The port of Pointe-Noire, the economic and oil capital of Congo-Brazzaville, received on Wednesday its very first cruise ship carrying foreign tourists, a sign of the economic diversification sought by the Congolese authorities.
The 115-meter-long ship SH Vega, flying the Finnish flag, carries 150 tourists of various nationalities, who are to visit several sites in the country for three days.
Her arrival
"inaugurates a new era in the history of tourism in our country (...) The concept of cruise tourism is now a reality in the Republic of Congo"
, declared Lydie Pongault, Minister of Tourism Industry, in welcoming the boat.
The SH Vega
"virtually goes around the world (...).
He comes from Angola, will stay with us for three days and then he will continue to Sao Tome-and-Principe
,” said Alain Koua Ngoulou, port commander.
The port of Pointe-Noire, the most important in deep water in the Gulf of Guinea,
"is the ocean door of Central Africa, but from the tourist point of view, we still have a lot to do"
, he underlined. .
Read alsoIn Africa, five good reasons to discover the archipelago of São Tomé and Príncipe
Tourism development
The port authorities did not give details on the rate of passage of cruise ships.
But to get the economy out of all-oil, the Congolese government has included tourism among the six pillars of the National Development Plan (“PND”, 2022-2026), along with agriculture, digital technology and even crafts.
“We are beginning to move gradually towards the diversification of the economy”
and
“tourism is a sector in which we have comparative advantages”
, estimated Didier Sylvestre Mavoenzela, president of the Pointe-Noire chamber of commerce.
“Tourism serves as a vector to boost all the other sectors: transport, hotels, crafts
,” he noted.
Created in 1939 under French colonization, the port of Pointe-Noire was granted a concession in 2009. The French group Bolloré, which had managed it until then, has just sold its assets to the Italian-Swiss MSC.
Serving as a transshipment in the Central African sub-region, it received up to one million containers in 2020. Congo is the third largest oil producer south of the Sahara, with production estimated at 350,000 barrels per day.
