Am a travel consultant with 15yrs experience

Hi there,

First, a simple clarification: Cape Verde is not an island. It's an achipelago of 10 islands, one of which is uninhabited. But you are correct...Cape Verde attracts close to 1 million tourists each year. Most of these tourists are European, and 80% of all the tourists go to the islands of Sal and Boavista, and the vast majority of them come through the major travel agencies such as TUI and others on pre-booked all-inclusive holiday packages. The rest are mostly Cape Verde's diaspora immigrants and their descendants returning home for vacations and to visit family primarily to the islands of Santiago and Sao Vicente. There are also business people coming to Santiago for brief stays.

The local travel agents deal primarily with locals who are traveling between islands as well as those who travel internationally, mostly to Europe. There are dozens of local travel agents, so competition is fierce. Most of the locals speak Portuguese and Kriolu, so it is imperative that you communicate in those languages in order to do business here. In addition, all travel agents must be licensed by the state and are required to place a security deposit of $10,000 with the Bank of Cape Verde in oredr to guarantee payment to customers in cases of refunds and the settlement of disputes.

Local travel agents also get the business of the few tourists who travel between the islands (there isn't much time on a one or two week vacation to go island hopping), though it is my experience that most foreigners will book online directly with the local domestic airline and ferry company or go in person to their offices to purchase tickets. The locals are not online-savvy, so they are the primary users of the local travel agencies as noted previously, especially for air travel.

As for hotels, the locals do not book local hotels as they typicaly stay with family or friends on other islands and even in foreign countries to save on the costs of their domestic and foreign trips. And, foreign tourists who are not on the all-inclusive packages typically use AirBNB or Booking.com to book local places to stay.

I hope this information is helpful to you.

Regards,

Angelo