Africa’s tourism industry has always been a major contributor to the continent’s economic growth, thanks to the unrivalled cultural experiences, stunning landscapes and one-of-a-kind wildlife safaris. Statista estimates that it contributed 5.9% to Africa’s GDP in 2022, up from 4.4% the previous year.

As the world goes back into normalcy post-pandemic, Africa’s tourism numbers will only continue to grow, with Europe firmly at the centre of this growth. But what does the future of marketing to European tourists look like, and how can locations and brands ensure they are heard above all the noise?

Evolving European travel preferences

European travellers’ preferences are gradually skewing towards authentic, sustainable, and immersive experiences. Booking.com’s 2023 Sustainable Travel Report found that 76% of the respondents are looking towards more sustainable travel options. The stereotypical vacation is no longer enough, and they are seeking adventures infused with local cultures, communities and nature. This means that African destinations are ideally positioned to appeal to this generation of travellers.

Additionally, the pandemic has contributed to a shift in travel behaviour and intimate experiences prioritising health and wellness have become more appealing. European travellers are also looking to digital platforms for inspiration, and influencers, social media and digital content play a major role when making travel decisions.

Storytelling: The key to marketing African tourism

Storytelling will be crucial when marketing African tourism to Europe. African destinations’ stories are fascinating – stories of heritage, culture and idyllic landscapes. These narratives draw in the European traveller, as they offer a deeper connection to the destinations. Brands that can tap into this will stand out among the rest.

“We understand the power of storytelling, which is why our approach is to craft compelling and authentic stories that resonate with European audiences. Content marketing, strategic communication and social media campaigns are just some of the ways we bring stories to life, ensuring they land every time with the target audience,” says Emma Cox, Executive Creative Director at Irvine Partners.

Digital campaigns and sustainability messaging

Marketing campaigns will not only need to be digital focused, as a result of the massive influence of social media, the content will also need to be engaging enough to capture traveller’s attention. This will include everything from outstanding visuals and videos, blog posts, influencer collaborations and even virtual tours.

Innovation, such as Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality will also play a key role when it comes to digital campaigns. These will continue to transform travellers’ experiences, even before they arrive at their destination.

European tourists place great value on sustainable tourism. One survey found that 86% of Britons stated that sustainability was important to them. African destinations will have to showcase their sustainability efforts, conservation and responsible tourism. Increasingly, travellers want to know how their visits impact local communities and the environment.

Overcoming challenges when marketing African tourism

Africa’s tourism potential is unmatched, but challenges still exist, which can be overcome by effective marketing and PR campaigns. Outdated views on the continent’s accessibility, infrastructure and safety persist, especially for first time visitors. Combating these views requires a public relations strategy, highlighting the modern, vibrant and safe destinations that the African continent has to offer.

Language and cultural barriers can also result in instances where the message gets lost in translation. Europe is not homogenous and each country has its own tastes and preferences. Successful marketing strategies require an understanding of these differences and in turn, tailoring messages accordingly for each market.

“In our decade long experience, we have found the most success when we tailor messaging for each market. This is why it was imperative that we have offices in the UK and Germany, to ensure that any campaigns we work on have local nuance,” concludes Cox.

Bright future

The future of marketing African tourism to Europeans is very promising. With the right strategies, centering storytelling, digital engagement, technology and sustainability, African destinations can flourish and take their rightful place on the global tourism landscape.

Afrobeat sensation and Nigerian music star, Rema, will this week share his inspiring story on CNN International’s African Voices Changemakers, sponsored by Globacom.

Born Divine Ikubor, the 24-year-old Edo-born singer-songwriter, discovered his passion for music in church and school. His big break came after posting a viral freestyle on Instagram, catching D’Prince’s attention. This led to a record deal with Jonzing World, a subsidiary of Mavin Records, owned by Don Jazzy.

Rema’s global ascension gained momentum in 2022 with the release of his hit single “Calm Down”. The song’s massive success led to a collaboration with American pop sensation Selena Gomez, propelling it to greater heights.  Notably ‘Calm Down” reached number three on the prestigious Billboard Hot 100 chart, number one on Billboard Afrobeats Songs chart, where it held the top spot for a record- breaking 58 weeks.

His star status was crowned on November 7, 2022, when he received an award for achieving 1 billion streams worldwide during his London concert, in addition to performing at the Ballon d’Or ceremony held at the Theatre du Châtelet in Paris, France on October 30, 2023.

The interesting episode of African Voices awaits viewers on CNN on Saturday at 8.30 a.m., with repeats at noon the same day.  More repeats come up on Sunday at 4.30 a.m., 7.00 p.m. and on Monday at 4.00 a.m.

By Linda Saunders, Director Solutions Engineering, Africa Salesforce

AI is advancing rapidly, capturing the attention of CEOs, CTOs, and CIOs with its proven ability to boost productivity, enhance employee performance, and improve customer relationships.

We are entering the third wave of AI where autonomous AI agents will go beyond simply generating and analysing content, as chatbots and copilots did in the first and second waves and will be able to reason and autonomously take action for human colleagues. Indeed, they’ll work 24/7 to tackle individual, low-value, time-consuming tasks or collaborate with other agents to get larger, more complex jobs and projects done.

In sales, for example, they’ll engage with prospects, answer questions, manage objections, and schedule meetings based on CRM and external data, allowing sellers to focus on building deeper customer relationships. With dynamic, conversational self-service, they can be configured to answer customer questions using companies’ existing knowledge base so they can automatically resolve account access. They can also triage registration and payment issues, directing customers to the appropriate resources.

Put simply, the future of AI is agents, and it’s here. Companies need to get ready to implement fast as these autonomous agents will become central to organizations’ customer engagement and experience strategies.

Working together, these customisable agents can autonomously take action on tasks and free up workers to focus on the jobs only they can do.

At Dreamforce, Salesforce unveiled Agentforce – a groundbreaking suite of customizable, autonomous agents and tools, makes it easy for customers to build their own ‘agent force’ — a revolutionary step forward in enterprise AI that will boost productivity, efficiency, and customer satisfaction across service, sales, marketing, commerce, and more. Agentforce is how humans with AI drive customer success together and it’s been designed so that any organisation can build, customise, and deploy their own agents quickly and easily, with low-code tools.]

Complementing skills, and ensuring accountability

The leap from generative to agentic AI will transform how humans work.

Despite business eagerness to experiment with and deploy AI, many still worry about how to do so safely, how to keep data under their control, and make sure they can trust the AI’s output.

There is considerable concern about AI ‌displacing workers or becoming too powerful and working at odds with humans.

Agents require guardrails, and they have to be monitored to make sure that they’re doing what they’re supposed to.

Success requires not just finding the AI models or building AI actions that best suit a company’s needs but having the infrastructure and data security to do so responsibly.

Audit trails are necessary to hold autonomous AI agents accountable, just as employers might establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to keep human workers marching toward their expected goals.

It’s important to think about the role of agents at work as a partnership between people and AI. Complementing skills and intelligence will bring better business outcomes.

While agents can orchestrate complex actions on behalf of the user, they require those skills to be configured and need a degree of hand-holding to perform at their best.

Businesses need to take their employees on the AI journey. They will require training to work with autonomous AI agents because they need context and onboarding much like new employees.

Setting direction, clear goals, and giving feedback ultimately helps AI train itself better.

The future of work is a hybrid workforce

Together, agents with humans will drive customer success. This is what AI is meant to be.

Every company has more jobs to be done than the resources available to do them. As a result, many jobs go unaddressed or uncompleted.

An estimated 41% of employee time is spent on repetitive, low-impact work, and 65% of desk workers believe generative AI will allow them to be more strategic, according to the Salesforce Trends in AI Report.

However, it’s essential for AI agents to understand and execute their expansive capabilities. It’s equally, if not more, important for them to recognize their limitations and understand when human intervention is necessary.

The future of work is a hybrid workforce composed of humans with agents, enabling companies to compete in an ever-changing world. With AI, humans can focus on what’s really important: human relationships.