Challenges to tourism development in sub-Saharan Africa : a case of Malawi

Abstract

Many countries around the world continue to consider or adopt tourism primarily for the economic benefits associated with it. However, developing tourism has been a difficult aspiration for developing countries as they face significant barriers. This paper examines the challenges to tourism development and their causative factors in Malawi. In-depth interviews were used to collect primary data. Inadequate connectivity between source markets and Malawi, as well as inside the country, underdeveloped tourist destinations and limited access to tourist information emerged as the main barriers to Malawi's tourism development. It was further revealed that underfunding, the centralized management structure of the tourism industry, lack of stakeholder collaboration, and an unfriendly business operating environment contribute to Malawi's tourism development challenges. It is recommended that the government and other key tourism stakeholders should prioritise the identified causative areas and among other things decentralise tourism administration and improve tourism statistics collection and analysis. There is also a need to strengthen stakeholder collaboration and networking.