Sipho Kekana
For every US$100 spent on a vacation tour by a tourist from a developed country, only around US$5 actually stays in a developing-country destination’s economy, translating into a 95 percent loss in revenue.
This was said by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO)’s Regional Department for Africa director, Elicia Grandcourt.
At the 5th Africa Tourism Leadership Forum (ATLF) at the Grand Palm Hotel International Convention Centre in Gaborone this week, Grandcourt said for Africa to realise the real value of tourism in the continent, it needed to deal with these revenue leakages.
“In most all-inclusive package tours, about 80 percent of travellers’ expenditures go to the airlines, hotels and other international companies, who often have their headquarters in the travellers’ home countries, and not to local businesses or workers,” said Grandcourt.
“The average import-related leakage for most developing countries today is between 40 percent and 50 percent of gross tourism earnings for small economies and between 10 percent and 20 percent for most advanced and diversified economies,” she added.
She said this had severe consequences on African economies, something she says prevents the tourism sector from fully unleashing its potential to drive inclusive socio-economic development and advancement of Africa and from effectively contributing to eradicate poverty in line with the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
“Leakages in tourism deeply affect African countries’ economies across the continent with severe and negative impacts on local communities’ livelihoods by fostering inequalities and producing cultural erosion,” said Grandcourt.
More than 600 delegates, including officials government officials and role players in the private sector, turned up for the event to look at ways to improve intra-Africa tourism. This comes on the back of the industry suffering massive setbacks during the Covid-19 pandemic which gave rise to travel restrictions.
African tourism which has been heavily reliant on foreign travellers lost billions in revenue and shed thousands of jobs, prompting the need for intra-Africa travel for the sustainability of the sector.
Thought leaders in the sector have for the past three days engaged on policies that need to be introduced and collaborations that need to happen for the diversification of the sector.
Grandcourt said Africans need to start traveling to other African countries and supporting local businesses.
Earlier, the CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, highlighted the importance of SMMEs, warning that small businesses need to be seen as the industry instead of entities on the periphery of the industry.
He encouraged Africans to use to embrace the uniqueness of their culture and use it to their advantage instead of confining it to cultural villages.
Admitting that small businesses face serious funding challenges, Tshivhengwa said all stops must be pulled out to turn SMMEs into success stories. – SABC News
