Routledge Handbook of Tourism in Africa

Marina Novelli, Emmanuel Adu-Ampong, Manuel Alector Ribeiro, Marina Novelli, Emmanuel Akwasi Adu-Ampong, Manuel Alector Ribeiro, Emmanuel Adu-Ampong, Marina Novelli, Emmanuel Akwasi Adu-Ampong, Manuel Alector Ribeiro

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781138496088
• eBook ISBN: 9781351022521
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

This book provides a comprehensive and readable overview of the critical debates and controversies around tourism in Africa, and the major factors that are affecting tourism development now and in the future.

Drawing upon research emerging from collaborations between a growing number of African academics and practitioners based in the continent and in the African diaspora as well as international colleagues, the Handbook offers key critical insights into the issues, challenges and trends that Africa and African tourism is facing. Part I covers continent-wide issues such as climate change, ICT, heritage and development. The remaining parts are organised along geographic lines, with each chapter covering the development of tourism, current trends and discussion of critical issues such as community participation, gender, backpacking, urban tourism, wildlife tourism and conservation.

Combining an overview of key theories, concepts, contemporary issues and debates, this book will be a valuable resource for students, academics and practitioners investigating the role of tourism in Africa.

Part I
Africa and tourism

2
The changing nature of Africa as a competitive tourism role-player

Andrea Saayman, Melville Saayman and Armand Viljoen

Introduction

Unavoidably, Africa’s pre- and post-colonial history is still observed throughout many independent African states. During pre-colonisation, many Africans were sold into slave trade from West and East Africa, resulting in mass extradition of human resources to fuel growing labour demands across the Atlantic. After anti-slave trade legislation passed, the exports from Africa had to adapt from labour exports to resource exports. This is especially noticeable after the Berlin conference of 1884/1885. Dawning into the era of post-colonisation and independence, many African countries and governments were unable to transition from export-led economies to industrialised economies with averages of industrialisation remaining around 10%, the same as in the 1970s (Page, 2014). The industrialisation growth in Africa is disappointing, with manufacturing output per person in Africa only about a third compared to other developing countries. While manufacturing might be considered an avenue to reduce unemployment on the continent, another prominent employment sector in Africa is tourism, employing on average 1 in every 14¹ or 7% of Africans (UNCTAD, 2017). However, certain challenges still outweigh the future prospects of post-industrialised industries and sectors such as tourism. Tourism has been identified as a catalyst for economic growth for Africa; however, tourism is such a multi-sector industry that many development challenges constrain Africa’s tourism potential.

Africa’s challenges are further enhanced by political, social and economic dimensions. Politically, Africa has experienced much tension from the slave trade and conquest of Africa (15th century), Africa’s colonisation (19th century) to independence (1960s) and present-day conflicts (Curtin et al., 1995:17; Falola, 2002:189; Worger, Clark & Alpers, 2010:14). Socially, Africa is still lagging behind mainly due to poverty, lack of education, lack of social equality and diminished safety and security (Torres & Momsen, 2004:297). Economically, the majority of least developed countries (LDCs) are African countries, which fuels the other issues burdening the continent due to slower or stagnated economic growth, subsequently resulting in less tourism development (Bardy, Drew & Kennedy, 2012:278). However, Africa’s potential for tourism is indisputable, especially considering the challenges faced by many African countries.

The advantages that Africa possesses to compete more efficiently in the global market include Africa’s price competitiveness, affinity for tourism, abundant natural resources, and efforts towards environmental sustainability. However, the challenges that deter tourism development are obstacles related to safety and security, health and hygiene, poor infrastructure, and the need for skilled human capital. The opportunities for the African tourism industry include improved visa schemes, community-based tourism, utilising natural resources to benefit the poor and leveraging Africa’s cultural assets (African Development Bank [AFDB], 2015:6).

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, 2014:36) confirms that over the past two decades most African countries have shown significant growth and stabilisation of their economies, increased government spending on education reform and feeding schemes. What is more, African countries have improved access to healthcare and have devised policies and procedures to ensure their success in future. Nonetheless, it is still detrimental to investigate whether these developments and improvements will result in larger market shares of domestic, regional and international tourism, and if so, which of those improvements would have the most satisfactory results.

This chapter investigates the current state of Africa’s tourism industry, identifying the persistent trends within inbound (international tourists from outside Africa), outbound (Africans travelling abroad outside of Africa) and intra-African travel (Africans travelling within Africa), as well as observing a more holistic image of what Africa has to offer within the global tourism marketplace.

Inbound tourism to Africa

Current situation

Most reports² indicate that Africa attracts around 5–6% of global tourism arrivals, making Africa one of the least visited regions in the world. According to the UNWTO (2018), the 2017 tourism growth numbers were 8% for both Europe and Africa, 6% for Asia and the Pacific, 5% for the Middle East and 3% for the Americas. When one delves deeper into the African tourism arrival numbers, consistent growth has led to 63 million arrivals in 2017, compared to 14.8 million in 1990. In terms of arrivals per region, in order of prominence, Northern, Southern, and Eastern Africa lead the way, followed by Western Africa and lastly Central/middle Africa, with the least number of arrivals. The increase in arrivals is also very prominent to selected countries with Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, and Tunisia recording the highest numbers of arrivals on average from 2011 to 2014 (UNCTAD, 2017). The 2011–2014 arrivals to these four countries account for 64% of arrivals to Africa. During the period 2014–2017, South Africa attracted the most international tourist arrivals, followed by Morocco and Egypt. South Africa, on average attracted 25% of arrivals to Africa, followed by Morocco (19%) and Egypt (14%). Cumulatively, these three countries still attract around 60% of African arrivals (UNWTO, 2019). These arrivals are also vital economic contributors, especially since tourism can be viewed as a service export and an important foreign exchange earner. During 2016, South Africa banked the most on inbound tourism receipts (US$ 8.7 billion), followed by Morocco (US$ 7.8 billion) and Egypt (US$ 3 billion) and Tanzania (US$ 2.4 billion) (World Travel and Tourism Council [WTTC], 2018). However, how much of this success is still backed by the traditional source markets and investors in Africa?

The traditional source markets have strong colonial ties within Africa, especially France, Britain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Spain and The Netherlands. These Western European countries and the United States are not only the traditional source markets to Africa but have also historically been the greatest investors in Africa. However, new markets are also interested in Africa, with growth in tourism from Middle and Eastern Europe, South America and Asia, especially China.

Figure 2.1 indicates the inbound arrivals (averaged from 2014 to 2017) per region to Africa. It is clear that the vast majority of arrivals are European, followed by arrivals from Asia, North America, Oceania and South America. Considering that emerging markets in Asia (Russia, India, China) and South America (Brazil), which have trade ties within Africa (especially South Africa), are becoming new source markets to Africa, it is understandable that emerging markets’ international tourism share worldwide has risen prominently since the 1980s (30%) to 2016 (45%) and is projected to reach 57% by 2030 (UNWTO, 2017:3).

Figure 2.1 Arrivals to Africa (averages from 2014 to 2017)

Source: Compiled from UNWTO data.

As seen in Figure 2.2, international arrivals from Europe are still considered the most prominent to Africa; however, there seems to be cyclical patterns in arrivals from European countries. Similar trends are evident for Asia, although here the decline during the last cycle is far more rapid and volatile. Both the Americas and Oceania exhibit stable arrival numbers, with little fluctuations and arrivals from North America showing a slight increasing trend.

Figure 2.2 Percentage market share of arrivals to Africa (1995–2017)

Source: Compiled from UNWTO data.

What drives international tourism to Africa?

It is widely accepted that tourism has a catalyst effect on employment, exports, tax income generation and the stimulation of infrastructure, making it an attractive sector for developing countries. These economic and social development benefits of tourism are often relied upon by emerging economies, small island nations, and deindustrialised countries. The demand for a destination is often analysed from an economic perspective, and therefore the main traditional factors driving tourism demand include income, price, travel cost, exchange rates, competitor country prices, and marketing expenditure (Lim, 1997). It is important to contextualise the evolution of the research. During the 1990s, much scholarly attention on the economic drivers of tourism was investigated, while in the early 2000s, alternatives beyond economic drivers became popular in determining arrivals.

While there is a wealth of knowledge concerning tourism demand for Europe, the US and Asia and Australasia, few authors have investigated the demand for Africa as a tourism destination. This might also be due to the lack of available data on Africa and also the fact that Africa was never viewed as one of the top tourism destinations. Only after the year 2000, some research on the drivers of tourism demand in Africa became available, coinciding with the fast growth rates in tourism to the continent shown in Figure 2.2. Most of these research efforts were focused on country case studi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• Editors and contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part I Africa and tourism
• Part II Tourism in North Africa
• Part III Tourism in West Africa
• Part IV Tourism in Middle Africa
• Part V Tourism in Eastern Africa
• Part VI Tourism in Southern Africa
• Conclusion
• Index