Will Affordable Cross Border Travel Boost Regional Tourism in Africa?

Visits from one neighbouring African country to another constitutes the high numbers of tourists, according to travel trends across the continent. Cross border tourism is described as the temporary movement of people to the dividing line between two countries adjoining areas. This activity promotes the economic development of these geographical regions. This trend is well documented from Egypt down to South Africa, where people travel for trade or even to sort out family issues like funeral arrangement purposes. For example, more than 20 000 people cross the Beitbridge Border from Zimbabwe into South Africa during normal times (outside the lockdown period). This number includes those that come from far as Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, even up to DRC on a daily basis mainly to buy goods for resale back home. Beitbridge Post is one of Africa’s busiest land border crossings. Just to show that neighbouring countries supply a good number of tourists, it’s important to look at other African regions like Kenya (as indicated by the Kenya Tourism Sector Performance Report (2019) which states that the country received quite a large number of air tourists from its neighbouring countries of Uganda (223.010), Tanzania 193, 740 and Rwanda 42,321. It would not be far from the truth to say that those who arrived through land borders were much higher as traders and other visitors are among ordinary people!   While air connectivity is a major driver for the growth of international arrivals in Africa, in the southern part of the continent and as stated…

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