After a week of war in Iraq, the tourism industry in Africa, often the continent’s economic mainstay, has been hit by falling reservations and growing concerns about safety.
Some countries, however, such as South Africa, hope to capitalise on the current climate, using their geographical distance from the battlefields as a selling point.
North Africa has been especially affected by the outbreak of hostilities in the Gulf.
In Egypt, for example, hotel occupancy rates have nosedived from the 80% usually recorded at this time of year to around 30%.
In Tunisia, the industry had in any case yet to fully recover from an April 2002 attack on a synagogue — claimed by the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden — which killed 21 people including 14 German tourists.
Trade sources said foreign tourist numbers fell by seven percent last year and that the war was set to have a considerable impact on Tunisia’s overall economic growth.
Authorities in Morocco set up a crisis team just before the start of the war to bolster one of the country’s major sources of foreign currency. Tourism generated two billion dollars in Morocco in 2002.
In Marrakesh, visited by almost a million tourists last year, the sector began to feel the pinch well before the shooting actually started, with a sharp decline starting three months ago.
In all these north African countries, authorities have been trying to drum up domestic trade to compensate for the shortfall in overseas visitors.
South of the Sahara, bookings have also dropped in the most popular destinations, such as Kenya and Tanzania. In Kenya, where business has already suffered on account of deadly attacks in November 2002 in Mombasa and August 1998, and by
travel warnings issued by the United States and other Western nations, the governent said the war has ”sent jitters to the tourism sector.”
Hotel bookings on the coast stand at 50%, against a 70% average for the time of year.
The Iraq war ”has had a negative impact on tourism. There are no new bookings and there is apprehension on flights,” said Mombasa Coast Tourism Association Chairman Kuldip Sondhi.
In neighbouring Tanzania, where the US embassy was also targetted on August 7, 1998, many cancellations have been recorded, especially on the semi-automous island of Zanzibar, which has also been the subject of travel advisories regarding terrorist activity.
Hotel reservations and tourist arrivals in the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius fell by 10 to 15% over the last couple of months.
Industry sources in South Africa said that trade from visiting tourists was still booming, but travel agents reported a slump in those travelling abroad for leisure.
”South Africa is the only place to go on holiday at the moment, because it is a neutral country well away from the northern hemisphere missile routes,” said Gail McCann, who heads the country’s Tourism Services Association.
In Senegal, the head of the Hotel Owners’ Association, Mamadou Racine Sy, said that the southern coastal resort of Cape Skirring had suffered doubly because of the Iraq war and the crisis in Ivory Coast.
”Senegal, Ivory Coast, it’s just Africa, nobody makes a distinction,” he said.
”But we hope tourists will shift to Senegal” from countries deemed more dangerous,” he added. – Sapa-AFP