Tourism in Cape Verde
Encyclopedia
Tourism in Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...

, a group of islands off the coast of Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

, started in the 1970s on the island Sal and increased slowly in the 1980s and 1990s.
Tourism contributed $41 million to the country's economy in the year 2000. The hotel industry contributed 2.0% to GDP in 1997, which increased to 6.8% in 2001. The number of tourists increased from approximately 45,000 in 1997 to more than 115,000 in 2001 and to more than 382.831 thousands in 2010 according to the official Cape Verdean statistics http://www.ine.cv/. Most of these tourists were from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 (26.1%), Germany (15.8%), Portugal (12.8%), and about 11.9% of the tourists came from Italy.
The vast majority of tourists visit the comparatively flat and scarcely populated islands Sal, Maio and Boa Vista with their white sandy beaches. The islands of Cape Verde have a pleasant climate during most of the year with 350 days of sunshine, and some of them offer an impressive mountain scenery as well. Diving, windsurfing, sailing and trekking are available to tourists. Some ecotourism is developing on the island of Fogo
Fogo, Cape Verde
Fogo is an island in the Sotavento group of Cape Verde. It is the most prominent of the group, rising to nearly 3,000 m above sea level at Pico do Fogo.-Geography:...

 around the volcano Pico do Fogo. For tourists interested in cultural topics, the town of Cidade Velha on the Island of Santiago which was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1997, is worth a visit, but cultural tourism has not been particularly promoted up to now.

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