Changing the narrative on Africa.
Food is becoming one of Africa’s newest tourism exports. From coffee ceremonies and street food festivals to farm-to-table experiences, countries are using gastronomy to attract visitors, extend tourism spending, and build more inclusive local economies.
Uganda’s latest push to promote the Pearl of Africa abroad reflects a wider African trend, with governments increasingly using national brands to drive tourism, investment, trade, and international partnerships.
New industry data suggests Africa’s hotel development momentum is increasingly shifting eastward. While North Africa still dominates the size of the continent’s pipeline, countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania now host some of the highest shares of projects already under construction.
IShowSpeed’s livestreamed Africa tour adds to the work that African digital influencers have been doing in recent years to capture the continent beyond clichéd images of poverty and conflict.
Record numbers of visitors ventured on safari tours and nature park visits in Kenya and Tanzania during the 2025 December holidays compared to past years, pointing to noticeable back-to-nature travel trend in the region. Furthermore, countries in southern and West Africa have also recorded increases.
When you land on Diana Daisy Gau’s TikTok page, the first thing you notice is a grid that resembles a shifting travel tapestry. Thumbnails flow from rainforest greens to desert browns, island blues, and the soft gold of evening markets. One frame shows her picking through a market in Suriname, another captures her laughing from the back of a pickup truck in Laos, and others place her on a canoe in Guyana or learning to fold pandanus leaves in Kiribati.
From a Saturday mid-morning to late evening, smoke curled steadily above rows of colourful stalls as vendors grilled, fried and stirred up an endless parade of flavours. Classic mshikaki (skewers) made from beef, chicken and gizzards, mutura (Kenyan sausage), nyama choma (roasted meat) and coastal staples shared space with bold new fusion dishes and juices, drawing clusters of young people who milled around the tents and queued at stands selling smochas (smokie wrapped in chapati), boiled eggs, gourmet samosas, vegan street bowls and other re-imagined traditional favourites.
Visitors at the AfroGastro Festival swallowed morsels of fufu and watched chefs from 12 African and diaspora nations plate modern twists of jollof rice in Accra this October. The air was thick with the scent of roasted plantain, sizzling suya, and palm wine cocktails, while drummers and DJs kept up a rhythm that turned dining into performance.
On the slopes of Mount Elgon, where Uganda and Kenya meet in a region of extinct volcanoes, elephant highways and bamboo forests, a locally-cherished dish known as malewa — dried and smoked bamboo shoots — has taken root as an exotic export, called malewa. Once a ritual food of the Bagisu people, malewa’s popularity has jumped borders and now, continents.
Stirred by a love for travel and a deep sense of appreciation for her southern African country’s picturesque terrain, a travel enthusiast took to the