When Airspace Opens, Tourism Follows
For decades, the growth potential of cross-border tourism has been constrained by a simple, stubborn limitation: the skies were never truly open. Countries negotiated bilateral air service agreements that were often mired in protectionism, limiting the number of frequencies, controlling fares, restricting traffic rights, and sometimes confining foreign airlines to a single entry point. While these arrangements protected national carriers, they unintentionally inhibited tourism by keeping air connectivity thin, expensive, and unreliable.
Today, a different paradigm is taking shape. Open skies agreements—those that lift or relax restrictions around air traffic rights—are redrawing the contours of global travel. In regions where governments have committed to liberalised aviation frameworks, aircraft are moving more freely, carriers are innovating, and cross-border tourism is gaining unprecedented momentum.
Africa’s own flagship initiative, the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), sits at the heart of this shift. While its rollout continues, early adopters are already demonstrating how policy alignment can stimulate tourism corridors, create multi-destination travel ecosystems, and unlock thousands of kilometres of previously underutilised aerial routes. Around the world, equivalents such as the EU’s Single Aviation Market, ASEAN’s multilateral agreements, and Latin America’s pockets of air liberalisation further illustrate how open skies can transform both tourism flows and the economic models behind them.
This article examines how regional aviation agreements are altering the future of cross-border tourism, what Africa’s SAATM represents in this global context, and why liberalisation is emerging as one of the most powerful tools for growing flight-based travel.
The Evolution of Aviation Liberalisation
The idea of liberal air access is not new, but its acceptance has expanded dramatically over the last three decades. Traditionally, air services were negotiated through bilateral agreements where each pair of states determined market access. This system created an environment in which international carriers operated at the pleasure of government-to-government diplomacy, limiting market entry based on national interests rather than tourism or passenger demand.
The first meaningful challenge to this model came with the United States’ push for open skies agreements in the 1990s. The U.S.–Netherlands accord is often cited as the catalyst that demonstrated how unrestricted competition could expand services and lower prices. Over time, similar agreements proliferated, allowing airlines to add new routes, enter partnerships, and operate with fewer administrative hurdles.
The European Union took this evolution a step further. The creation of the EU Single Aviation Market eliminated restrictions among member states entirely, enabling any EU airline to operate freely across the region. Low-cost carriers flourished, competition surged, and tourism went through a remarkable transformation: city breaks, multi-country itineraries, and budget travel all became mainstream because aviation policy had removed barriers.
Other regions have taken inspiration from the European model. While ASEAN and Latin America have not achieved full integration, their partial agreements have nonetheless expanded intra-regional connectivity. Africa, long constrained by some of the world’s most restrictive aviation policies, is currently in the midst of its own liberalisation experiment through SAATM. Although progress varies by country, the ambition is unmistakable: one aerial marketplace across the continent, open to African carriers, driving economic and tourism gains.
Understanding SAATM: Africa’s Path Toward Connected Tourism
The Single African Air Transport Market is a flagship project of the African Union aimed at liberalising air transport across the continent. It is aligned with the broader African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), recognising that trade, tourism, and mobility are deeply interconnected. With SAATM, participating states commit to allowing eligible African airlines to fly freely between member countries without restrictions on frequency, capacity, or pricing.
In practice, this means an African carrier from one SAATM country could, in theory, operate multiple intra-African routes without negotiating fresh bilaterals for each destination. The vision is a seamless aviation ecosystem enabling dynamic networks, competitive fares, and higher service reliability.
For tourism, SAATM’s potential is profound. Africa is home to thousands of distinct cultural assets, natural wonders, wildlife regions, and business hubs, yet the continent remains notoriously difficult to traverse by air. Tourists frequently route through Europe or the Middle East to travel between African countries, adding cost and time that stifles regional tourism circuits. With SAATM, the distance between iconic destinations—Cape Town to Victoria Falls, Nairobi to Zanzibar, Dakar to Accra—could become shorter, cheaper, and more accessible.
Why Open Skies Matter for Cross-Border Tourism
The relationship between aviation freedom and tourism growth lies in how travellers make decisions. The viability of cross-border trips is determined by connectivity, affordability, convenience, and perceived effort. Open skies policies improve all four factors simultaneously, creating new tourism flows that would not exist under traditional aviation restrictions.
When airspace becomes liberalised, airlines respond with innovation. They may launch point-to-point routes that were previously not commercially viable, add higher frequencies to meet demand, or form strategic alliances that strengthen network reach. These shifts translate directly into tourism outcomes: more people can travel, travel patterns diversify, and multi-country itineraries become both possible and attractive.
For many destinations—particularly those in developing regions reliant on tourism—the removal of aviation barriers can be the single biggest catalyst for growth. While infrastructure, marketing, and visa facilitation remain important, liberalised skies ensure that travellers can physically reach the destination with greater ease and affordability.
The Global Benchmark: Lessons from the EU Single Aviation Market
Europe’s experience stands as the clearest demonstration of what a truly open aviation marketplace can do for tourism. Prior to the 1990s, travel within Europe resembled the old bilateral system: limited competition, higher fares, and minimal low-cost options. By establishing a common aviation market, the EU created one of the world’s most competitive travel ecosystems.
The results are widely documented. Airfares in many markets dropped significantly. Travel frequency increased. Carriers like Ryanair, easyJet, and Wizz Air took advantage of their newly granted freedoms, building low-cost networks that connected secondary cities previously overlooked by traditional airlines. Tourism boomed as travellers could suddenly afford weekend trips to Prague, summer escapes to Spain, or cultural tours spanning multiple countries.
Europe’s open skies structure also boosted tourism in less traditional markets. Destinations like Croatia, Portugal’s Algarve, and parts of Eastern Europe experienced surges in international arrivals as airline accessibility improved. The tourism map widened, diversifying revenue across regions.
Africa can draw several lessons from this success. First, liberalisation benefits both large and small carriers by expanding opportunities across the network. Second, competition drives affordability, making regional travel accessible to a broader population. Third, tourism flourishes most when aviation policy supports—not restricts—the movement of people. SAATM embodies these principles, though its implementation requires commitment and coordination among governments, aviation authorities, and national carriers.
ASEAN’s Model: A Gradual Path to Integration
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations represents a middle ground between Africa’s developing framework and Europe’s fully integrated market. ASEAN’s agreements are not uniformly applied across all states, yet they have still significantly improved connectivity.
ASEAN’s open skies initiatives allow regional carriers to fly between capital cities with fewer restrictions. This has enabled airlines in countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia to expand operations across borders, opening dozens of new routes. The region’s low-cost carrier boom—led by AirAsia, Scoot, and Lion Air—has been critical in enabling multi-country tourism among travellers from both within and outside Southeast Asia.
ASEAN’s experience shows that partial liberalisation can still deliver strong tourism outcomes. Even without complete regulatory harmonisation, removing barriers in key city pairs has strengthened the region’s tourism economy. Africa’s approach with SAATM, particularly in its early phases, reflects a similar philosophy: incremental steps toward full aviation freedom can still support meaningful travel growth.
Latin America: The Fragmented but Dynamic Example
Latin America’s aviation landscape paints another picture—one marked by pockets of liberalisation rather than continent-wide agreements. Countries like Chile and Colombia have adopted open skies policies that have increased competition and lowered fares. Others maintain more restrictive frameworks.
Despite this fragmentation, the region’s tourism growth illustrates a crucial point: even individual states that pursue liberal policy can transform their tourism sectors. Chile’s embrace of open skies expanded its domestic and regional connectivity, drawing more international carriers and stimulating inbound tourism. Colombia’s reforms helped Bogotá become a major regional hub, connecting South America, Central America, and North America with far greater efficiency.
Latin America shows Africa that progress does not have to be uniform to be impactful. Countries that aggressively pursue SAATM principles may emerge as continental tourism hubs, attracting airlines, investment, and travellers at a disproportionate scale.
Economic Impacts of Cross-Border Tourism Liberalisation
Open skies agreements unlock an array of economic benefits that extend far beyond the aviation sector itself. Tourism, as one of the world’s most interconnected industries, benefits almost immediately when air access improves. These gains can be understood through several core channels, each demonstrating how liberalised aviation supports broader economic objectives.
Destinations gain higher visitor volumes as passengers take advantage of easier access. Countries with strong nature, cultural, or business tourism propositions see a rapid increase in arrivals when airline connectivity expands. Regional tourism circuits emerge, strengthening businesses that depend on multi-country travel such as tour operators, cruise lines, safari networks, and meetings and events organisers.
Increased air traffic also stimulates competition among carriers, reducing airfares and improving products and services. Lower travel costs expand the demographic base of travellers, allowing tourism economies to tap into regional leisure markets previously shut out by high fares. In Africa, where travel between neighbouring countries can be disproportionately expensive, SAATM has the potential to significantly reshape demand patterns.
Destination marketing efforts gain more traction when supported by aviation liberalisation. Tourism boards can pitch multi-country itineraries, promote regional festivals, and collaborate across borders in ways that were previously logistically difficult. A traveller flying to Kigali may be more inclined to extend their trip to Entebbe or Nairobi when flight costs and frequencies support seamless movement.
Investment also accelerates. Hotels, airport operators, hospitality brands, and tourism developers respond to growing passenger demand by allocating capital to markets with improving air access. Where connectivity improves, development follows.
Intra-African Tourism: The Market Waiting to Be Unlocked
One of the overlooked strengths of the African tourism sector is its potential for intra-continental travel. Historically, tourism flows have skewed toward visitors from Europe, Asia, and North America, but a growing African middle class represents a powerful demand base—one that has yet to be fully realised.
Intra-African tourism suffers not from lack of interest but from logistical and financial obstacles. Air travel between African countries is often more expensive than travel from Africa to overseas destinations. Indirect routing through non-African hubs adds hours to flights that should take less than two. SAATM directly addresses these inefficiencies by enabling carriers to provide direct, lower-cost routes within Africa, unlocking new tourism patterns.
Consider the potential for regional multi-stop trips: Morocco to Senegal to Côte d’Ivoire; Kenya to Uganda to Rwanda; South Africa to Mozambique to Mauritius. Each of these itineraries becomes exponentially more viable with open skies structures. The development of such tourism corridors could form the backbone of a more resilient tourism ecosystem—one less dependent on long-haul markets and more aligned with Africa’s growing population and rising spending power.
The Role of Airline Business Models in Liberalised Skies
Airline business models evolve rapidly in environments that favour competition. Under restrictive bilateral systems, network planning revolves around securing rights, protecting flag carriers, and prioritising limited high-yield routes. Under open skies, strategy shifts to market-driven design. Airlines can experiment, test new markets, and pivot with demand.
Low-cost carriers are the most visible beneficiaries of liberalisation. Their point-to-point operations thrive when allowed to enter new markets without extensive negotiation. Africa has seen the early development of low-cost models in countries like South Africa and Kenya, but true continental growth requires broader access to skies. SAATM could enable a new generation of LCCs capable of connecting secondary cities and stimulating cost-sensitive tourism among regional travellers.
Full-service carriers benefit as well. They can develop hub-and-spoke systems that cross borders, redesign schedules across multiple countries, and build interline or codeshare partnerships with greater ease. These collaboration structures strengthen networks and allow airlines to offer more destinations on single bookings.
Tourism growth relies heavily on airline innovation. Liberalised agreements act as catalysts for new route development, new partnerships, and commercial strategies that benefit travellers. SAATM’s ultimate strength lies in its ability to let market forces—rather than political constraints—shape Africa’s air travel landscape.
Multi-Destination Tourism and the Rise of Regional Corridors
Multi-destination tourism, where travellers visit two or more countries in a single trip, is one of the most powerful outcomes of open skies agreements. When air travel becomes more flexible, affordable, and frequent, travellers are more willing to move across borders, extending their stays and increasing tourism spending across multiple economies.
Africa’s tourism assets are uniquely well-suited to this model. For example, safari networks spanning Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and South Africa represent an immense cross-border value chain. When travellers can connect between these regions with minimal effort, multi-country safari itineraries grow naturally.
Beyond wildlife, the continent’s cultural and urban tourism ecosystems stand to benefit. Music festivals, heritage routes, wine tourism, sports events, and urban exploration become more accessible when intra-African air links strengthen. Routes such as Dakar–Banjul, Nairobi–Lusaka, or Johannesburg–Maputo have the potential to develop into frequent, tourist-oriented corridors if liberalised access shifts airline network planning.
International travellers also benefit. Visitors from America, Europe, the Middle East, or Asia may extend trips beyond their initial destination when flight options facilitate spontaneous regional travel. A traveller who arrives in Cape Town for a conference may be incentivised to add a Zimbabwe or Namibia leg to their journey when connections are seamless.
Regional agreements such as SAATM are therefore crucial not only for enabling African travellers to move but for extending the economic reach of every long-haul arrival.
Infrastructure and Airport Evolution in a Liberalised Market
Aviation liberalisation is often accompanied by infrastructure development. Airports evolve from administrative gateways into dynamic hubs that serve as tourism engines. This transformation requires investment not only in terminals and runways but in capacity management, technology, and passenger experience.
The rise of regional hubs is particularly important. In Africa, airports in Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Kigali, and Accra have ambitions to become key connectors for intra-African and intercontinental traffic. Open skies policies support these ambitions by allowing carriers to route passengers more efficiently through strategic hubs.
Improved infrastructure also enhances traveller satisfaction. Immigration efficiency, terminal design, baggage handling, and digital systems all influence the fluidity of cross-border travel. When these improvements align with liberalised skies, tourism gains become even more pronounced.
Airports also become business ecosystems. Retail, hospitality, ground transport, and logistics all flourish when air traffic increases. The growth of airport cities—clusters of commercial development around major aviation hubs—demonstrates how liberalised travel supports broader economic expansion.
Safety, Regulation, and Harmonisation
Open skies agreements do not imply deregulation. In fact, they often require stronger and more harmonised regulation. Aviation safety, security, consumer protection, and operational standards must be aligned to facilitate seamless cross-border travel.
Institutions such as ICAO play a central role in setting global standards, but regional bodies must ensure implementation. The African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), for example, oversees SAATM compliance and works with member states to maintain safety oversight.
Harmonisation ensures that travellers enjoy consistent levels of safety and service across borders—a critical condition for tourism growth. Airlines and airports also benefit, gaining clarity and predictability in their operational environments.
The Future of Cross-Border Tourism in an Open Skies World
As regional agreements continue to mature, cross-border tourism will evolve in several key ways. Travel patterns will diversify, with passengers favouring multi-destination itineraries that maximise the value of their trips. Second-tier cities will emerge as new tourism hubs as airlines explore untapped routes. Low-cost carriers will expand across regions, facilitating budget-friendly tourism among younger and more price-sensitive travellers.
Technology will also shape the future of liberalised travel. Digital booking platforms, biometric borders, real-time route optimisation, and smart airports will support higher passenger volumes and improve traveller experience. These innovations align naturally with open skies frameworks that prioritise efficiency and accessibility.
Sustainability must also play a central role. As traffic grows, governments and airlines will face increasing pressure to reduce emissions, adopt greener technologies, and implement climate-conscious operations. Open skies agreements can support this transition by enabling fleet modernisation, encouraging competition that rewards efficient carriers, and promoting regional rather than long-haul routing where appropriate.
Finally, Africa’s SAATM has the potential to redefine the continent’s tourism future. If fully implemented, it could unlock immense economic value, expand travel opportunities for millions, and integrate Africa more deeply into the global tourism ecosystem. But success requires continued political commitment, regulatory coherence, infrastructure investment, and airline innovation.
The Freedom to Fly, the Freedom to Explore
Regional aviation agreements represent far more than policy documents or economic strategies—they are blueprints for mobility, freedom, and opportunity. When airspace opens, travellers follow. Tourism flourishes, businesses thrive, and entire regions become more connected than ever before.
The world’s most successful tourism corridors—from Europe to Southeast Asia—have grown on the back of liberalised skies. Africa’s SAATM stands at a similar threshold, carrying the promise of a future where travellers glide across borders with ease, where airlines compete on service and innovation, and where the continent’s vast tourism potential is finally unlocked.
As governments, airlines, and tourism stakeholders work together to advance open skies principles, the impact on cross-border tourism will be transformative. The freedom to fly is the freedom to explore, and in the decades ahead, regional aviation agreements will determine how far—and how freely—that exploration can go.