Recently, THR has been engaged to support the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, in a mission about “Unlocking Private Sector Investment Opportunities in the Tourism Sector in Benin”.
Benin: An Emerging Star in Western Africa
Benin is tourism destination in Western Africa that is emerging strongly especially in the past 2-3 years. Key highlights of its growth include:
- Current Growth: The country reached an estimated 500,000 international visitors in 2025.
- Ambitious Targets: The Government aims to reach 2 million visitors by 2030.
- Diverse Assets: The relatively small size of the country and the variety of its tourism assets and attractions makes it compact and attractive for a wide array of leisure tourism: mostly culture and nature and adventure. It offers a rich culture combining built heritage, intangible culture as well as creative arts.
For those who are not familiar with the destination, here is the latest promotion video that was launched last year by Benin Tourisme, the official promotion agency.
Different promotion actions have been launched also recently to generate awareness and demand from the regional source markets (especially the affluent middle class with a focus on Nigeria), from Europe (especially French-speaking markets) and the diaspora.
The Shift from Public to Private Investment
In this market evaluation, investment has played a crucial role and will do even more in the future considering the growth expectations. Up to recent years, investment has been focused on small structures financed by locals. In the past few years, the Benin Governmnet who has put tourism as a key growth sector of activity, has played a crucial role in generating direct public investment in larger structures (Sofitel and Banian Tree Hotels, ClubMed resort, event arena, convention centre, golf, creation of new museums, restoration of the most relevant cultural attractions, etc.), to support the tourism ambition. This has enabled to create a “critical” mass of tourism infrastructure of a bigger sizes and meeting international standards; as well as to create a demonstration effect that could encourage private sector, both international and domestic, to take the lead for the next wave of investments that is needed and that could not be assumed by the public sector alone.
Mission Scope: Defining the Roadmap for Growth
In this context the World Bank who has been supporting the country development in different sectors, including tourism, in the past years, has counted on its agency, the IFC, to conduct a mission to determine how to unlock private sector investment in Benin Tourism, for which THR was engaged to support. This mission has covered the following scope:
- Assessment of Tourism Investment Context: Analyzing the business climate and the investor journey situation.
- Pipeline Identification: Highlighting opportunities in the tourism value chain, followed by specific projects, investment needs and socio-economic impacts.
- Strategic Roadmap: Elaboration of a private sector investment roadmap which highlighted improvement opportunities in the public sector ecosystem including public-private partnership investment models, as well as the identification of potential domestic and international investors with the profile and capacity to conduct significant investments.
Throughout the process, benchmarking and case studies were used from the West African Region, Africa in general and some other comparable destinations in other parts of the world, as a source of comparison and inspiration. In October 2025 and February 2026, the IFC organized workshops with various Beninese Ministries and Agencies to share results and discuss next steps for further support.
Building on a Proven Track Record
THR is proud of this second collaboration with the IFC in Western Africa, after working on a mission in 2024-2025 to elaborate and support the implementation of a strategy for tourism investment promotion in the Island of Boa Vista, Cape Verd.
