Africa-Press – Cape verde. Cape Verde received more than 900 thousand tourists in 2023, surpassing by around 12 percent (%) the numbers from 2019, which had been the best year ever for the tourism sector in Cape Verde.
The data was revealed to Inforpress by the Minister of Tourism and Transport, Carlos Santos, who said that although the numbers have not yet been released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), which is the highest authority in this matter, the data that is coming out demonstrate that the year was “very positive” for the sector.
“The numbers that are coming out tell us that we could have ended the year 2023 with more than 900 thousand tourists welcomed in the country and these were already expected numbers. This means that we will be around 12% above the numbers recorded in the best year we have had so far, which is 2019, that is, before the pandemic”, he explained.
For Carlos Santos, these numbers demonstrate that Cape Verde is increasingly asserting itself as an international reference tourism destination, the result of work that accelerated further from 2016, the date on which the Government clearly defined that tourism It is the central sector of the Cape Verdean economy.
“According to the latest data from 2019, tourism represented around 25% of GDP, that is, of the wealth created annually, around 20% of jobs in Cape Verde are related to tourism. And when we are talking about tourism, we are not simply talking about hotels and restaurants,” he said.
“We are talking about a set of sectors that are around, from agriculture, agroindustry, culture, but also, or in a way, creative industries, transport, which are around this sector”, he added, highlighting that the results achieved in 2023 are a reflection of the hard work of the Government, municipal councils, workers, businesspeople, who also believed in Cape Verde.
By 2024, it is expected that Cape Verde will reach the goal of one million tourists, but Carlos Santos states that the issue of numbers or quantity of tourists should begin to be relegated to a different plane, stressing that the focus now should be on quality of tourists.
“It is essential that we have more tourists, obviously to gain scale, because more tourists means more revenue, but also another variable that we have to introduce into this equation is quality and, therefore, we continue to look for other niches of markets,” he explained.
And to achieve this, he highlighted that it is necessary to invest in the offer, in accommodation, in tourist infrastructures, but also in promotion, a work that began to be done in 2023 and that will be deepened in 2024.
“Islands such as Santo Antão, São Vicente and also Santiago are also beginning to welcome the largest number of tourists. We know that one of the biggest challenges we have in Cape Verde is the excessive concentration of tourism on the two main islands, Sal and Boa Vista”, he maintained.
In this sense, he highlighted the work being done within the scope of the Tourism Operational Program that covers the period 2022/26 and which aims to prepare all the islands to welcome tourists in a comfortable way, with greater security and so that they can, In fact, have a good time in the country.
“And this work has been done at the infrastructure level. We have a lot of infrastructure that we are financing through the Tourism Fund and they are reflections of what we want to do, which is the Government’s vision, which is to diversify, expand the territorial scope of tourism, bring in other market niches”, he indicated, pointing out for nature tourism, water sports and for the cultural component, with some options to diversify the offer.
In addition, he added that work is also being done on promotion with demand from other markets, namely Eastern Europe, Romania and Poland, with visible results in the year just ended.
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