African countries eye Chinese tourist boom to drive travel industry revival

African countries are looking to attract more Chinese tourists as part of broader efforts to revive and grow the continent’s travel industry, delegates said at one of the continent’s largest tourism trade shows.

At Africa’s Travel Indaba 2025, held from Tuesday to Thursday in Durban, South Africa, Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Tourism Tongai Mnangagwa said the country has a “Look East” policy and is leveraging its long-standing ties with China to boost tourist arrivals from the Asian country for business, medical, and leisure purposes. “The Chinese market is growing and the fact that they have over one billion people makes them our target source market, with a certain age group interested in traveling. Inquiries are being made about Zimbabwe and they are coming,” he said. He said a group from China’s Hunan Province has confirmed plans to visit Zimbabwe, noting that the presence of Chinese businesspeople in Zimbabwe is drawing their friends and relatives, further reinforcing inbound travel. “We are working with organizations which are based in Zimbabwe and owned by Chinese nationals who are bringing Chinese tourists in groups from different provinces. All these people, when they go back, will be our billboards or ambassadors telling others about our country,” he said.

South African officials echoed similar sentiments. Thembisile Sehloho, chief marketing officer at South African Tourism, said that targeted efforts like the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme, which simplifies visa processing for Chinese and Indian nationals, are helping boost arrivals. “I can confirm that there was some significant increase in Chinese and their buyers coming through, which aligns with our strategy of growing arrivals from India and China,” Sehloho said. “The buyers from China were interested in cultural immersion and we spoke a lot about cultural and leisure tourism. Cultural tourism will get us volumes and leisure tourism will get us value. We will use the two to sell our country.”

Namibia is also ramping up its engagement with China. Sebulon Chiliho Chicalu, chief executive officer of the Namibia Tourism Board, said the country will soon launch a dedicated China strategy and increase its representation in China to four locations. “China, as a source market, remains one of our targets and we would like to attract many Chinese to visit our country. China and Namibia do a lot of business together and we would like to capitalize on that. We will hold roadshows in three cities of China to market Destination Namibia,” Chicalu said.

Tourism leaders stressed the scale of the opportunity. Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, chief executive officer of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, said China remains the “largest outbound tourism market in the world,” and African destinations must position themselves to benefit. “We saw a large delegation from India and China at Africa’s Travel Indaba. That is positive. We have been working on that for a long time,” he said. “We need to have large footprints on those two markets. The buyers from India and China were looking for products, services, and experiences we offer.” “South Africa and Africa have to make a value proposition to the Chinese and Indian market. It presents a huge opportunity and we have to take advantage of it,” he added.

Xinhua