With most African countries encountering challenges of acquiring vaccines, prospects of immediate tourism recovery are slim. The region, according to experts, will likely experience a prolonged return to normalcy, but, despite this outlook, some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are leading the race to turn the corner much, to the expectation of tourism players and governments alike. Reports say that the SSA tourism industry is likely to start its recovery in early 2022-2023, therefore, indications are that reaching pre-COVID-19 tourism levels could take much longer, to around two or three more years later. The island nations of Africa seem to be leading the race, with Seychelles taking the number one spot following the fast rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine program. This recovery remains vulnerable to upsurges in COVID-19 cases, increasing the risk of the reinstatement of local and global government restrictions. This has already happened following the recent discovery of the Omicron variant that has seen the UK, USA and other European source markets banning travel to and from South Africa and most of its neighbours including Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. African countries that have followed suit in restricting travel to the region are Rwanda, Mauritius, Angola and Egypt. While the pandemic has triggered an unprecedented crisis in Africa’s tourism industry, still, a growing middle class and young population seem to be boding well for travel businesses while tapping domestic tourism demand will rejuvenate the sector. Despite that, across much of Africa, pandemic-induced lockdowns and grounded flights had…
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