Africa recorded the fastest tourism growth of any region in the world in 2025, up 8% to 81.3 million international arrivals, outpacing Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas. Much of that growth concentrated in North and Southern Africa. Nigeria, despite extraordinary cultural diversity, a coastline, heritage sites, and a globally influential entertainment industry, has not captured a proportionate share, held back by funding constraints, infrastructure gaps, and security perceptions.

This panel brings together practitioners, policymakers, and destination experts to examine what Nigeria's credible role in Africa's tourism boom looks like, and how the country positions itself within a continental growth story rather than competing for attention against it.

Focus Discussion Areas:

• What does Africa's 2025 tourism growth, led by Morocco, Egypt, and other North and Southern African markets, tell Nigeria about what is working elsewhere on the continent, and what is transferable?
• What are Nigeria's most underdeveloped but commercially viable tourism destinations, and what would make them investment-ready?
• How should Nigeria's destination marketing be structured, and how does it plug into pan-African tourism promotion rather than operate in isolation?
• What role can state governments play in building tourism offerings beyond Lagos and Abuja?
• How do security perceptions, both domestic and international, affect Nigeria's ability to attract visitors, and what strategies from other African markets that have managed similar perceptions are working?

Africa's global cultural footprint has never been larger, and diaspora homecomings, Afrobeats tourism, and heritage travel are among the fastest-growing visitor economy drivers on the continent. Nigeria's Detty December has shown that a single cultural moment can move tens of thousands of visitors and generate hundreds of millions in economic activity, and comparable moments are emerging elsewhere on the continent, from Ghana's Year of Return follow-through to South Africa's festival calendar. Much of that value still leaks out of the formal tourism economy through poor coordination, inadequate accommodation supply, inflated pricing, and missed ancillary revenue.

This panel examines how Africa, with Nigeria as a leading example, converts cultural influence into a structured, year-round visitor economy, and what the travel industry needs to do to capture and retain that value.

Focus Discussion Areas:

• How large is the diaspora travel opportunity across Africa, and what does the data say about diaspora traveller spending patterns, preferences, and unmet needs?
• What can the travel industry learn from the event, hospitality, and logistics infrastructure built around Nigeria's Detty December, and how does it apply to comparable moments elsewhere on the continent?
• How do airlines, hotels, and tour operators build products and packages specifically designed for diaspora and cultural travellers across African markets, rather than treating them as an afterthought?
• What is the role of digital creators, influencers, and entertainment industry figures, many of them Nigerian, in shaping travel decisions toward Africa broadly, and how should the industry engage them strategically?
• How does Africa build a heritage and cultural tourism offer that can stand alongside its entertainment appeal?

For Africa's tourism sector to convert its growth rate into durable economic value, the industry needs to professionalise from the inside out. Technology adoption, including AI, augmented reality, and digital payment solutions, is reshaping how travel is booked and delivered across African markets, and digital booking platforms are becoming the norm. Structural challenges persist across much of the continent, including Nigeria: inconsistent power supply, inadequate transport infrastructure, and workforce skill gaps that require sustained collaboration between operators, government, and vocational institutions.

This panel examines the business case for investing in African tourism infrastructure, using Nigeria as a working example, the technology tools reshaping how the sector operates, and what it takes to build a workforce capable of delivering world-class visitor experiences. Focus Discussion Areas:

• Where are the most compelling investment opportunities in African tourism infrastructure, using Nigeria's hospitality and travel sector as a case study, and what returns are realistic?
• What financing structures are available to hospitality developers and travel entrepreneurs across Africa, and how are DFIs and impact investors engaging with the sector?
• How are African travel technology companies competing with global booking and distribution platforms, and what does the product landscape need to look like to serve African consumers better?
• What is the state of hospitality workforce training and standards in Nigeria and comparable African markets, and how do operators build and retain talent in a sector with high attrition?
• How should the industry use data on visitor flows, spending, preferences, and destination performance across Africa to make smarter decisions, and what would a credible continental tourism intelligence infrastructure look like?