At Club Menelik, the buzzing nightclub on the ground floor of the eponymous three-star hotel in the city of Djibouti, the party runs nonstop, even at midnight on a Monday. On the dance floor, men and women, old and young, twirl happily all night long to Nigerian and French pop hits. The regulars are Djiboutians, Ethiopians, Americans and from across Europe; on occasion, there are visitors with Arabic and Hispanic roots.

That may appear a loud and strange welcome to this country of 950,000 citizens — a majority of them Muslims — where working weeks stretch from Sunday to Thursday. But it’s part of a carefully crafted plan that represents the government’s resolve to increase attention to the overlooked tourist spots of Djibouti, at a time when the country is opening up to the world like never before.

Since Djibouti became independent in 1977, its unique strategic location — the tiny nation sits on the Horn of Africa — has drawn Western powers like the U.S. and Italy to set up military bases here, following the example of the country’s former colonial ruler, France. But it’s only in recent years that the country has grown confident enough to position itself as a regional logistics hub. China opened a naval base in Djibouti last year. And Djibouti, keen to attract the attention of its landlocked neighbor, Ethiopia, and other countries in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) bloc, has established four new seaports, a second airport and a brand-new rail link — components of a free-trade zone, backed by investment from China and the Middle East — all in the past decade.

All of this has fueled a flurry of tourists and visitors, and corresponding ambition within the country’s government, which wants to dramatically increase incoming tourist numbers — currently under 100,000 — to 500,000 a year by 2035, under the Vision 2035 the country has unveiled. It has plenty to offer: Osman Abdi Mohamed, who was appointed director-general of the Office National du Tourisme de Djibouti a little over a year ago, lists out Lac Assal — the world’s third-lowest spot on land, at 153 meters below sea level — Lac Bee to the country’s north, and beaches where tourists can swim with whale sharks as among major attractions.

That may appear a loud and strange welcome to this country of 950,000 citizens — a majority of them Muslims — where working weeks stretch from Sunday to Thursday. But it’s part of a carefully crafted plan that represents the government’s resolve to increase attention to the overlooked tourist spots of Djibouti, at a time when the country is opening up to the world like never before.

Since Djibouti became independent in 1977, its unique strategic location — the tiny nation sits on the Horn of Africa — has drawn Western powers like the U.S. and Italy to set up military bases here, following the example of the country’s former colonial ruler, France. But it’s only in recent years that the country has grown confident enough to position itself as a regional logistics hub. China opened a naval base in Djibouti last year. And Djibouti, keen to attract the attention of its landlocked neighbor, Ethiopia, and other countries in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) bloc, has established four new seaports, a second airport and a brand-new rail link — components of a free-trade zone, backed by investment from China and the Middle East — all in the past decade.

All of this has fueled a flurry of tourists and visitors, and corresponding ambition within the country’s government, which wants to dramatically increase incoming tourist numbers — currently under 100,000 — to 500,000 a year by 2035, under the Vision 2035 the country has unveiled. It has plenty to offer: Osman Abdi Mohamed, who was appointed director-general of the Office National du Tourisme de Djibouti a little over a year ago, lists out Lac Assal — the world’s third-lowest spot on land, at 153 meters below sea level — Lac Bee to the country’s north, and beaches where tourists can swim with whale sharks as among major attractions.