Francophone Africa tourism grows but value leaks to foreign booking platforms

In 2025, Francophone Africa welcomed 81 million international tourists, up 16% from pre‑pandemic 2019 and 8% from 2024, generating $43 billion in international tourism receipts in 2024. The sector contributed $228 billion to Africa’s GDP—about 5%—and employed 30.2 million people, with projections placing the market value at roughly $350 billion by 2035. Yet the digital distribution of this tourism is dominated by Western platforms such as Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia and GetYourGuide, which capture most commissions and visibility, leaving local guesthouses and lodges largely invisible online.

Why does this matter? The asymmetry means that value produced in Africa finances growth of foreign tech firms headquartered in Amsterdam or San Francisco, while African operators remain dependent on informal channels like WhatsApp and social media. In Francophone West Africa, despite strong cultural and ecotourism appeal, offerings stay invisible on global OTAs, limiting intra‑African travel and depriving local economies of the full benefits of tourism growth.

What should stakeholders know or do? Building locally owned travel‑tech infrastructure that integrates mobile money (Wave, Orange Money, MTN MoMo), offers progressive formalization for informal operators, and leverages AI for pricing and recommendations can retain value on the continent. Initiatives like Morocco’s Nuitee, which raised a $48 million Series A in December 2024, show the opportunity. Will African investors and policymakers back such homegrown platforms to capture tourism revenue, or will foreign OTAs continue to siphon the gains?

SOURCE: https://techcabal.com/2026/06/23/francophone-weekly-by-techcabal-028/