Africa-Press – Uganda. Africa has an abundance of natural and cultural wonders. By telling better stories, African economies can grow their tourism industries.
In 2024, international tourism receipts reached an estimated £1.2 trillion, around 3 per cent higher than in 2023. The World Travel & Tourism Council estimates that, with the right policies, Africa’s travel and tourism sector could add £125 billion to the continent’s economy and create over 18 million new jobs during the next decade. One of the least expensive, most powerful tools to unlock this potential is storytelling: crafting narratives that make African destinations vivid, memorable, and emotionally resonant.
Why storytelling matters in tourism
People don’t just buy a bed and a flight; they buy a story they want to experience.
Bangkok in Thailand is perennially the world’s most visited city. Every year, 30 million tourists head to the Thai capital, not for its airport or hotels, but for the variety of its breathtaking natural and cultural sites and famed Thai cuisine.
But this success wasn’t by accident. The Amazing Thailand advertising campaign started in 1998 as an initial two-year response to the Asian financial crisis. Over the decades, it has promoted tourism through the lens of Thainess. It has managed to build an audience that goes beyond the classic tourism rhetoric and has been maintained even in the face of sporadic socio-political upheavals. The Tourism Authority of Thailand turned a crisis into an enduring national tourism identity that leverages unique cultural elements and local partnerships.
For African tourism, storytelling is particularly important. External narratives about the continent are dominated by a narrow story of crisis, or when favourable, safaris and sunsets. Storytelling offers a way to challenge those stereotypes by foregrounding Africa’s multilayered cultures, ancient civilisations, and contemporary cities.
Africa’s untold tourism stories
Across the continent, there are sites whose stories are far richer than the way they are currently marketed. A storytelling approach can unearth how different Africa is from its clichés.
The “Kingdom in the Sky” in Lesotho’s highlands is 1,000 metres above sea level and hosts Afriski, a rare African ski resort. Here, winter snow, pony treks, and highland folklore combine to upend assumptions about what an African holiday can be. Contrast the common image of African savannas with a storybook alpine scene in the Maloti Mountains, where Basotho herders in blankets share folktales by a fire, and the next day’s sunrise reveals tourists enjoying winter sports in Africa.
Kingdom in the Sky
Kingdom in the Sky
The Cradle of Humankind, a UNESCO World Heritage Site outside Johannesburg, contains one of the world’s richest concentrations of hominin fossils, underpinning Africa’s status as the birthplace of humanity. The almost spiritual experience of walking in the footsteps of our earliest ancestors can be emphasised to make this a once in a lifetime experience. By linking personal identity and human origins, the story sells more than a cave tour, offering a pilgrimage to humanity’s home.
Cradle of Humankind
Cradle of Humankind
The Idanre Hills in Nigeria’s Ondo State rise about 3,000 feet above sea level and are reached by 660 stone steps climbing through thick vegetation. On the plateau sit remnants of an old town and the Nine Wonders of Idanre, one being the Agbogun Footprint. According to legend, this footprint carved into the rock expands or contracts to fit the feet of any honest person, but refuses to fit those of witches, wizards, or liars. Historically, it functioned as a kind of spiritual lie-detector: an accused person whose foot did not fit was judged malevolent. Testing one’s foot in Agboogun’s Footprint transcends just a photo opportunity; it is a participatory encounter with Yorùbá cosmology, justice and belief. For its rich cultural tapestry, Idanre could turn into a heritage destination like Machu Picchu.
Many of these sites are not widely known or marketed. But they could be, with the right storytelling campaigns. By packaging these attractions with engaging narratives, African tourist boards and businesses can create new demand.
Storytelling, heritage, and UNESCO recognition
Storytelling also matters upstream, in how Africa’s heritage is recognised and protected internationally.
UNESCO has so far inscribed 108 African properties on its World Heritage List (61 cultural, 42 natural, five mixed). This is still a small share of global listings; only 9 per cent of World Heritage Sites are in Africa, while nearly half are in Europe.
Many African sites of outstanding universal value remain overlooked. Nigeria’s Great Walls of Benin (longer than the Great Wall of China) or Kano City Walls, for example, are vast pre-colonial earthworks and fortifications that once protected thriving city-states, yet remain little known internationally and sit only on UNESCO’s tentative lists.
Well-crafted narratives may be crucial to changing this, alongside other requirements like robust management plans, sustainable preservation efforts, and navigating bureaucratic hurdles. UNESCO nominations require countries to articulate why a site matters to all humanity. Storytelling can help bridge the gap from the specific to the universal.
Storytelling is not decoration; it is part of the heritage infrastructure.
Beyond the narratives
Stories generate interest, but politics, policies, and infrastructure determine whether that interest is converted into arrivals and revenue. The World Travel and Tourism Council’s Unlocking Opportunities for Travel & Tourism Growth in Africa highlights three areas where policy reform is vital: air connectivity, visa facilitation, and tourism marketing.
To capitalise on their stories, there is a need to introduce more visa-on-arrival, e-visa, and regional visa schemes to reduce friction for intra-African and international travellers.
Open-skies initiatives need to be supported to increase intra-African routes and invest in roads to lesser-known sites so that destinations like Idanre or Richat are realistically accessible. Tour guides, hospitality workers, and community hosts should be trained in interpretation, customer care and digital storytelling. This will ensure that every tour is a narrative experience, beyond a checklist. Finally, offer residents discounts and facilitated access for local content creators. Given that word-of-mouth and social media are powerful marketing tools, empowering domestic travellers to tell their own stories is both strategic and equitable.
Tourism is still a growing industry, with receipts at record levels. Africa has the landscapes, cultures, and histories to claim a larger share of that value. What is missing is not beauty or significance, but narrative.
By centring storytelling in tourism strategies from national branding to the voice of a local guide, African countries can reframe how they are imagined, attract more diverse visitors, and strengthen the case for heritage conservation. Thailand masterfully rewrote its own story. Through deliberate and sustained storytelling, this emerging market defied local challenges to achieve record-breaking visitor numbers and revenue. Thus, this opportunity for Africa is economic, epistemic, and political. It is a chance for us Africans to tell the world who we are, on our own terms.
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