Panelists at the Essence of Africa, a key African tourism industry event, have called for the need to build sustainable tourism businesses across the African continent and with Africans leading the charge.
The call was among the key insights from the panel discussion moderated by Jan Hutton, a business transformation advisor and CEO, Australian Tourism Data Warehouse.
The Essence of Africa event, which took place in Nairobi Kenya recently, is a solution-based platform for tourism stakeholders in Africa to meet, discuss and address some of the challenges of the continent’s tourism industry.
At the discussion, the panelists insisted that Africa’s tourism sector must move beyond traditional corporate social responsibility in order to be able to create genuine economic partnerships with local communities.
The discussion also revealed innovative approaches to community engagement, environmental conservation, and economic development that are uniquely African in their approach and implementation.
In the key themes and insights, they called for the need to redefine community engagement.
Mohammed Hersi, group director of operations, Pollmans Tours & Safaris, challenged the traditional “giving back” narrative.
“We need to stop talking about giving back to communities – these are people watching over our parks, our wildlife. Why don’t we change it and work together as stakeholders?” He emphasized that communities should be seen as integral business partners rather than beneficiaries of corporate goodwill,” he suggested.
The panelists also think that conservation through community partnership is a better sustainability approach, going forward.
According to Mohanjeet Brar, managing director, GameWatchers Safaris and Porini Camps, conservation success depends on community involvement.
“There is no conservation without communities,” he noted, while pointing out that in Kenya, 60-70 percent of wildlife exists on community lands, outside national parks.
His company’s model demonstrates this philosophy in action.”If we want to put up 10 rooms, we have to lease 7,000 acres of community habitat, and the business has to pay to lease it and pay to manage that conservancy.”
Reviewing the economic multiplier effect, Amos Wekesa, CEO, Great Lakes Safaris, presented compelling data on tourism’s multiplier effect across African economies, using coffee as an example. “If 3,000,000 tourists enter through a tariff, an average tourist would take about 2 cups of coffee. Those are 16 cups of coffee [over 8 days],” he noted.
He also demonstrated how tourism can transform a kilo of coffee from standard export prices to over $120 through in-country consumption.
However, Brar took the discussion to another level, focusing on youth and future sustainability, while emphasizing the demographic challenge and opportunity.
“70 percent of Africa is below 30. The median age in Kenya is 19. We cannot maintain things the way they are. We have to really drive positive change.
“This demographic reality underscores the urgency of creating sustainable tourism models that can provide opportunities for young people,” Brar observed.
Of course, one cannot discuss sustainable tourism without a mention of the impact of climate change and environmental challenges.
In line with the above, the panel addressed increasing environmental challenges, with Brar highlighting issues like sand harvesting’s impact on water tables and flooding.
“When the floods come, when the rain comes from climate change, it is now no longer settling in the ground. It is actually flooding. This has led to some of the worst floods in areas like the Mara, affecting both tourism infrastructure and community livelihoods,” Brar noted further.
Yet, there are conservation success stories to encourage more actions and investments in that respect.
Following that, Hersi shared successful community partnership examples.
“Today, I am happy to report that we have 32 conservancies that have come together. In the past, it was only cattle keeping, which can be really degrading on the land. But now they are balancing tourism, and they can see the benefits of it,” he noted.
The urgent need for sustainable tourism issues is because of the huge market potential of the sector.
The panel highlighted Africa’s untapped tourism potential, with Hersi noting that Africa currently attracts just 3.5 percent of global international arrivals (approximately 1.4 billion travelers globally). He challenged the notion that traditional safari experiences are losing appeal.
“Where did this study come from that people don’t want to see wildlife anymore?” He asked.
The panels also offered some innovative solutions to address the challenges of sustainable tourism in Africa.
The innovative approaches to sustainability include: direct payment models for biodiversity conservation, integration of traditional livestock farming with wildlife tourism, establishing beekeeping projects that serve both conservation and economic development goals and offering training programmes for local communities within 10km of national parks.
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