as Wode Maya, traveled to Zambia, in southern Africa, this spring. He was inspired by a trip the Ghanaian president took to Zambia in February, during which he wore a loose Ghanaian garment known as a fugu. The shirt set off a wave of baffled commentary on Zambian social media from people who weren’t sure what they were seeing.
“I think it came from a place of ignorance because young people really do not know about the cultures of other African countries,” Ackon told me.
Ackon, who has visited 39 African countries, wanted to show his two million followers, mostly young people in Africa, how “lovely” Zambia is. So he took a trip, showcasing the country’s scenic landscapes alongside visits to local markets and conversations with ordinary Zambians. In one video he posted, completely soaked at the edge of Victoria Falls, he said, “God indeed took his time to create beautiful Africa for Africans.”
Ackon had planned to visit Zambia for a week; he stayed for over a month.
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