According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO, 2006), the tourism industry in Sub-Saharan Africa enjoyed a robust annual market share growth rate of 10 percent in 2006. In spite of this, there are only few empirical studies that investigate the contributions of tourism to economic growth and development for African economies. Whiile tourism generates a significant amount of foreign exchange earnings that also contribute to the economic growth of developed countries, such ingredient of growth has not been effectively harnessed in Africa particularly in Nigeria and West Africa
Within Africa, the northern sub-region had the highest share of tourist traffic and revenue. In rank order, the top five tourist destinations in Sub-Saharan Africa include: Seychelles, Mauritius, Namibia, Cape Verde, and botswana. In 2015, foreign direct investment to the African continent totaled $54 billion and official development assistance totaled $51.04 billion, while tourism generated $39.2 billion and created 9.1 million direct jobs within the sector. Clearly, the tourism industry has an increasingly important role in the global economy by contributing to GDP, service exports, and employment.
Fifteen years ago, the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (renamed African Union Development Agency) adopted the Tourism Action Plan to bring visibility to tourism on the continent. This came about after a 300-percent increase in international arrivals in the 1990s, reaching 26.2 million arrivals in 2000. Tourism has since become integral to economic development policies. Several countries recently increased their efforts to advance their travel and tourism industries, including the Gambia, Kenya, South Africa, and Tanzania, to accommodate the nearly 62 million annual visitors to the continent. South Africa and Kenya receive the largest amounts of tourism-focused investment at $6.1 billion and $404 million respectively.
Generally, investments have been focused on countries with well-developed infrastructure, easily navigable travel policies, and business-friendly environments. There is great potential to increase tourism-related investment to the continent, particularly after the 15 member states of the Economic Community of West African States, often referred to as ECOWAS, introduced a visa policy allowing for free movement among its member states. Continent-wide efforts to increase integration and free movement, such as the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, will create a more stable business environment for investors and entrepreneurs to capitalize on the continent’s tourism potential. Potential investors in other countries’ tourism sectors will face challenges in infrastructure development and government support.

World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index Ranking (2017)
The tourism industry offers many opportunities to invest in Africa’s rich local communities, generate economic activity, and create employment opportunities for women and young people.
Morocco, as an example, has enthusiastically used the tourism industry as a development tool, hoping to increase the annual number of visitors received and to strengthen the country’s economic growth. Since the Moroccan government began strategically prioritizing tourism, the country has become the “new star of emerging markets among overseas property developers.” Morocco, South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya—as some of Africa’s most popular destinations based on number of arrivals and the value of tourism receipts—are tourism success stories with the countries earning billions of dollars each year. Namibia, Cape Verde, Botswana, and Tunisia all rank close to Kenya.
Impact of Covid-19 (Covidnomics) Pandemic on Africa Tourism industry and Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement
With the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of international tourist arrivals has decreased sharply. From April to June 2020, the number of international tourists arriving in Africa fell by 98 percent, compared to that same period the year before.
Travel and tourism are among the most affected sectors of the pandemic, with flights grounded, hotels closed, workers have either lost their jobs or on furlough, and travel restrictions put in place in virtually all countries around the world. Just as projected by the International Air Transport Associations (IATA) in March 2020, coronavirus has seriously disrupted the industry which has caused major losses.
Loss of Revenue due to restrictions on global traveling
Loss of Jobs in the local market and tourism sector
Threat to Job creation
In Conclusion, Tourism is an important driver of economic growth around the world. In 2014, the industry provided an estimated 277 million jobs and accounted for about 9.8 percent of global GDP. tourism sector in the world. In fact, tourism represents about 8.5 percent of Africa’s GDP and employs around 24 million people.

Prepared by:
The Research and Development institute of Sugartainment,
Sugartainment Media, Entertainment and Tourism

At least coro coro is coming to an end