East Africa’s tourism sector is entering an aggressive growth phase, with Kenya alone welcoming 2.7 million international visitors in 2025.
Building on 2024’s 2.39 million visitors, the 12.97% surge in international arrivals pushed the country’s tourism revenue to a record Sh500 billion.
However, despite stellar headline performance, a fragmented ecosystem of long booking chains, cash-reliant transactions and inconsistent service delivery stifled the growth of the sector.
“While global digital payment adoption in travel sits at around 40 percent, the adoption rate of digital payments for travel bookings in Africa is still quite low,” said Kevin khaemba, Chief Commercial Officer, Pesapal.
“Many hospitality businesses across East Africa still manage operations on analogue systems, even though the continent is uniquely positioned to lead a digital transformation in the hospitality industry,” he added.
Today’s well-travelled guest will not wait for a slow checkout or expect to pay with cash; they expect to tap, pay, and move on.
To meet the Kenyan government’s 2027 tourism targets, the sector must therefore accelerate the adoption of unified, seamless payment and booking software.
Modernizing payment systems to integrate local mobile money and global cards is essential, as fintech solutions help to eliminate revenue leakage and operational bottlenecks.
“The operators, lodges, and airlines that thrive in this next era will be those that treat financial and operational technology not as a back-office utility, but as a core component of the guest experience,” said Khaemba.
In Kenya, two decades of M-Pesa adoption have already normalized mobile-first financial infrastructure across the country. The immediate hurdle for the hospitality sector is deploying the middleware and software that link payment systems to core operations.
Fortunately, the necessary digital tools already exist. Regional fintech innovators like Pesapal have built sector-specific financial architecture that links payment systems to the core operations of independent lodges and tour operators.
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