Sustainable Tourism Policy and Planning in Africa offers an accessible and understandable overview of the challenges of integrating sustainability into tourism policy and planning in Sub-Saharan Africa and provides some interesting recommendations on how these could be overcome. Tourism is currently growing faster in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and in many other developing regions compared to the rest of the world. Using case examples from different segments of the tourism sector in different country contexts, this volume therefore reassesses context specific tourism policies and planning mechanisms in SSA over the years. It considers how the increasing focus on sustainability is reflected in different areas of the tourism sector including food security, the human capacity management, service delivery, local communities and heritage management, climate change and the influence of colonial legacies on tourism policy planning. For many SSA countries, it has only been in the last two decades that the development of sustainable and achievable context specific policies and planning mechanisms has become the norm. The chapters provide examples of how different dimensions of sustainability are integrated into tourism policy and practice, and examine the extent to which these are shaping the present, and their implications for the future sustainability of the tourism sector. Sustainable Tourism Policy and Planning in Africa will be of great value to academics, private and third sector employees to better understand tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa. Eight of the chapters were originally published as a special issue of Tourism Planning and Development. These are now complimented with a new introductory chapter and a concluding chapter that sets out a future research agenda for sustainable tourism policy and planning.

This book investigates urban tourism development in Sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the challenges and risks involved, but also showcasing the potential benefits. Whilst much is written on Africa’s rural environments, little has been written about the tourism potential of the vast natural, cultural and historical resources in the continent’s urban areas. Yet these opportunities also come with considerable environmental, social and political challenges. This book interrogates the interactions between urban risks, tourism and sustainable development in Sub-Saharan African urban spaces. It addresses the underlying issues of governance, power, ownership, collaboration, justice, community empowerment and policies that influence tourism decision-making at local, national and regional levels. Interrogating the intricate relationships between tourism stakeholders, this book ultimately reflects on how urban risk can be mitigated, and how sustainable urban tourism can be harnessed for development. The important insights in this book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners across Tourism, Geography, Urban Development, and African Studies.

Since its first mention in the academic literature, ecotourism has been endorsed by NGOs and governments as the most environmentally sound and locally beneficial method of tourist development. This publication evaluates the effect ecotourism has had on environment, conservation, community, as well as assessing the sustainability of ecotourism as a country and NGO policy and program. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ecotourism.

Over the past 20 years, the perception of tourism as an effective contributor to socio-economic development in the developing world has propagated, with many viewing tourism as a provider for poverty alleviation and towards other UN Millennium Development Goals. Over the same period, readers have become familiar with the paradoxes, complexities and inequalities of tourism in relation to development, wealth creation, growth, redistribution, governance and ‘hosts-guests’ relationships. This volume further extends this critical debate with a much-needed cohesive publication on Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). In an era of fluctuating tourist arrivals at global level, the growth of tourism in SSA requires deeper consideration in terms of its inconsistent and questionable implications at local level. Taking as a central theme the debate on whether tourism should be used in development efforts, this book examines the way in which tourism has controversially become the way forward to development in several SSA locations and assesses bottlenecks to sustainable development as well as dilemmas and challenges faced by those SSA destinations seeking to achieve development through tourism. It offers an explicit set of chapters adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing upon tourism studies, human geography, sociology, anthropology, political economy, development and environmental studies, and integrates case studies authored by local African practitioners and academics to produce a book that gave voice to local experts on local realities. Combining an overview of key theories, concepts, contemporary issues and debates as well as practical insights from a wide range of regions in SSA, this book will be a valuable resource for those investigating the role of tourism in development.

First published in 2014. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor Francis, an informa company