Luxury tourism in Africa often fails to benefit locals, new research shows

TimesLIVE

2 days ago

Efforts by some African nations to attract luxury tourism have yielded limited benefits for local communities, with new research by the University of Manchester saying on Tuesday it often causes more harm than good.
Rising business and leisure travel on the continent has made it increasingly attractive for multinational companies. Airlines have also increased their African capacity, and in some nations that momentum is translating into economic affect.
Many African governments are targeting luxury tourism development, describing it as 'high value, low impact,' but the research published in African Studies Review has found that is not always the case.
All-inclusive resorts are often cut off from local life, hire few local workers and keep tourists from spending in nearby communities by providing everything on site, it said.
The research found the most profitable eco lodges were foreign-owned, with much of the tourist spending flowing to overseas travel agencies, food imports or profits repatriated abroad.
It also argued luxury tourism deepens inequality, with profits concentrated among foreign operators or a small local elite while wages for most tourism jobs remain low.
The issue is fuelling tensions on the ground.
Last week, a local activist filed a lawsuit seeking to block the opening of a new Ritz-Carlton luxury safari lodge, which boasts plunge pools and personalised butler service, in Kenya's Maasai Mara reserve.
The dispute is the latest flashpoint in East Africa's grasslands between luxury tourism and Maasai herders who said the sector's development is harming their habitats and ways of life.
In Kenya locals have complained about what they said are land grabs by wealthy investors. In Tanzania protests against the eviction of tens of thousands of Maasai to make way for hunting lodges have led to deadly clashes with police.