Enhancing Hospitality and Tourism Industry Competitiveness in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Overall, the tourism potential of Africa remains unrealized. Our chapter presents a case for competitiveness in Africa; reviewing the TTCI results of eight African countries, their strong points and the challenges they face, as a basis for our recommendations of strategies to enhance the tourism competitiveness of Africa. We argue that enhancing the competitiveness of the industry requires a systems-thinking approach because while there are several challenges, these are interrelated. We suggest that the investments into tourism should be informed by data gathered from tourism research. There are other important strategies that can be embarked on, and we provide some directions and recommendations for these as our concluding remarks.

Appendix: Pillars of tourism competitiveness by sub-indexes (2017)

Pillars of tourism competitiveness by sub-indexes (2015)	Definition according to the World Economic Forum
Sub-Index A: Enabling environment
Pillar 1: Business environment	The extent to which a country has in place a conducive policy environment for companies to do business.
Pillar 2: Safety and security	The level of safety and security, as danger deters tourists.
Pillar 3: Health and hygiene	This includes access to improved drinking water and sanitation, together with provision that in the event that tourists do become ill, the country’s health sector is able to ensure they are properly cared for, as measured by the availability of physicians and hospital beds
Pillar 4: Human resources and labour market	The availability of quality human resources in an economy. It relates to how destinations develop skills through education and training, and enhance the best allocation of those skills through an efficient labour market.
Pillar 5: ICT readiness	ICT is important for all sectors and contributes to the enabling environment of a country. Online services and business operations are important for planning itineraries, booking travel and accommodation.
Sub-Index B: T&T policy and enabling conditions
Pillar 6: Prioritization of travel & tourism	This relates to the extent to which the government prioritizes the T&T sector, in terms of how funds are channelled to development projects and the coordination of the resources necessary for the development of the sector. Stable government policies are also important.
Pillar 7: International openness	This relates to the degree of travel facilitation and openness in terms of visa requirements, access to the destinations and bilateral trade agreements.
Pillar 8: Price competitiveness	Price competitiveness relates to the cost of accessing a destination and includes airfare ticket taxes and airport charges, which can make flight tickets much more expensive; the relative cost of hotel accommodation; the cost of living, proxied by purchasing power parity; and fuel price costs, which directly influence the cost of travel.
Pillar 9: Environmental sustainability	This relates to how the natural environment is enhanced to ensure the destination provides an attractive location for tourism. It includes policies and enforcement of environmental regulations, and assessing the status of the natural environment.
Sub-Index C: Infrastructure
Pillar 10: Air transport infrastructure	This pillar relates to air connectivity, which is essential to tourism. It measures the quantity of air transport, using indicators such as available seat kilometres, the number of departures, airport density, and the number of operating airlines, as well as the quality of air transport infrastructure for domestic and international flights.
Pillar 11: Ground and port infrastructure	This pillar relates to the availability of efficient and accessible transportation to key business centres and tourist attractions. It includes an extensive comfortable and secure road and railroad network.
Pillar 12: Tourist service infrastructure	Quality accommodation, resorts and entertainment facilities together with access to services such as car rentals and automated teller machines (ATMs).
Sub-Index D: Natural and cultural resources
Pillar 13: Natural resources	This includes the number of UNESCO natural World Heritage sites, the quality of the natural environment as measured by the total known species of animals, and the percentage of nationally protected areas.
Pillar 14: Cultural resources and business travel	Cultural resources are another critical driver of T&T competitiveness. This pillar includes the number of UNESCO cultural World Heritage sites, large stadiums that can host significant sport or entertainment events. It also includes a new measure of digital demand for cultural and entertainment—the number of online searches related to a country’s cultural resources can allow the level of interest to be inferred. The number of international association meetings taking place in a country is included to capture some level of business travel.