UNCTAD report highlights tourism growth and impact on development
While in many Western destinations there are concerns that tourism has gone too far and is harming the quality of life for inhabitants of popular towns and cities, in less developed economies tourism, when properly managed, can be a vital driver of economic growth and improved livelihoods. In recognition of this, the United Nations designated 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. A new report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) suggests that flourishing tourism in Africa is putting millions of people to work and adding billions of dollars to national economies. The annual Economic Development in Africa Report projects continued robust growth in tourism in the coming years, and shows that rather than relying from visitors from Western countries, intra-African tourism is becoming increasingly important.
Since the 1990s, tourism has increasingly contributed to Africa’s growth, employment and trade. During 1995–2014, international tourist arrivals to Africa grew by an average of 6 per cent per year and tourism export revenues, 9 per cent per year. The average total contribution of tourism to gross domestic product (GDP) increased from $69 billion in 1995–1998 to $166 billion in 2011–2014, that is from 6.8 per cent of GDP in Africa to 8.5 per cent of GDP. Furthermore, tourism generated more than 21 million jobs on average in 2011–2014, which translates into 7.1 per cent of all jobs in Africa. With growth forecast to continue, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) projects the total contribution of tourism to Africa’s Gross Domestic Product will amount to $296 billion by 2026. The WTTC also expects the sector to generate nearly 29 million jobs in 2026 up from 21 million in 2016.
If tourism benefits are to feed into local economies and communities, however, the industry must be carefully managed. Tourism has been associated with operating in isolation from other parts of the economy, suffering from high financial leakage, generating sociocultural tensions and environmental damage. History suggests that countries cannot rely on tourism as the sole avenue out of poverty or the only pathway to sustainable economic development. The new report focuses on enhancing the role that tourism can play in socioeconomic development, poverty alleviation, trade, fostering regional integration and structural transformation. To achieve these goals, it stresses that Africa must tackle key impediments to developing the tourism sector, such as weak intersectoral linkages.
A relatively recent feature of the African tourism industry is the growing importance of regional markets. UNCTAD secretary-general, Mukhisa Kituyi says intra-African tourism, which now exceeds visitors from Europe, the United States and Asia, is behind the fast growth in the industry.
“Also, importantly documented in this report is the fact that intra-African tourism is 12 months a year," he said. "It does not wait for the north in winter and that way it underpins more continuing livelihoods than the seasonal tourism associated with the traditional South markets.”
But, Kituyi says African governments must liberalize air transport to realize the potential of intraregional tourism for the continent’s economic growth. Currently, he says four countries, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia and Kenya, account for more than 90 percent of air traffic.
“Many countries that do not have a viable national airline, do not see the reason of giving concession for low-cost landing when there is no such benefit for their own airlines," he said. "And, what it means is that you start finding abnormally high landing costs for airlines from other African countries.”
Kituyi says this short-sighted policy results in abnormally high costs for intra-African flying, which holds back greater potential revenue through the greater movement of persons across the continent.
The Economic Development in Africa Report 2017 aims to identify key barriers and impediments to unlocking the potential of tourism in Africa to help transform the continent’s economy structurally, and provides policy recommendations on how those barriers and impediments could be addressed. The focus is on the following four challenges:
(a) Strengthening intersectoral linkages
(b) Enhancing the capacity of tourism to foster more inclusive growth
(c) Tapping the potential of intraregional tourism through deepening regional integration
(d) Harnessing peace and stability for tourism.
Beyond generating economic benefits and boosting productive capacities, the report says that tourism has the potential to foster inclusion by creating employment opportunities among vulnerable groups such as the poor, women and youth. To achieve this, stronger linkages at national and local levels must be developed, to ensure that more of the value added in the tourism sector remains within the destination country, rather than being lost to foreign investors, international tour operators and foreign airline companies.
This report follows a recent study by the African Development Bank, which we covered in a 19 June article. To find database records on tourism in Africa, try starting with the search tourism AND (up:africa OR gl:africa), and then filtering by country or subject topic to drill down to the location or topic of interest to you. A small selection of records on sustainable development is listed below.
Access the report - Economic Development in Africa Report 2017: Tourism for Transformative and Inclusive Growth