Tourism
knowledge bank
Overview
Sierra Leone has a distinctive tourism offer, combining beaches and biodiversity with cultural heritage, food, sport, arts and opportunities for adventure and community-based tourism. Yet translating these assets into sustained economic activity requires more than attracting visitors. Tourism businesses need access to markets, skills and investment, while investors and international operators need reliable information, viable opportunities and stronger connections with businesses on the ground.
Through Invest Salone, the UK Government supported work with tourism businesses, investors, international tour operators and other sector stakeholders to help address some of these constraints. Its activities combined research and market analysis with technical assistance, international market linkages, sector promotion and investor engagement. Tourism businesses received support to strengthen their market readiness and connect with international operators and industry networks, while research and investor engagement helped build understanding of Sierra Leone’s tourism opportunities and the conditions needed for growth.
The programme also used its Made in Salone and other communications platforms to highlight opportunities to broaden Sierra Leone’s tourism proposition. Sports and adventure, gastronomy, arts and cultural tourism were presented alongside the country’s established natural, beach and heritage assets, demonstrating how locally rooted experiences could contribute to a more distinctive visitor offer while creating opportunities for businesses and communities.
This knowledge bank brings together the resources developed along that journey, from sector research and market insights to stories of business development, international market engagement, investment promotion and emerging tourism niches. Together, they provide a record of how research, technical assistance, market connections and sector promotion contributed to Invest Salone’s work in Sierra Leone’s tourism sector.
The work also leaves a body of research, market intelligence and practical learning, developed through UK-funded support, that can continue to inform the sector beyond the programme. This includes evidence on priority visitor segments, investment opportunities and constraints to growth, alongside experience from supporting tourism businesses to strengthen their market readiness and build international connections. Together, these resources provide a record of Invest Salone’s tourism work that can be drawn on by government, the private sector and development partners as they consider the sector’s future development.
Background
Research and insights
Invest Salone Insights: Tourism in Sierra Leone
Fostering investment opportunities in Sierra Leone: Tourism sector research
Market access and business development
Sierra Leone welcomes UK and European tour operators for familiarisation visit
Sierra Leonean tour operators showcase their services at major international travel fair
Sierra Leone’s unique tourism potential highlighted in new report
Investment and sustainable tourism
International investors in Sierra Leone to explore opportunities in infrastructure and sustainable tourism
Growth potential and development impact makes Sierra Leone’s tourism industry attractive to impact investors
Catalysing diaspora investment in Sierra Leone
Developing niche tourism opportunities
On World Tourism Day, Invest Salone highlights the role of Sierra Leone’s artistic renaissance in promoting tourism and social unity
Could ‘Made in Salone’ cuisine be a bite-size gateway to the growth of Sierra Leonean tourism?
Sierra Leone’s Tour de Lunsar and Street Child Marathon highlight the potential of ‘Made in Salone’ sports tourism
Videos
