When the 15th Magical Kenya Travel Expo (MKTE) opened this week in Nairobi, much of the attention focused on the impressive statistics.
Kenya welcomed 2.4 million international visitors in 2024, representing 15 per cent growth over the previous year.
Tourism revenues reached KSh 452 billion ($3.4 billion) and the sector supported 1.7 million (8 per cent) jobs. These figures confirm that tourism remains a vital pillar of Kenya’s economy.
However, what was equally striking at this year’s edition was the growing recognition of culture and the creative industries as a central part of Africa’s new tourism agenda.
In 2023, the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) reported that Ghana earned $3.81 billion from 1.14 million international arrivals – a number that already raised eyebrows due to the implied average spend of over $3,200 per visitor.
Those questions – around methodology, benchmarking, and verification – were never addressed.
Fast-forward to 2024, the number has jumped to a staggering $4.82 billion, with 1.28 million arrivals, according to the GTA's 2004 Ghana Tourism Report.
That means Ghana supposedly gained over $1 billion more in receipts without any clear justification or evidence of product expansion, pricing shifts, or longer visitor itineraries that could explain such a dramatic increase.
Tourism in Africa has long been defined by its natural assets. Safaris, wildlife and beaches dominate brochures and international campaigns. These remain valuable, but they are not the full story.
At MKTE, a session on Africa’s living culture reminded delegates that music, film, food, fashion, literature and festivals are not side attractions.
They are experiences in their own right, capable of drawing travellers, shaping perceptions and building entire industries.
When cultural leaders like Rex Omar from Ghana’s Black Star Experience Secretariat or Kenya’s Muthoni Ndonga of Blankets and Wine talk about creativity, they are pointing to both economic potential and cultural pride.
Africa’s creative industries
The creative industries are Africa’s soft power. Nollywood has taken Nigerian stories to the world.
Kwakye Donkor — CEO, Africa Tourism Partners
Afrobeat and Amapiano have given Africa a global soundtrack, with Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa at the heart of this movement.
Festivals from Chale Wote in Accra to Nyege Nyege in Uganda bring thousands of visitors seeking cultural immersion.
Increasingly, these events are drawing not just locals but international travellers who want authentic experiences.
What MKTE underscored is that these elements are no longer optional extras to be tacked onto safari itineraries.
They are central tourism products that must be marketed, developed and scaled.
This shift matters for several reasons.
First, it broadens the appeal of African destinations.
Not every traveller is drawn to wildlife or landscapes.
Some want to explore culinary traditions, attend music and arts festivals, or interact with contemporary African designers and filmmakers.
Creative tourism provides a different entry point into African destinations, one that appeals to younger and more diverse markets.
Second, it strengthens intra-African travel. Africans are as eager to consume their own culture as visitors from outside the continent.
A Kenyan music fan may want to travel to Accra for AfroFuture, just as a Ghanaian film lover may want to attend a South African film festival. If properly packaged, creative tourism can generate significant cross-border movement, helping to build the kind of intra-African tourism that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) envisions.
Third, creative tourism anchors economic benefits in communities.
Unlike large resorts where revenues may flow out of local economies, cultural tourism is lived and delivered by people.
Travellers spend directly on concerts, crafts, performances, art, food and fashion. This creates more inclusive tourism, where benefits are shared more widely among communities and creative entrepreneurs.
At MKTE, there was also a recognition that AfCFTA is not only about the movement of goods and services but also about culture and creativity.
AfCFTA Forum, festival
The upcoming AfCFTA Forum and Festival on Tourism, Culture and Creative Industries, scheduled for Accra in November, was highlighted as an important step in redefining the continent’s tourism future.
Emily Mburu-Ndoria, Director of Trade in Services, Investment, Intellectual Property and Digital Trade at the AfCFTA Secretariat, emphasised how integration and policy frameworks can provide the foundation for cultural and creative industries to thrive within tourism.
That gathering will provide a platform to connect the dots between creative industries and tourism, and to show how they can, together, drive economic integration.
The challenge, however, is to move from talk to action. Governments must prioritise creative industries within their tourism and economic policies.
This means investing in infrastructure such as performance venues, cultural centres and creative hubs, but also in education and training for young people entering creative professions.
Policies must also make it easier for artists and performers to move across borders, since mobility is essential if Africa is to build a shared tourism and cultural economy.
Private investors must also shift their mindset. Music festivals, fashion weeks, art fairs and gastronomy expos are not just cultural events.
They are tourism products with the potential to generate returns if marketed effectively and linked to broader travel experiences.
Similarly, tourism boards must reposition creativity not as a secondary attraction but as central to the visitor experience.
A traveller drawn to Kenya by a wildlife safari may also stay longer if offered access to music, art and cuisine.
Equally, a traveller drawn initially by a festival may choose to extend their stay to visit heritage sites or national parks.
Culture and creativity are the new currency of African tourism.
They represent not only a way of attracting visitors but also a way of telling our stories, affirming our identity and creating livelihoods.
If Africa takes them seriously, creative industries can help transform tourism into a more inclusive, resilient and competitive sector.
MKTE 2025 has shown that the continent is beginning to understand this.
The conversations in Nairobi placed creativity at the centre of Africa’s tourism agenda in a way that has not always been the case at previous gatherings.
The next step is to build on that momentum, ensuring that culture and creativity are no longer on the margins but at the very heart of how Africa presents itself to the world.
That is the frontier Africa must now embrace.
