Investment in crucial infrastructure and plans for a massive new game park the size of Italy spur hopes for a surge in tourism

Only six years have passed since Angola emerged from almost three decades of a brutal civil war that decimated its infrastructure and killed as many as 500,000. Now the government is making significant efforts to bolster tourism by partnering with aid organizations to remove land mines, rebuild bridges, open roads, and invest in construction countrywide—5 new hotels opened last year and 12 more are currently being built. Private investors are spending $100 million for the construction of mid-range and upscale hotels in Huila province in preparation for the African Cup of Nations (the continent's main soccer competition), to be held there in 2010, and the international airport in the capital city of Luanda is slated for completion in 2012. Even a contemporary art museum is planned for Luanda. Perhaps most encouraging, authorities are in the process of streamlining the visa application procedure so that visitors will no longer have to wait weeks or months for the document; the speedier service will be available within the next three years.

"Angola is the destination that the majority of my clients are interested in," says Jim Louth, president of U.K.-based Undiscovered Destinations, whose Angolan itineraries include quad biking amid sandstone canyons, parasailing over desert coastlines, and exploring the indigenous Himba's villages. Among the other chief attractions of this sprawling southern African country are colonial Portuguese architecture (particularly in Lubango, which was largely unaffected by the war); Quedas do Calandula, Africa's largest waterfall after Victoria; rain forests; diamond-dust beaches; and a dune-strewn desert coastline. For years, South Africans have been driving north, enticed by the excellent deep-sea fishing off the Angolan coast. Inland, the wildlife populations—wiped out by poaching during the war—are again thriving. Indeed, one of the largest translocations of game in history occurred in Angola in 2001: 36 elephants as well as zebras, ostriches, wildebeests, and giraffes were flown from Botswana and South Africa to Angola's 2.5-million-acre Kissama National Park, two hours south of Luanda. Vance Martin, president of the Colorado-based Wild Foundation, which assisted with the translocation, cautions that while game in Kissama is flourishing, "don't go expecting to see wildlife every day. Angola—and its wildlife—are rebounding but still in the recovery stage."

Arguably the greatest tourism feat since the end of the Angolan civil war—still only a vision—is the proposed Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), which will span a portion of Africa roughly the size of Italy. The joint conservation area will bridge the borders of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, giving the continent's largest elephant population roaming grounds free from the threat of culling. KAZA will include a sizable portion of Angola's Moxico and Cuando Cubango provinces, both hard hit by the war. Peace Parks Foundation, the conservation organization overseeing the project, says that KAZA could be a reality by 2010. If the park is successful, it will have far-reaching implications for Angolan tourism. "Angola today is where Vietnam and Cambodia were in 1990," says Louth. "Those countries are now mainstream. Angola's time will come. It is coming, now."