LUANDA, March 31 — Angola is ramping up efforts to increase tourism’s importance in the economy to spur job creation, the Angola Press Agency (Angop) reported Wednesday. The National Plan for Tourism Development in Angola was recently approved, outlining the necessary actions to address the current main challenges, said Secretary of State for Tourism Helder Marcelino in Luanda, the capital of Angola. He said that these challenges are primarily related to infrastructure, training and tourism promotion at both national and international levels. Recent data cited by Angop indicate a significant decline in tourism contribution to Angola’s gross domestic product, plummeting from 1.3 percent in 2016 to a mere 0.01 percent in 2022, representing a revenue drop from 628 million U.S. dollars to 24 million dollars, with the COVID-19 cited as a key factor. From 2016 to 2022, Angola received around 1.35 million foreign tourists.
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