Photo: Bobokine / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Africa’s business-events industry cannot reach its potential while African travellers are still priced out of crossing the continent, PrideInn Hotels managing director Hasnain Noorani has said.
Call from the Africa MICE Summit
Speaking at the ninth Africa Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) Summit, Noorani called for visa-free access across Africa, or at minimum visa charges that travellers can reasonably afford. He also highlighted the burden of expensive intra-African air travel.
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His intervention came as tourism and events leaders discussed the barriers preventing African cities from winning and hosting major conferences. Noorani said PrideInn has invested in venues able to accommodate more than 6,000 delegates at a single event, but infrastructure alone cannot overcome policies that make travel difficult or costly for potential attendees.
The wider summit discussion pointed to a basic problem: organisers can build programmes, hotels and convention centres, yet delegates may still face visa applications, fees and indirect flight routes before they can take part.
A continental gap
The concern is supported by the latest Africa Visa Openness Index, produced with the African Development Bank and African Union Commission. It found that only 28.2% of possible journeys between African countries were visa-free in 2025, while 51.1% required travellers to complete visa formalities before departure.
Kenya has made substantial progress, ranking third in the 2025 index. Its system exempts citizens of most African countries from electronic travel authorisation requirements. But continent-wide access remains uneven: Rwanda and The Gambia were the only countries offering visa-free entry to citizens of every other African state.
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That patchwork can make a continental conference a costly gamble for a small business owner, academic, artist or entrepreneur. It can also diminish delegate numbers and weaken the case for an international organiser to choose an African host city.
Why it matters
For Black communities across Africa and the diaspora, easier movement is not simply a tourism issue. It determines who can sell services, seek investment, exchange skills, attend cultural gatherings and build commercial relationships beyond colonial-era travel routes.
The African Union’s Free Movement of Persons Protocol was designed to reduce barriers to visiting, working and establishing businesses in other African countries. However, implementation has lagged behind the ambition of a more integrated continent.
Visa openness advocates argue that freer mobility can reinforce the African Continental Free Trade Area by allowing the people behind trade — entrepreneurs, service providers and investors — to meet in person. Tourism operators make a related case: a more accessible Africa could spread visitor spending beyond a small number of established destinations.
Noorani’s appeal places the hospitality sector within that broader argument. Hotels and conference venues benefit from large events, but the gains extend to airlines, restaurants, transport workers, suppliers and local creative businesses.
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The policy choices now sit with governments. Removing visas entirely may not be politically immediate everywhere, but streamlined rules and proportionate charges would be a practical step towards making African travel work for Africans.