Angola’s tourism drive is being strengthened by a growing number of homegrown operators investing in authentic visitor experiences, with Luanda-based Destination Management Company (DMC) AcrossTours expanding its portfolio of leisure, corporate and experiential travel services to showcase the country’s untapped tourism potential.
Led by CEO, owner, Amândio Rocha Lima, the Angolan-owned company is positioning itself as a key player in promoting Angola as a destination that combines cultural heritage, natural landscapes and personalized travel experiences. Through its operations across Angola and Southern Africa, AcrossTours is targeting both leisure and business travellers while contributing to the country’s broader tourism development agenda.
Founded with the objective of presenting Angola as a world-class tourism destination, AcrossTours has built its business around delivering tailor-made travel solutions supported by local expertise and international standards. As an IATA-accredited agency, the company offers a wide range of services, including customized leisure tours, corporate travel management, Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE), hotel reservations, airport meet-and-greet services, transfers, car rentals, visa assistance and bespoke itinerary planning.
CEO, Amândio Rocha Lima
The company’s product offering is centered on experiential and sustainable tourism, an area that continues to attract increasing interest from international travellers seeking meaningful engagement with destinations. AcrossTours has developed programmes spanning cultural and heritage tourism, wildlife and nature-based travel, adventure tourism, luxury tailor-made holidays, community-based tourism, educational travel and specialized interest tours designed around visitors’ individual preferences.
A recent series of experiential tours hosted for visitors from South Asia offered further evidence of Angola’s growing appeal in long-haul markets. According to Rocha Lima, many of the visitors arrived with limited knowledge of the destination but departed with a very different perspective after engaging with local communities and travelling through some of the country’s diverse landscapes.
CEO, Amândio Rocha Lima with guests
Their itineraries combined visits to Angola’s natural attractions with authentic cultural encounters, giving travellers opportunities to interact directly with local people and experience everyday life beyond traditional sightseeing. The feedback, Rocha Lima noted, consistently pointed to a destination that had exceeded visitors’ expectations and challenged long-held perceptions about Angola.
For AcrossTours, those reactions highlight one of Angola’s strongest competitive advantages. While many African destinations have matured into established tourism markets, Angola continues to offer travellers a genuine sense of discovery through experiences that remain largely untouched by mass tourism.
Rocha Lima believes this authenticity is becoming one of the country’s defining tourism assets.
“Angola is not simply emerging as Africa’s newest tourism destination; it is offering exactly what today’s travellers are increasingly seeking, authenticity, exclusivity and genuinely undiscovered experiences,” he said.
“Compared with many other destinations, Angola remains refreshingly untouched. It offers visitors the rare opportunity to explore breathtaking landscapes, vibrant cultures and remarkable biodiversity while experiencing the genuine hospitality of its people.”
He added that this combination of authenticity, natural beauty and cultural richness places Angola among the continent’s most compelling destinations for travellers looking for something different.
The country offers an unusually diverse tourism portfolio, stretching from the Atlantic coastline and pristine beaches to mountains, deserts, waterfalls, river systems and protected wildlife areas. Combined with a rich cultural heritage, these assets present opportunities to develop multiple tourism segments rather than relying on a single destination narrative.
The bustling capital, Luanda
Rocha Lima also pointed to increasing collaboration between government institutions and the private sector as an important contributor to Angola’s tourism growth. Improvements in tourism infrastructure, enhanced international connectivity, greater participation in international tourism exhibitions and support from UN Tourism have all helped raise the country’s profile within the global travel industry.
Despite this progress, he believes further investment will be necessary to unlock Angola’s full tourism potential. Among the priorities identified are improved road access to major attractions, expanded accommodation capacity in emerging destinations, stronger visitor services, increased international air connectivity and continued simplification of travel procedures.
He also highlighted the importance of sustained investment in tourism education and professional training to ensure service delivery keeps pace with evolving visitor expectations.
For Africa’s tourism sector, AcrossTours reflects a broader trend of locally owned destination management companies taking a leading role in shaping national tourism narratives. Rather than competing solely through iconic attractions, many African destinations are increasingly differentiating themselves through authentic community engagement, personalized itineraries and sustainable tourism models that create direct local economic value.
Angola’s tourism proposition also aligns with changing global travel preferences, where visitors are placing greater emphasis on immersive cultural experiences, responsible travel and destinations that remain relatively undiscovered. This creates an opportunity for operators such as AcrossTours to position Angola within premium experiential travel markets while supporting wider national tourism objectives.
As Angola continues to invest in infrastructure, destination marketing and international partnerships, destination management companies are expected to play an increasingly important role in translating the country’s tourism ambitions into market-ready experiences capable of attracting visitors from established and emerging source markets alike.
For AcrossTours, the immediate focus remains on expanding experiential tourism offerings while strengthening Angola’s visibility as a destination where authenticity, culture and nature combine to deliver experiences that are becoming increasingly rare in global tourism. As public and private sector efforts continue to converge, companies such as AcrossTours are demonstrating how locally driven tourism enterprises can contribute meaningfully to Angola’s growing presence on Africa’s tourism map.
