France’s shadow over Africa still looms large, decades after it started decolonizing out of the continent. And no, we’re not talking about its recent forays back in, with Mali and now Central African Republic. France, one of the largest outbound tourist countries in the world, is the largest source of visitors to Africa, according to a new “Africa Tourism Report” by World Bank.
The report specifically focuses on the tourism potential in Sub-Saharan Africa, and gives numbers on the top source markets for the region, with some interesting results, as the chart on the right shows:
On the long haul air routes into the continent, a similar story plays out, though the rising Gulf airlines are changing that rapidly. Long-haul connections are dominated by a small number of foreign carriers, such as Air France, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Emirates, KLM, SWISS, and Virgin. Airline outings are strongly connected to former colonial interests and to countries with a common language. British Airways and Virgin dominate routes to Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Air France dominates routes to Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal.
The chart below shows the routes into the continent:
Rafat Ali is CEO and co-Founder of Skift.
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