A Reassessment of Tourism-Exports Led Growth Hypothesis in Africa

Abstract

In spite of Africa’s potentials in tourism, its endowments have been underdeveloped and underutilized. This is not far from limited empirical studies on tourism issues. It is against this backdrop that I intend to determine the effects of tourism exports on Africa’s economic growth. A panel cointegration analysis from 1990 to 2011 for thirty African countries was used to discover that tourism exports have significant positive long run effects on growth in Africa. The policy implication is that, tourism has the potentials of accelerating long run economic growth, while African growth can be use in the development of tourism exports.