Tourism

Inbound travel has increased considerably since 2011, and Côte d’Ivoire boasts strong potential in terms of natural beauty and a culture of hospitality. The government has also chosen tourism as one of its priority sectors, with the Ministry of Tourism implementing a strategy to make it one of the top-three contributors to GDP by 2020. A stark rise in business tourism has been a significant feature of the sector’s post-conflict evolution. The business tourism segment currently surpasses that of leisure, with spending making up 65.6% of tourism’s contribution to GDP in 2016, reaching 1.4bn, while leisure tourism contributed 34.4%, or €724.6m. The draw of business tourism has led leisure tourism stakeholders to call for more integration between the segments.

This chapter contains an interview with Siandou Fofana, Minister of Tourism.