Africa tourism bulletin

Tourism is rising again in Namibia and Seychelles, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo is still selling long-term potential more than reporting hard visitor gains. (visitnamibia.com.na) Namibia reported 1,444,174 foreign arrivals in 2024, up from 1,054,181 in 2023, a 37.0% increase in the government’s latest tourist statistical report. A separate 2025 industry projection put visitor arrivals up another 7.3% and tourism revenue at N$4.6 billion. (visitnamibia.com.na; thebrief.com.na) Seychelles ended 2025 above its 2024 pace and moved closer to its 2019 benchmark of 384,204 visitors, according to Tourism Seychelles. By week 15 of 2026, the National Bureau of Statistics said arrivals had slipped to 101,408, down 11.9% from 115,106 a year earlier. (tourism.gov.sc; nbs.gov.sc) The split matters because the three destinations are selling different products. Namibia is trading on road access, lodges, and wildlife circuits; Seychelles on airlift and hotel capacity; Congo on parks, rivers, and cultural sites that still need more basic tourism infrastructure. (visitnamibia.com.na; tourism.gov.sc; tourisme.gouv.cd) Congo’s tourism ministry says the sector should become a growth engine and lists public infrastructure rehabilitation, hotel and travel-agency development, and public-private partnerships as core tasks. The ministry and the National Tourism Office have spent the past two years pushing that message at investment forums rather than publishing a comparable arrivals series. (tourisme.gouv.cd; tourisme.gouv.cd) Refugee settlement is a separate pressure point in the region, especially in Namibia. The United Nations says about 6,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in the Osire settlement were included in a cash-assistance program in 2024, while Namibian state media later reported that more than 100 families had gone without that aid since January 2025. (namibia.un.org; nbcnews.na) In and around Congo, displacement is larger and more destabilizing. The 2025 regional refugee response plan said renewed violence in Mai-Ndombe pushed at least 8,000 people into the neighboring Republic of the Congo in the first four months of 2025, adding to a wider cross-border crisis tied to eastern Congo. (humanitarianaction.info) For travelers, the practical gap is visible in the data each country publishes. Seychelles posts weekly and monthly arrival counts from immigration records, and Namibia publishes annual statistical reports; Congo’s official tourism site highlights attractions and policy goals, but not a similarly current public dashboard of arrivals. (nbs.gov.sc; visitnamibia.com.na; tourisme.gouv.cd) That leaves a simple read on the bulletin: Namibia is in a measured rebound, Seychelles is still a high-volume island market with a softer 2026 start, and Congo remains a destination where official ambition is running ahead of publicly available tourism numbers. (visitnamibia.com.na; nbs.gov.sc; tourisme.gouv.cd)