africa, tourism · dited visa procedures, cross-border development projects, and community...
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Africa, tourism
Joao Sarmento1,2 and Bradley Rink3
1University of Minho, Guimaraes, Portugal2University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal3Department of Geography, Environmental
Studies & Tourism, University of the Western
Cape, Bellville, South Africa
▶Africa is the second largest continent
(30 million km2) with 26,000 km of coastline
(Fig. 1). It is also the second most populated
continent with approximately one billion inhabi-
tants unevenly distributed over 54 sovereign
states.
Africa has been viewed as an exotic, distant,
and challenging destination based on early
colonial and missionary forays into the “dark
continent.” Besides exoticism, the continent’s
main appeals are its great diversity of natural
landscapes and cultural richness. One of the
principal tourism products is the safari—“to
travel” in Kiswahili, and that in its nineteenth
century roots meant a hunt for animals in
the wild.
History of tourism in Africa
Tourism development in the continent emerged
in tandem with the nineteenth-century colonial-
ism. ▶Egypt, ▶Morocco, ▶Tunisia, ▶Kenya,
▶ South Africa, ▶Swaziland, and ▶Zambia all
experienced early development, mostly based on
the desires of European and North American
tourists. Africa’s imagery was connected to
imperial explorations and expansion, the con-
struction of “the native,” and in the Maghreb
with notions of orientalism. Up to the 1950s,
tourism growth was dependent on the limited
ownership of automobiles by the white
“European” elite, with unreliable road networks
being nonetheless promoted by automobile
clubs established in the early twentieth century
(Pirie 2013).
From the 1930s, with the development of
▶ aviation networks from colonial centers of
▶ power in ▶Europe, ▶ air transport became an
important channel for tourism growth (Pirie
2009). However even today, air transport is
perceived as a major constraint to Africa’s tour-
ism development. High airfares and inconve-
nient, unsafe, and insufficient service of
scheduled and charter services are common prob-
lems in many countries.
Growth and development
After Morocco’s and Tunisia’s independence in
the 1950s and later of Kenya and ▶Tanzania,
tourism was viewed as a “passport to develop-
ment,” and ▶ nature tourism assumed an impor-
tant role. During the 1990s, South African
tourism grew considerably (94 % between 1990
# Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
J. Jafari, H. Xiao (eds.), Encyclopedia of Tourism,DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_230-3
and 2002) and continued into the twenty-first
century with mega-events and growth
in convention-oriented ▶ business tourism.
Today, safari remains a centerpiece of tourism
products in ▶Botswana, Kenya, South Africa,
Tanzania, and Zambia, and trans-frontier▶wild-
life tourism is expected to be a successful formula
(Hottola 2009). On the other hand, ▶ island
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803715AI (G00392) 4-14
AFRICA
Boundary representation isnot necessarily authoritative.
Azimuthal Equal-Area Projection
Scale 1:51,400,000
Africa, tourism, Fig. 1 Map of Africa
2 Africa, tourism
tourism has also registered sustained above aver-
age growth in countries like ▶Cape Verde
(27 %), Reunion (12 %), and ▶Seychelles
(11 %). In 2009, 31 % of international tourists
were Europeans, 43 % were Africans, and only
4 % were from the ▶Americas (UNWTO 2011).
The main entry points are located in ▶ South
Africa, the resorts of Egypt and Tunisia, Casa-
blanca, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, and Lagos. Road
and ▶ rail networks at continental scale are inad-
equate, as they are at a national and regional scale
in many countries. Port facilities are insufficient.
While major international events such as the
FIFAWorld Cup soccer tournament have spurred
development in South Africa, other African
countries have experienced far lesser tourism
infrastructure investment.
Tourism is highly concentrated on a few des-
tinations: South Africa (29 %) and Morocco
(22 %) contribute about half of the total number
of international arrivals. In 2012, the region
enjoyed 52.4 million tourists (almost doubled
since 2000), and the latest ▶UNWTO forecasts
that arrivals will increase from 85 million in 2020
to 134 million in 2030. One out of every 11 jobs
comes from the tourism industry. Despite the
positive development of the past years, Africa
accounts for only 5 % of global tourism and for
3 % of receipts, which amounted to US$ 1 billion(this figure was more than trebled since 2000). In
2012 the total contribution to GDP increased to
9 % and to 7.1 % of total employment (WTTC
2013). Tourism in North Africa, one of the most
important regions in the continent (33 % of all
international arrivals), has suffered a sizeable
decline since the Arab Spring of 2011. Tunisia
has been the most affected country in the region,
with a loss of 31 % of international tourists from
2010 to 2011.
Several international and regional bodies such
as UNWTO Commission for Africa, African
Tourism Organization (sub-Saharan African non-
profit organization formed in 2004), RETOSA
(Regional Tourism Organization of Southern
Africa), and NEPAD (New Partnership for
Africa’s Development) are concerned with tour-
ism in the continent. Policies and strategies are
mostly developed at a national level and tend to
mirror neoliberal development agendas that
underline the role of the private sector and global
competitiveness. These policies need to be fur-
ther articulated with the sectorial policies,
namely, education, nature conservation, health,
and information and communication
technologies.
Future prospects
Future tourism facilitation measures should focus
on improving ▶ tourist mobility through expe-
dited visa procedures, cross-border development
projects, and community involvement in tourism
development (Dieke 2000). Africa’s tourism
potential is dependent largely on both regional
economic development and advances in aviation
technology, allowing for more cost-efficient and
thus growing air access to (and within) the conti-
nent. Harnessing the potential of tourism in
Africa as a developmental tool also requires edu-
cation and skills training for the provision of
quality tourism services. Prospects of a growing
middle class due to broad-based economic
growth underpin prospects for regional tourism
growth based on inter-African tourism.
Perhaps due to Africa’s diversity and size,
most studies have been conducted at national or
regional scale (East, Southern, and North Africa),
with a strong predominance of studies related to
South Africa and to a lesser degree to Southern
Africa. Concerns over sustainability in tourism
call for more research with respect to managing
tourism growth in Africa while at the same time
mitigating its potentially negative impacts. Many
topics, such as inter-African tourism and gender
inequality, are under-researched.
See also ▶Conservation, ▶ cultural tourism,
▶ development,▶ safari tourism,▶ sociocultural
change.
References
Dieke, P., ed. 2000 The Political Economy of Tourism
Development in Africa. New York: Cognizant.
Africa, tourism 3
Hottola, P., ed. 2009 Tourism Strategies and Local
Responses in Southern Africa. Wallingford: CABI.
Pirie, G. 2009 Incidental Tourism: British Imperial
Air Travel in the 1930s. Journal of Tourism History
1:49-66.
Pirie, G. 2013 Automobile Organizations Driving Tour-
ism in Pre-independence Africa. Journal of Tourism
History 5:73-91.
UNWTO, 2011, The Tourism Market in Africa. Madrid:
World Tourism Organization.
WTTC 2013 Travel and Tourism. Economic Impact 2013.
London: World Travel and Tourism Council.
4 Africa, tourism