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The Angolan tourism sector stands as one of the country's greatest opportunities for investment. The industry has developed slowly so far, representing less than 1% of GDP. Tourism revenues came in close to USD395 million in 2019, with 217,000 foreign visitors recorded, before taking a hit due to COVID-19. Professional tourism prevails over leisure tourism, since 153,000 of the aforementioned trips were business related.

The number of total visitors, however, has dramatically fallen since 2014, when the economic crisis caused by a drop in oil prices and the depreciation of the local currency wiped out an important part of the country’s wealth.

Despite its tiny size in comparison to other African nations (Egypt received over 13 million visitors in 2019, Morocco over 12 million, and South Africa over 10 million), the tourism sector has a great deal to offer international travelers, and the Angolan authorities are perfectly aware of the incredible potential they have in their hands. To unleash this potential, the government is deploying a series of programs, the ultimate objective of which is to give Angola much-needed visibility in international markets.

Afonso Vita, Director of the Institute for the Promotion of Tourism (INFOTUR), who we sat down with for this publication, recently launched the “Juntos e todos pelo turismo” (Together, united for tourism) campaign featuring Angolan model Maria Borges with the aim of drawing attention to Angola overseas.

However, there is also much to do on the supply side. Infrastructure stands as one of the greatest disadvantages for the actual development of the industry, although many steps have been taken in the last five years. In the words of Ramiro Barreira, President of AHRA: “We have had a rapid and significant evolution over the past five years. We have a large hotel sector, with 235 three- to fivestar hotels. We also have apartments, guesthouses, and motels, comprising around 1,700 units in total. We identify Angola as a country with a vast value chain in the hotel sector and notable structural weight in Africa.”