International Tourists Arrivals in Africa: Do Issues of Good Governance Matter?
Date
2020-07-04
Authors
Bentum-Ennin, Isaac
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Economic Research consortium
Abstract
Political stability, good governance, and an enabling business environment
provide the foundation for tourism growth. Promotion of good governance in
Africa, it is believed, has the potential to enhance the image and attractiveness of
the continent to international tourists and thereby increase international tourists’
arrivals. However, the issue of good governance and its effect on the demand
for tourism in Africa has not been very much explored. This study, therefore,
investigates the effect of governance institutions on international tourists’
arrivals in Africa. Annual data from 1996 to 2014 on a panel of 41 destination
countries in Africa has been used for the analysis. Two estimation techniques, a fixed-effects panel estimator with contemporaneous effects only, and a dynamic
generalized method of moments estimator, are utilized to test the effect of various
measures of good governance on international tourists’ arrivals. Both models show
strong evidence that good governance matters as far as international tourists’ arrivals
and share of Africa in global arrivals are concerned. Good governance institutions
promote international tourism in Africa. If African countries can attain at least the
average score of 36.66 percentile, it will result in a very significant improvement in
international tourists’ arrivals and Africa’s share in global arrivals.