Building the Conditions for African Destinations to Thrive
Red Clay works with governments, development finance institutions, and investors to build the ecosystem conditions that enable African destinations to attract investment, develop sustainably and create lasting prosperity for the communities that call them home.
Investment Ecosystem Advisory
Based in Lagos, Red Clay Advisory works at the intersection of tourism, economic planning, and destination development. Our thesis is simple: tourism when developed with the right conditions in place, is one of the most powerful tools for economic diversification, job creation and community prosperity on the continent.
We work with governments, development finance institutions, and investors to diagnose, design, and build the five ecosystem conditions: connectivity, hospitality capacity, workforce readiness, safety and place quality, and destination brand, that enable African destinations to attract capital, grow sustainably and generate returns that reach beyond investors to the communities and economies they serve.
When these conditions are in place, destinations build meaningful employment, realise diversified growth and develop an attractiveness that benefits everyone.
What We Do
We advise on the conditions that make destinations attractive for development and investment. Our work spans four service lines, each grounded in the Investment Ecosystem Framework and designed to close the gap between intention and performance.
- Investment Ecosystem Assessment: a diagnostic of a destination’s readiness to attract investment and support sustainable development, scored across five pillars using the Red Clay Investment Ecosystem Index.
- Destination Strategy and Masterplan: holistic strategies anchored in economic diversification and the development agenda of the destination and region.
- Hospitality and Tourism Feasibility: decision-grade market intelligence for investors, developers, and financiers assessing specific opportunities within a destination’s development context.
- Strategic Advisory and Retained Counsel: senior advisory relationships for governments and institutions navigating active destination development and tourism investment programmes.
Destination development requires the right sequencing. Get it right and the benefits compound. Get it wrong and the investment underperforms.
How We Work
Our process is immersive and tailored to each context. Our work is built around four principles
- Diagnostic before prescriptive: We assess before we advise. Every engagement begins with an honest reading of the ecosystem as it is, not as it should be.
- Economic framing: Every recommendation is tested against one question: does this create conditions for capital to perform?
- Grounded in context: What works in Rwanda will not automatically work in Rivers State. Our frameworks are rigorous and their application is always context-specific.
- Built for implementation: The submission of a report is not the end of the work. We remain involved to support the decisions that follow, because the implementation phase is where the benefits to communities are realised.
Why It Matters
What Good Destination Development Delivers
Meaningful employment and workforce development at scale
Tourism development when properly sequenced creates jobs across the value chain, in hotels, transport, food, crafts, guiding, and the broader service economy. These jobs sustains destinations.
Infrastructure and services that benefit residents and visitors
Well-designed destination development improves roads, utilities, digital connectivity, and public spaces, creating assets that communities benefit from long after the visitors have gone.
Economic diversification that reduces dependence on single sectors
When tourism is treated as economic infrastructure, it creates the conditions for broader investment in the economy, reducing dependence on extractive industries and building more resilient local economies.
Red Clay Perspectives
Analysis and intelligence on destination competitiveness, investment ecosystems, and the conditions that make African tourism work.