Africa: Kenya Ranks Third As Tourist Destination in Sub-Sahara Africa

By Paul Redfern

Kenya is now the third highest ranked sub-Saharan African country in terms of its travel and tourism competitiveness, according to a World Economic Forum report.

The report says that Kenya has moved ahead of Namibia into third position in the ranking, which includes factors such as the business environment, safety and security, health and ICT readiness.

However, Uganda is the most improved country in sub-Saharan Africa in the survey, moving up eight places to 106, 26 slots behind Kenya in 80th place.

Despite falling two places, Kenya remains one of Africa’s competitive tourist economies, but with no African countries in the world’s top 50, much still needs to be done to improve matters the report says.

The report says that despite sustained economic growth, travel and tourism “remains mostly untapped.”

TRAVEL COSTS

It adds that the biggest problems for travellers remain air connectivity, transport infrastructure and travel costs as well as visa policies and infrastructure.

Twenty of the 30 sub-Saharan countries covered by the report apply ticket taxes and airport charges above the world average

Significant concerns have been raised about the loss of some critical animal species, including large numbers of elephants across the continent, and the report says deforestation and habitat loss are becoming “problematic” in some countries.

Ten African countries have lost at least 7 per cent of their forests compared with the situation in 2000.

NATURAL TOURISM

“While tourism in the region is mainly driven by natural tourism, there is significant room for improvement in protecting, valuing and communicating cultural richness,” the report concludes.

The aim of the report, which covers 136 economies this year, is to provide a comprehensive strategic tool for measuring the set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the travel and tourism sector

The World Economic Forum has, for the past 11 years, engaged leaders in travel and tourism to carry out an in-depth analysis of the travel and tourism competitiveness of 136 economies across the world.

The travel and tourism competitiveness index measures “the set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the travel and tourism sector, which in turn, contributes to the development and competitiveness of a country”.

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