At a Glance
- Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar lead tourism recovery, generating significant foreign exchange earnings.
- Smaller islands like Comoros, Cape Verde, and São Tomé attract niche eco-tourism and adventure travelers.
- Tourism earnings support infrastructure, jobs, and economic stability across Africa’s six island nations.
Africa’s six island nations, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros, Cape Verde, and São Tomé & Príncipe, are seeing a strong tourism rebound.
From luxury resorts in Seychelles to ecotourism in Madagascar, the sector drives jobs, foreign exchange, and local investments.
Tourism receipts now exceed pre-pandemic levels in several islands, supporting public budgets, infrastructure, and sustainable growth.
Investors increasingly view these nations as resilient destinations for hospitality, real estate, and marine tourism projects, while governments prioritize eco-friendly development and cultural tourism experiences.
Tourism is winning big in the island nations
In the Indian Ocean, Seychelles has returned to near-pre-COVID levels, with tourism receipts of roughly $800 million between January and September 2025. That alone underlines the sector’s macroeconomic importance for small island states.
Mauritius is running a close second: official data show tourist arrivals climbed 2.1 percent in the first half of 2025 compared to 2024. Tourism contributes an estimated 12 percent of GDP, and industry reporting indicates 2023 tourism earnings already exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
In Madagascar, arrivals increased sharply, from 260,000 in 2023 to roughly 308,000 in 2024, with tourism earnings approximated at $780 million.
This diversification away from solely commodity exports gives the government a crucial buffer and offers rural and coastal communities a stable income source.
Smaller players such as Comoros, Cape Verde, and São Tomé & Príncipe remain more modest in scale, but growth is visible. Improved air connectivity, as well as rising interest in niche travel, eco-tourism, diving, culture and yachting, underscores their long-term potential.
Different islands, different tourism models
1. Seychelles: Focused on high-spend, low-volume tourism, luxury resorts, island-hopping, diving, yachts. The goal: fewer visitors, higher yield, preserving the natural environment that draws demand.
2. Mauritius: A diversified mix, beach holidays, business travel, weddings, wellness, cultural tourism, with an eye on volume and yield. Infrastructure development and hospitality investment remain key.
3. Madagascar: Leveraging biodiversity, endemic wildlife, and evolving ecotourism appeal; increasingly marketing nature-based, cultural, and coastal travel to a growing international audience.
4. Comoros / Cape Verde / São Tomé & Príncipe: Smaller-scale destinations focusing on niche segments, cultural tourism, nature, diving and beaches, relying on gradual capacity building, improved connectivity, and value-for-money positioning.
The ripple effects: jobs, foreign exchange and resilience
Tourism earnings funnel into essential imports, public budgets, infrastructure, and foreign-exchange reserves, stabilizing economies that otherwise rely heavily on agriculture or mineral exports. For many islanders, tourism jobs (hotels, transport, guiding, crafts, fishing, sailing) are among the few stable incomes available. In Madagascar especially, tourism is helping reduce reliance on volatile commodity markets.
For governments, strong tourism receipts underpin spending on schools, health and climate resilience. For investors, island states are increasingly viewed as stable destinations for hospitality, real estate, and infrastructure, a trend already visible in Mauritius and Seychelles.
Shared risks: climate, seasonality, environmental stress and sustainability
But dependence on tourism carries risks. Coastal erosion, rising sea levels, coral degradation and plastic pollution threaten the natural assets that draw visitors. Islands simply have limited capacity to withstand repeated environmental shocks.
Seasonality and concentrated source markets (Europe, Middle East, parts of Asia) make arrivals and income volatile. Any global slowdown, oil-price shock, or recession in key origin markets can quickly undercut inflows and destabilize foreign-exchange generation.
For smaller islands with limited infrastructure, scaling up without harming the environment is a delicate balancing act. The need for investment in ports, airports, waste management, renewable energy and climate resilience is immense, and often expensive.
The path ahead: value, sustainability and diversification
These island nations broadly seem to have converged on two strategic priorities:
- Focusing on quality over quantity: attracting high-yield visitors who spend more per stay, stay longer, and leave less environmental footprint.
- Expanding beyond mass tourism: promoting ecotourism, marine conservation, cultural and community-based experiences, and public-private investments in sustainable infrastructure.
Those that manage this balance, protecting their natural capital, broadening service offerings, improving air and sea connectivity, and ensuring tourism earnings benefit local communities, stand the best chance of turning post-pandemic rebound into lasting resilience.
In short, for these six island nations, tourism is not a fleeting boom. It is central to their economic identity, a currency-earning anchor, and a potential bridge to sustainable growth, if they treat it as stewardship, not just a sale.
