“The African hospitality industry is selling a product and not the experience.” — Sarah Esi Tom-Aggrey, Founder, Divine Elegance Ltd
It was a simple statement, but it raises a much bigger question about the future of hospitality and tourism in Africa.
During a recent interview with Just4WomenEurope, Sarah Esi Tom-Aggrey, a Ghanaian entrepreneur who moved from Sweden to Ghana to build her business in recruitment and hospitality consultancy, shared her perspective on the African hospitality industry.
Her observation was striking:
“The African hospitality industry is selling a product and not the experience.”
What exactly does that mean?
A hotel room is a product. The stay is the experience.
A hotel can have beautiful rooms, a swimming pool, a restaurant, modern facilities and an excellent location.
Those things matter.
But they are only part of what a guest remembers.
The experience begins long before a guest enters the room. It includes the booking process, the welcome at the airport, the reception at the hotel, the interaction with staff, the food, the atmosphere, the culture, the activities and, ultimately, how the guest feels when they leave.
Increasingly, travellers are looking for experiences that connect them with the destination rather than simply providing somewhere to sleep. Recent research on African tourism experiences found that cultural and environmental factors are significant drivers of positive tourist experiences, while visitors value authenticity and meaningful experiences.
This presents Africa with an enormous opportunity.
Africa has something the world cannot manufacture
Africa doesn’t need to manufacture culture.
It already has it.
The continent has music, food, fashion, art, history, architecture, storytelling, festivals, wildlife, landscapes and hundreds of distinct cultures.
The question is:
How effectively are we incorporating these assets into the hospitality experience?
Imagine a visitor arriving at a hotel in Accra.
Instead of simply receiving a key card, they are introduced to Ghana through the experience.
They might eat locally inspired dishes and learn the stories behind them. Their room might feature artwork from Ghanaian artists. They might meet local entrepreneurs, visit an artisan’s workshop, experience traditional music or discover parts of the city that aren’t found in a standard tourist itinerary.
Suddenly, the hotel is no longer simply selling a room in Ghana.
It is helping the visitor experience Ghana.
That distinction can be commercially powerful.
The destination should become part of the hotel
One of the challenges Sarah’s observation raises is that hospitality businesses sometimes focus so heavily on what happens inside the property that they overlook the value surrounding it.
A recent discussion of Southern African hospitality made a similar argument: hotels need to think about how effectively they integrate the wider destination into the guest experience rather than treating the hotel as an isolated product.
This is particularly important for Africa.
A hotel in Accra should not feel exactly like a hotel in London.
A resort in Zanzibar should not feel exactly like one in Dubai.
A lodge in Kenya should not feel like one in another part of the world.
International standards are important. Cleanliness, safety, professionalism, technology and excellent service are non-negotiable.
But standardisation should not erase identity.
African hospitality already has a foundation
There is something interesting about Sarah’s argument.
Africa has historically been associated with hospitality.
Welcoming guests, sharing food, storytelling and community are deeply embedded in many African cultures.
The opportunity is to translate that traditional warmth into a modern, professional and commercially sustainable hospitality experience.
That means combining:
African culture + world-class service + technology + storytelling + personalisation.
It is not about choosing between modern hospitality and African identity.
It is about bringing the two together.
Experience can become a competitive advantage
For African hospitality businesses, experience is also a potential differentiator.
International hotel chains can build beautiful properties almost anywhere in the world.
But what makes a destination memorable is often what cannot easily be replicated.
The people.
The food.
The culture.
The stories.
The landscape.
The sense of place.
Africa’s growing tourism sector gives hospitality businesses an opportunity to turn these elements into carefully designed experiences. The continent is also attracting significant investment from major hotel groups, demonstrating growing confidence in its hospitality potential.
The challenge is making sure that growth doesn’t simply mean more hotels and more rooms.
It should mean better experiences.
What does the future African traveller want?
The future traveller may not simply ask:
“How much is the room?”
They may ask:
“What will I experience there?”
What story will I take home?
Who will I meet?
What will I learn?
What will I remember?
What makes this destination different from anywhere else?
This is where hospitality businesses can move from competing primarily on price and facilities to competing on meaning, identity and experience.
And this is where women can play a bigger role
There is another dimension to this conversation.
Women are already deeply involved in Africa’s hospitality and tourism value chain—as hotel executives, chefs, entrepreneurs, tour operators, artisans, travel professionals, event organisers, farmers, suppliers and cultural entrepreneurs.
Yet many of these women remain invisible to the traveller.
Imagine if hotels deliberately incorporated the stories of the women behind their experiences.
The female chef creating the menu.
The woman farmer supplying the vegetables.
The female entrepreneur producing the hotel’s artwork.
The woman tour guide introducing visitors to the community.
The female founder building a tourism business.
That isn’t just storytelling.
That is experience creation.
And it creates opportunities for more women to participate economically in tourism.
Sarah’s challenge to the industry
Sarah’s statement should therefore not necessarily be interpreted as a criticism of every African hotel.
There are many hospitality businesses across the continent already creating exceptional, culturally rooted experiences.
Rather, her comment can be viewed as a challenge:
Are we doing enough to turn Africa’s enormous cultural and human wealth into memorable hospitality experiences?
Because Africa has something that no hotel chain can simply import.
Africa itself is the experience.
The food.
The people.
The culture.
The stories.
The music.
The landscapes.
The history.
The warmth.
The question is whether the hospitality industry is packaging and delivering all of this in a way that makes visitors want to returnand tell others about it.
Perhaps the future of African hospitality isn’t about building bigger hotels.
Perhaps it is about creating experiences people cannot get anywhere else.
And as Sarah Esi Tom-Aggrey put it:
“The African hospitality industry is selling a product and not the experience.”
Maybe it is time for Africa to start selling the experience.
