Tourism and economic wellbeing in Africa

The importance of tourism as a driver of economic growth and development in countries is well explored in the literature. In this chapter, we extend this line of research by incorporating the concept of economic wellbeing to tourism research in Africa. The chapter explores the effect of tourism on economic wellbeing for 44 African countries for the period 1995-2015 using fully modified least square method. The empirical evidence shows there is a strong, positive and statistically significant relationship between tourism and economic wellbeing, indicating that increased tourism is associated with increased economic wellbeing. The evidence also indicates bi-directional causal linkages between tourism and economic wellbeing in the short and long run, implying that tourism leads to economic wellbeing while economic wellbeing also leads to the expansion of tourist activities both in the short and long run. The chapter therefore contributes to a deeper understanding of tourism as an important factor for the economic wellbeing of destination countries.