The Ivorian government aims to increase the contribution of the Tourism and Leisure sector to GDP by 10% in 2025 against 7.3% in 2019 and 1.8% in 2021 due to Covid-19.

The announcement was made by the Director General of the Tourism and Hotel Industry, Klo Fagama, who was speaking on “The development of tourism in Côte d'Ivoire”, on Tuesday, April 12, 2022 in Abidjan, at the press conference “Tout Savoir Sur” of the Center for Information and Government Communication (Cicg), broadcast live on the official government Facebook page www.facebook.com/gouvci.

To revitalize this sector strongly impacted by Covid-19, Klo Fagama indicated that imminent and short-term projects, whose cumulative amount is 500 billion CFA francs, are planned.

These are the “Tour de la Nation” project, which involves the construction of a five-star hotel with 225 rooms on the Plateau, the project to build the three Twin Towers on the AIP site, the project to rehabilitate and extend the Golf Hotel and the project to develop a 1,000-room Resort on the Dalhia Fleur site with an area of 148 hectares.

There is also the project to promote tourism in Cocody Bay, the project to rehabilitate State hotel heritage establishments within the framework of CAN 2023 in Abidjan and Yamoussoukro and the project to rehabilitate and upgrade the RANHOTEL and the construction of a Noom Hotel in Bouaké.

Other projects are planned in the medium term. Among others, the “KAMA hotels” project in the country's secondary cities, the “Smart City of BIAFRA” project in Treichville, the “Serena Village” and “the Promenade du Monde” projects in Marcory, the project to create 15 parks, spaces and integrated leisure centers, etc.

In terms of the training of quality human resources in the sector, in addition to the University of San-Pedro, which has a tourism sector, the Daoukro Higher School of Tourism and Hospitality will open soon, according to Klo Fagama. The Yamoussoukro Tourism and Hotel Institute, which will have a subregional vocation, and the establishment of seven training centers, are also planned.

The volume of public and private investments in the tourism sector in Côte d'Ivoire between 2014 and 2021 amounted to 817 billion CFA francs, and 132,000 jobs were created at the end of 2020 against 113,000 in 2016, according to Klo Fagama.

Ultimately, the government will need to increase the number of international tourists to 5 million by 2025 against 2.07 million in 2019.