Can tourism accelerate pro-poor growth in Africa?

Caroline Ashley and Jonathan Mitchell make the argument (PDF) for tourism as a pro-growth tool in Africa they assert that:

• tourism is disproportionately important for Africa, compared to other continents

• the industry is becoming increasingly competitive - free of the kind of price support and trade tariff controls in other sectors

• the long-term benefits are positive - Africa has the comparative advantage in wildlife tourism as such asssets become scarcer globally

• the importance of tourism revenues are relavent to the whole of Africa, albeit to different extents

• some countries have graduated from Least Developed Country status from the platform of a strong tourism sector - such as the Maldives, Mauritius and Botswana.