Interview with David de Villiers, deputy WTO head

African tourism could hold the key to rapid economic development, says Dr David de Villiers, deputy secretary general of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO). But as yet few African nations have tapped its enormous potential. Here, following a major pan-African tourism conference in Addis Ababa, he tells IRIN that tourism must be directed towards pro-poor policies if it is to make a real difference to African development. QUESTION: How much can tourism contribute to GDP? ANSWER: In Africa and developing countries certainly tourism can be contributing in double figures to GDP – even 20 or 30 percent – in some countries where they have very little else to offer. We have done a survey that indicates that with about four exceptions of the Least Developed Countries of Africa, tourism is the number one or number two contributor to GDP. The exceptions are those that produce a little bit of oil. Q: Should tourism be a goal for African countries? A: Africa desperately needs development and tourism is one of the areas, for many of the countries one of the few areas, where they can get economic growth and foreign currency in. We do not approve of tourism development as a goal in itself. We insist it must be sustainable tourism. Unguided tourism, opportunistic tourism can be very harmful to cultural life and society in general and you may end up with economic activity that is beneficial in the short term but in the long term very harmful to the country. Q: Are there examples where that has happened? A: There are many examples in the developing world as well as the developed world. There is far more understanding today for the need to guide tourism very cautiously. It is not just a market-driven activity. A sound policy framework on land use and many other issues must guide it. If it is well structured, tourism can be of huge benefit to a country. Q: Where in sub-Saharan Africa hasn’t it worked in the way the WTO thinks it should? A: There are many examples along the coast of Africa where prime pristine land has been used in a way that has destroyed, perhaps not permanently, but has done a lot of damage to coastal areas, where water resources have been wasted, where the community has not been involved and it has been very harmful to cultural development. One can think of examples in Kenya and South Africa and many other places. There are many obvious examples of the bad effect it had on society. But there are equally wonderful examples of the contributions it has made and the jobs it has created and the role it has played in rural development. Q: How can you preserve the community and expand tourism? A: I don’t think one must think of preserving the community as if you wanted to keep them in a box for years to come, they will also change. Education will change them; they will move to different jobs and change in dress and lifestyle. What I am talking about is when the community doesn’t get any benefit and are excluded from development - in many cases that leaves them with very little opportunities. That destroys their social structures and it offers things that one would rather not think of – prostitution and other things – they are led to do that. No. If it is properly done with the consent of the community it will also change the community in the long run but change them in a constructive positive way. Q: Which countries have got it right? A: I think Botswana, Namibia – you can pick very good examples. Tanzania. I can go on. If you have cases that really set the trend and then multiply that experience it can be very powerful in the end. Q: Is the high end of the market the type of tourism Africa should be attracting? A: There is not the one or the other. We need a mix. We need the wealthier tourists but we also need to use tourism in a way that it percolates through to the poor. Tourism should be more pro-poor and you should encourage even the wealthy tourist who goes to these game parks to buy the handicrafts or visit a village, to make a contribution perhaps more so than your stay in the game reserve. We need to create this awareness. The modern tourist doesn’t just want to sit in the sun and see the animals, they want to be enriched personally by what they eat and drink and what they learn. Q: What should African governments be doing to encourage these ideas? A: I think African countries and governments must put tourism higher on their list of priorities. They must think of infrastructure in terms of the tourism benefit. Think of marketing in terms of tourism benefit. By putting tourism higher on the agenda it will lead to the kind of policies that will benefit tourism. You need the policies to guide and stimulate tourism in the right direction. Q: And how can small communities ensure they benefit? A: The community itself has very little means of doing that and therefore the private sector - the business operator, the hoteliers and the tour industry - must also play their role in getting tourism to be more responsive to the needs of communities and people in these countries. You need just one hotelier to be sensitive to the needs of the local community before it builds up to benefit the local communities. Q: The UK and US governments, for example, say it is not safe to travel to many areas. What impact does that have? A: This is a very important aspect that is worrying us – the tourism advisories of governments. Kenya is a good example. Kenya has worked with the security instruments of the United States and the UK and then suddenly out of the blue, flights are cancelled and tourism dropped. Now you can’t blame countries who warn their citizens – they have a responsibility to do that. In our code of ethics we recognise the right of governments to advise their citizens but we request they should consult also with the private sector, their own tour operators and then the situation should be monitored so the advisory can be changed at the earliest opportunity. It is a problem we need to look at in a broader way.