Full Video: Investing in the Future of African Tourism

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.

In this video:

• Africa’s travel potential is underrecognized despite strong fundamentals: a young, growing middle class, improving connectivity, and increasing demand for authentic experiences. Hamza Farooqui believes that Africa is the next growth frontier for global tourism.

• Farooqui calls for reciprocal travel ecosystems — where value and movement flow both ways — supported by intentional investment, aviation connectivity, and technology-driven infrastructure.

• He envisions the Gulf-Africa corridor as a powerful growth engine, linking capital, labor, and culture, while positioning Africa as a hub of authentic, experience-led travel defined by collaboration and scale.

Hamza Farooqui, CEO and founder of Millat Group, emphasized Africa’s untapped potential as a global frontier for travel growth. While many still view the continent through a lens of poverty or instability, Farooqui highlighted Africa’s authentic cultural richness, natural assets, and young, upwardly mobile population as powerful tailwinds. He explained that as global travelers seek more meaningful, experience-driven journeys, Africa offers both the depth and diversity to meet this demand. What’s needed, he said, is more intentional investment and global recognition of the region’s scale and execution capability.

Representing Africa on the executive committee of the World Travel & Tourism Council, Farooqui described his goal as advancing not just Africa’s interests but the evolution of the global travel ecosystem. He urged industry leaders to think beyond short-term profit and toward reciprocity, creating a system where tourism benefits flow in both directions and serve broader social and economic development goals. Travel, he argued, should be treated as a “currency of change” with the power to connect and uplift regions.

Farooqui also discussed the emerging corridor between Africa and the Gulf, powered by aviation, technology, and investment. He sees the GCC’s collective ambition and Africa’s youth and resources as complementary forces that can redefine global travel flows. Looking ahead to 2026, his focus is on building collaboration, scale, and data-backed growth across the African travel industry.

This content was created collaboratively by Millat Group and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.