Tourism In Africa

Tourism is an important economic sector for many countries in Africa. There are many countries that benefit heavily from tourism like Uganda, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana and Tanzania.[1] The touristic particularity of Africa lies in the wide variety of points of interest, diversity and multitudes of landscapes as well as the rich cultural heritage. Also, an ecotourist industry is present in some African countries (e.g., South Africa, Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, Zambia, Uganda, Mozambique, etc.).[2]

Countries in Africa started investing in their tourism markets since the late 1960s and 1970s and are at different levels of tourism development.Countries in the continent of Africa are typically categorized using Butler's 1980 Tourist Area Life Cycle (TALC) model which is a common model that describes six specific stages of tourism development for all countries worldwide: exploration, involvement, development, consolidation and stagnation.[3]

Tourism In Africa

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However, a World Bank study in 2011 classified also African countries in to 4 categories based on performance.These performance groupings were based on indicators such business environment; tourism regulation, infrastructure, resources, tourism income, number of visitors and the potential growth of the market.

More recent structures that attract tourism includes the old slave castles in Ghana, Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle, which are also sited for heritage tourism. It also includes the highest monument in the world, the African Renaissance Monument in Senegal.[12][13]

Africa is home to a large marijuana industry and is famed for Marijuana tourism destinations that were part of the African "hippie trail" which saw many young people in the 1970s and 1960s traveling there for marijuana use, largely in North Africa (Morocco) but some made it to southern parts of Africa to countries like Malawi. In more contemporary times, many countries in Africa are still destinations known for their marijuana.[14][15]South Africa is considered the gate way to Africa's marijuana tourism industry due to the popularity of "Durban Poison" Marijuana there is legal for private recreational use[16][17] Malawi is another country that is known for its marijuana industry and tourists there are known to shop for marijuana or "Malawi Gold". The quality of Malawian cannabis has led it to out-perform marijuana sales in other markets that its been introduced in.[18] Morocco is a country that is also world renowned for its marijuana and attracts tourists in search for its popular marijuana.[19]

Due to advance in technologies, techniques and best practices and lower costs, Africa has experienced a surge in medical tourism and health tourism. Countries that are destinations for medical and health tourism packages include Algeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Tunisia. The top destinations for European visitors include Egypt, Tunisia, and South Africa. South Africa is the top destination for both international tourists and regional tourists from other African countries.[20][21]

African has a rich history of tea cultivation which is giving rise to several countries having a growing tea tourism destinations. Malawi was the first country to grow tea in Africa and has many tea estates that are decades ole. Countries like Morocco, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa are large tea-producing countries which are frequented by tea tourists. South Africa's tea tourism market is focused on rooibos tea.[22][23]

Aware of the potential for tourism, most countries in the region have already drafted strategic plans to develop the sector as an economic opportunity and development catalyst. For example, Gambia, Kenya, South Africa, and Tanzania are all putting significant efforts into advancing travel and tourism development. Botswana, Mauritius, Rwanda, and South Africa are working particularly hard to improve their business environment for tourism investment.

The conservation of savannah (Loxodonta africana) and forest (Loxodonta cyclotis) elephants in Africa is an issue of urgent global significance, as the recent upswing in poaching has resulted in reductions of up to 60% in elephant populations across the continent1,2,3. Demand for ivory, largely to supply Asian markets despite an international commercial trade ban1, is reducing or eliminating elephants in large swathes of their former range, with recent surveys suggesting tens of thousands of elephants have been poached over the last 5 years from Tanzania and Mozambique alone4. Suggested conservation responses to this crisis have included reducing ivory demand in Asia5,6, increasing incentives for local communities to act as elephant stewards7 and strengthening the ability of frontline conservationists to prevent elephant poaching8,9. The latter two points require range-country governments to amplify their investments in elephant conservation efforts. However, given other pressing development priorities that compete for limited funding and attention, it is typically difficult to justify conservation via a return-on-investment basis, as the tangible economic benefits of biodiversity conservation are rarely understood10,11.

Mean rates of return to tourism from investing in efforts to reduce elephant poaching in central (green), west (blue), southern (yellow) and east (brown) Africa, along with a sample of rates of return estimated for investments in education (white bars24), agriculture (grey bars25), electricity (horizontal cross-hatched bars26) and infrastructure (angled cross-hatched bars26) in 33 African elephant range state countries (country abbreviations on bottom axis of figure).

How to cite this article: Naidoo, R. et al. Estimating economic losses to tourism in Africa from the illegal killing of elephants. Nat. Commun. 7, 13379 doi: 10.1038/ncomms13379 (2016).

We thank George Wittemyer for providing population-specific data on elephant lambda rates and for helpful comments on the study design. Lisa Steel, Allard Blom, Bas Huijebregts, Paya deMarcken, Mesmin Tchindjang, Shelley Preece, Erica Rieder, Flip Nel, Peter Lindsey and Martha Bechem provided data on tourism visitation rates. We thank Colby Loucks, Jim Sano, Jeff Parrish, Chris Thouless, Fiona Maisels, Hugo Jachmann, Lamine Sebogo, Julie Thomson, Louise Gallagher, George Powell and Chris Weaver for advice on the study and/or comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.

The COVID-19 crisis has crippled economies and industries all over the world, and nature-based tourism has been one of the leading economic casualties. For many eastern and southern African countries, this means a significant loss of funding for their conservation operations, local community livelihoods, and tourism enterprises.

Discussions at the the Commission meeting focused on both the immediate and longer-term recovery of tourism across the continent, including through redefining the roadmap of the UNWTO Agenda for Africa 2030. Key topics highlighted by the high-level participants included accelerating tourism for inclusive growth, advancing the sustainability of the sector and the role of public-private partnerships in achieving both of these goals. Alongside this, the heightened relevance of air connectivity, including low-cost air travel within Africa, as well as the pressing need to support small businesses (SMEs) in gaining the digital tools and knowledge they need to compete, was also discussed.

But COVID-19 has created an unprecedented crisis for the tourism industry in Africa and around the world, crushing the supporting food, service, and manufacturing sectors that depend on tourism for employment and incomes.

In July 2020, the African Union estimated that Africa lost nearly $55 billion in travel and tourism revenues and two million jobs in only the first three months of the pandemic. The International Monetary Fund predicted that real GDP among African countries dependent on tourism shrunkby 12 percent in 2020.

In December 2020, an IFC and Dalberg Advisors survey of selected tourism companies in Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia revealed that the companies would lose two thirds of their revenue from international tourism receipts in the 2020-2021 season.

According to the WTTC, domestic tourism accounted for 55 percent of travel and tourism spending in Africa in 2019, below the contribution of local tourism in North America (83 percent), Europe (64 percent) and Asia-Pacific (74 percent). Domestic tourism accounted for 73 percent of the total global tourism spending in 2017.

South Africa, which welcomed 10 million international tourists in 2019, made local tourism in 2020 a focus of its recovery plan. Rwanda, with advisory support from IFC, is developing a recovery strategy that includes developing local and regional markets. Meanwhile in Kenya, entry fees to all game parks andreserves have been cut for one year to attract more local tourists.

Indeed, tourism, primarily nature-based in East and Southern Africa, significantly contributes to GDP, jobs, and livelihoods. The World Travel and Tourism Council says that in 2016 the total contribution of travel and tourism was 7.8 percent of GDP and 6. percent of total employment, including its wider effects from investment, supply chain, and income.

First and foremost, this requires strong protection and the sustainable management of these assets. Threats such as the rampant poaching of wildlife, the clearcutting of forests, and the pollution of beaches should not only be a concern for environmentalists, but for ministers of finance, planning, and tourism. They should also worry the private sector and local communities, as this sort of damage can deprive them of opportunity. Understanding the value of natural assets and the potential revenues they can generate can help mobilize broad support for protection and conservation efforts.

The local economy and local communities need to share the benefits from tourism. There are many opportunities for this, including sourcing supplies and labor, which can be supported by targeted training and capacity building to increase local value addition. My visit to a Bank-supported small training facility in Botswana, one where youth are trained in tourism, showed an uplifting example of what can be done with limited resources. More systematic vocational training can do much more. 2351a5e196