Customers value individual choices and flexibility in tour services, notes Wang, whose business offers tailored itineraries, airport pick-ups and drop-offs, Chinese-speaking guides, and Chinese cuisine.

According to Statistics South Africa, the number of international tourists arriving in South Africa saw a significant surge last year, with the total number of Chinese tourists reaching 37,000, representing a year-on-year increase of 205.5 percent.

The Tanzanian tourism department estimated that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Tanzania grew from roughly 34,000 in 2019 to approximately 44,000 in 2023.

According to the China-Africa Belt and Road cooperation development report released in October 2023 by the Office of the Leading Group for Promoting the Belt and Road Initiative, China has signed bilateral tourism cooperation agreements with 31 African countries and designated 34 African countries as outbound group tour destinations for Chinese citizens. Additionally, China and Africa have established 166 pairs of sister cities.

Both sides have been actively inviting each other to participate in tourism exhibitions and organize tourism promotion events, thereby creating platforms for the tourism sectors of China and Africa to exchange experiences, discuss business opportunities, and promote tourism products. China has also launched a bilateral cultural and tourism training cooperation plan to work with African countries in strengthening tourism capacity-building efforts.

Tourism industries of both sides have unique characteristics and are highly complementary, leading to mutual interaction, says Song Wei, professor with the School of International Relations and Diplomacy, Beijing Foreign Studies University.

With the deepening of the BRI, China and Africa have achieved fruitful results in areas, such as facilitating tourism visas, increasing direct flights, enhancing tourism safety and quality, and improving hotel and scenic spot infrastructure, as well as promoting tourism routes, Song notes.

Song suggests that China and Africa could further collaborate in infrastructure development, digital network capability building, and environmental and biodiversity protection to elevate bilateral tourism cooperation, so things can be more convenient for global tourists to explore Africa.

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