COVID-19 Impact on Tourism Performance in Africa

This chapter provides the context in which the book ‘COVID-19 Impact on Tourism Performance in Africa’, is written, including highlights in the rest of the book. The COVID-19 pandemic came amid global trends toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which were dealt a major blow as all attention globally shifted toward reducing the devastating effect on all sectors of the economy including global tourism. Global tourism including Africa was heavily impacted by the lack of mobility and sociability which are the key success factors to tourism flourishment. Global lockdowns inhibited tourism in many aspects including reduced hotel occupancy or zero occupancy in some instances, no passenger travel, and no local travel affecting both international and local tourism and resulting in a detrimental effect on the performance of the tourism sector both strategic financial and non-financial objectives, Mission, and Vision. Governments globally and in Africa attempted to employ different means including economic stimulus packages to thwart the devastation like deaths and zero movement while tourism enterprises employed different means to comply with government regulations. African tourism organizations and enterprises employed various strategies to rejuvenate both local and international tourism as lockdown restrictions eased until the present post-COVID-19 situation.

The disruptive effects of COVID-19 have had a negative impact on our society and university students have not been spared. The need to understand how specific disciplines have been affected cannot be overemphasised. This study examines the underlying impact of the pandemic on Hospitality Management students in two universities. The study identified the students’ prevalent adversities that were associated with online learning. Using the quantitative approach, a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire was administered to students who attended a higher education institute (HEI) in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The data was analysed using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the dimension reduction technique. The results show that COVID-19 had a significant impact on Hospitality Management students as they faced various online learning challenges. Additionally, the study presents three new factors contributing to online learning literature: student difficulties; student fears; and learning alone. Findings reveal that both factors student fears and learning alone had an influence on factor student difficulties in the online learning environment. The study concludes that students who preferred the traditional face-to-face environment of the classroom found it scary to embark on the online route and learning by themselves compounded their studying difficulties and challenges. However, the factor of learning alone also proved that some students demonstrated resilience during the pandemic and once, they became accustomed, preferred the online learning route.

The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the economy of the whole world, and the tourism industry was the most negatively affected. The pandemic significantly affected the Great Lakes region of East Africa's tourism. This study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on East African countries. Secondary sources of data with themes on COVID-19, effects of COVID-19 on East Africa, and tourism in East Africa, were consulted and qualitatively analyzed from peer-reviewed articles and individual countries’ Annual Tourism Performance Reports and National Statistics and combined regional reports. The East African countries in the study include Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Sudan, and South Sudan. The findings of the study are that there were heavy job losses in the East African countries, high number of deaths affecting tourism operations, low tourism accommodation occupancy, low international tourist arrival, reduced Gross Domestic Product, low tourist arrivals at National Parks, and reduced foreign currency earnings. The study implies that there is overdependence of the East African countries on international tourist arrivals and foreign currency receipts, less effort on domestic tourism, dependence syndrome of the East African nations on the global North, the inability of the East African countries to curb disasters and pandemics in the tourism industry due to lack of technology, research, and innovation in detecting early warning signs. The study recommends the promotion of domestic tourism, funding of the tourism industry, research, and innovation, taking lessons learned from the pandemic and applying them to future pandemics in the tourism industry.

Employee well-being is vital to the sustainability of the hospitality industry as service affects excellence and overall guest satisfaction. During the COVID-19 era, several hotels became quarantine hotels for patients and suspected cases. The impact of the pandemic on quarantine hotel employee well-being is not well understood. This study examines how COVID-19 affected hospitality employees working in quarantine hotels. It also determines the strategies that could reduce stress and improve well-being. A qualitative research design was adopted as the strategy for inquiry, using interviews to collect data. Interview participants were employees from a South African hotel group who worked in a quarantine hotel. The main findings of the project are that COVID-19 altered hospitality employees’ well-being and left them anxious and depressed. They experienced job insecurities and noted financial issues. Those who were able to live on hotel premises were relieved not to expose their families to the virus but were constantly concerned for their well-being. However, flexible work schedules, acknowledgement of family responsibilities, and informative communications from managers reduced employee stress and increased reassurance of their importance. They highlighted that restricting the news they were exposed to, and following government protocols reduced anxiety. This reinforced the necessity of communication from managers to guide and ease their concerns. The implications of these strategies for future crisis management indicate the necessity to react quickly and decisively. Open lines of communication are vital to guiding the hotel employees into a mode of resilience to ensure sustainability.

COVID-19 provided both a challenge and an opportunity for tourism enterprises to improve the quality of service delivery and customer satisfaction. It has been difficult for tourism enterprises to build quality in the company to satisfy tourists and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. This study aimed to explore service quality attributes that will improve service delivery and enhance customer satisfaction, positively influencing sustainable competitive advantage. The study employs a qualitative research method, utilising secondary data documents from Google Scholar and the company's Annual Integrated Reports. The inclusion and exclusion of documents were based on thematic relevance. The study’s findings revealed that quality dimensions in tourism are evolving and are not uniform across researchers and practitioners. The study found that quality is an antecedent of customer satisfaction. The study also found that tourist satisfaction is important to ensure a sustainable competitive advantage. The study implications are that management should understand what constitutes quality service and products, monitor the dimensions’ implementation, satisfy tourists continuously, and maintain Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA).

Soliciting relevant information to measure the quality-of-service tourists receive and measuring tourist satisfaction has been problematic to service providers and academics. The subsequent result of failing to solicit the right information to measure the quality of service provided and tourists satisfaction has often resulted in wrong information being gathered and wrong decisions based on wrong information and its analysis has resulted in wrong decisions. The weakness of SERVQUAL as a generic model to measure customer satisfaction based on the questionnaire designed with 5 dimensions and 22 items falls far too short to measure tourists’ satisfaction in a wildlife viewing context which led to the formulation of a questionnaire with 21 dimensions and 121 items which comprehensively measure tourists satisfaction, whilst it was empirically tested and proven. The aim of the study is to provide an exemplar questionnaire that can be used to measure the quality of service provided to tourists in a game viewing context and measure tourist satisfaction in the same context. The same questionnaire can be used as a marketing toolkit for branding by tourism stakeholders. The questionnaire was used as the case study, with a critical document review of already existing literature. A number of recommendations were made including paying attention to the format and layout of the questionnaire which should be appropriate, the appropriate language of the questionnaire, questionnaires that answer research questions, questionnaires that are theoretically grounded, adoption of the exemplar questionnaire especially by researchers in tourism marketing and management, managers, policy makers, and tourism authorities.

Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the interests of scholars and researchers in digital entrepreneurship across all sectors of the economy. As such, the tourism and hospitality sector is not an exception. The essence of high penetration of technology has been hailed for transforming the experience of tourists across the globe. Consequently, it appears that digital technology adoption in the tourism and hospitality sector can be fertile ground for digital entrepreneurship. Although concepts like digital innovation, disruptive adaptations, and digital transformation have received much attention, digital entrepreneurship has received little attention when it comes to tourism and hospitality discourse. To make matters worse, the current digital entrepreneurship is fragmented and scattered. In line with these literature gaps, the current study aims to establish the role of digital entrepreneurship in the tourism and hospitality sector in the global south. To address the main aim of the study, a structured literature review methodology is adopted whereby literature sources from the Scopus database, Google Scholar, and other grey sources are used. More interestingly, reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The results revealed that digital entrepreneurship in the tourism and hospitality sector helps to ensure deeper segmentation, promote the development of innovative tourism products and services, augment tourist experiences, ensure data-oriented decisions, promote inclusive tourism, create job opportunities, promote sustainable tourism development and growth, and offer a competitive advantage. This study has theoretical and practical implications.

Continuous improvement and innovation are important attributes of tourism growth and business success. However, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic created a new threat to global and Africa’s health, wellbeing, and economy of people. The pandemic highlighted a critical need for public health capacity and a call for improvements and innovations within the tourism industry. This chapter assesses the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry in East Africa; and analyzes the innovations and digitization initiatives in hospitality and tourism sectors in the region during the pandemic; including an exploration of policies and plans of innovation for rebuilding the post-pandemic tourism industry. In East Africa, innovations in the hospitality and tourism sectors showcase significant milestones in fighting pandemic spread and encouraging international travel and tourism. Several research methods were employed to review the literature and analyze the data, using a mixture of secondary sources of data. Secondary data sources included a review and analysis of a range of publications on the status of continuous improvements and innovations from the region, and documentation from the Partner States on the status of hospitality and tourism sectors. The findings provide an analysis of policy research on the linkages between continuous improvements during COVID-19 and the performance of tourism at the regional and national/domestic levels. The findings evaluated innovations in the tourism industry during and after the pandemic period across East Africa. The chapter has propounded a continuous improvements and innovation framework for tourism during and post-COVID-19 and recommends unique opportunities for rethinking policies and plans for rebuilding tourism.

Owing to the impacts of COVID-19, many contemporary nations have taken steps to develop the tourism industry within their borders. However, the advancements in digital technologies opened new operational channels for existing marketers, resulting in a highly competitive market where various marketing strategies are employed. As a result of situational challenges such as reduced tourism demand, faced by destination marketers due to COVID-19 and the need to rejuvenate tourism, the chapter aims to uncover the most common digital marketing strategies used in the South African domestic tourism industry, focusing on the Free State Province amidst and beyond the disruptive COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with seasoned tourism marketers, the findings show that social media marketing, website optimization marketing, digital collaborative marketing alliances, online geotargeting, and app-based travel marketing are the most common digital strategies for tourism recovery. The chapter contributes to the literature and offers valuable insights for tourism stakeholders, policymakers, and researchers who want to promote sustainable domestic tourism growth in this complex and ever-changing landscape. The development of new technologies has encouraged tourism marketers to adapt their marketing strategies to the new form of marketing in the twenty-first century, aligned with trending digital tools and platforms. Suggestions for future research are provided.

Tourism marketing has been problematic during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Destination marketing has been difficult during and after COVID-19. There was a need to adapt and adopt new marketing strategies. This study aims to explore the marketing strategies, tactics, and policies, formulated and adopted to reduce the impact of COVID-19 in Africa and post COVID-19 to recuperate. A qualitative method was utilised to analyse relevant documents. The study findings are that tourism enterprises and authorities shifted their marketing goals, strategies, policies, and communication to adapt to the changing COVID-19 pandemic. The study also found that the target market also changed from international to domestic tourists while social media utilisation took centre. The study implies that destination marketing is heavily affected by unforeseen tragedies such as COVID-19 and continuous marketing improvement and innovations are encouraged. Tourism performance can be enhanced by responsive marketing communication strategies that ensure a positive reputation and brand image projection even in distressful environments. Positive word of mouth guarantees the reception of more tourists and business growth and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage.

In Zimbabwe, foreign visits to wildlife-based tourist destinations (WBTD) generally outnumber domestic visits. This can be attributed to the poor economic environment and low disposable income. The emergence of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) in 2019 and its travel restrictions hit international travel hard, which was one of the ‘cash cows’ of the government, hence the government had to look inside. Domestic tourism was identified as a key pillar for tourism recovery, as it helped erase the country’s negative image and address the impacts of COVID-19 on tourism. Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to examine quick-win strategies after COVID-19 implemented by WBTDs in Masvingo province to promote domestic tourism, as international tourism rebound is expected to take longer after experiencing a pandemic shock. The methods used in this chapter involve structured interviews with regional managers of WBTDs to explore their domestic tourism recovery strategies. To augment interview data, publicly available data from the World Tourism Council, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), and National Parks and Wildlife Management (ZimParks) were also extracted and analyzed. The research findings show that the regional ZTA and ZimParks offices conducted various domestic tourism promotional activities on behalf of the two WBTDs. Therefore, the lack of marketing departments in the two WBTDs affected their ability to independently customize destination marketing programs. In view of this, the study recommends that while ZimParks should maintain the oversight role, PAs should develop their own destination-specific domestic promotional initiatives in line with their mandate and local peculiarities. The ZTA regional offices should guide WBTDs as they take their promotional messages to national platforms to harness potential domestic visitors from other provinces. Furthermore, regional marketing departments should integrate local people who can identify with local communities if the local market is to be fully tapped.

COVID-19 brought unprecedented suffering to all sectors of the economy, globally. Tourism was one of the most affected sectors of the economy in East Africa. There was a need to find ways of recovering from this pandemic. This study aimed to explore recovering mechanisms and strategies adopted by the region to recover from the ravages of COVID-19 and how they are adapting to the new normal to boost tourism. The qualitative approach is adopted. Critical document review is utilised using tourism companies’ Annual reports, national reports from tourism organisations and government Ministries, and Google Scholar with themes on COVID-19, recovery strategies, tourism, and East Africa. The findings of the study are that there is less utilisation of social media as one of the tourism recovery strategies, digitisation is limited as a recovery strategy, regional cooperation, collaboration, and stakeholder engagement are vital for tourism recovery in East Africa, easing or visa removal to promote mobility in the region while promotion of domestic tourism is highly encouraged and authenticity promotion and instilling confidence in tourists. The study implies that resources and promotion of culture and history provide a unique selling proposition for East Africa while embracing technology will boost tourism significantly. The study recommends extensive marketing, digitisation, tourism product diversification, improved market intelligence and scouting for different market suppliers, promotion of domestic tourism, and capacitating the tourism industry by the government through various initiatives including funding and women participation.

The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc in all sectors of the economy globally. Tourism remains the most negatively impacted industry. Mitigation measures and plans were implemented to curb the damage by nations. The chapter explores the impact of COVID-19, mitigation, response, and recovery strategies different governments in West Africa through their Ministry of Tourism implemented in response to the gruesome impact of the pandemic. Qualitative research analysis was utilized on secondary data analysis such as plans by different governments and peer-reviewed articles from Google Scholar, Tourism Integrated Annual Reports, and National Statistics offices. The study found that there was limited and slow government support for the recovery of the tourism industry in the West African countries, limited funding, limited digitization, limited social media and limited domestic tourism, and lack of all stakeholder solutions to the industry, unclear messages being disseminated to tourists, and businesses creating uncertainty in the industry. The study implications are that all West African countries heavily depend on tourism, which exerts pressure on the government to have other alternative measures to boost foreign currency besides tourism. Further implications are the heavy reliance on international tourists by West African countries without utilizing local tourism, and the dependency syndrome of Africa on Europe for solutions that guided them in resolving the COVID-19 disaster. Other implications are the lack of technology to detect coronavirus at international airports and the lack of support on research, technology, and development in getting quick solutions to crises and pandemics, painting Africa as a follower and not a leader in tourism decision-making platforms. The study recommends close cooperation between nations to avoid the spread of pandemics in the future, taking lessons learned seriously from the COVID-19 pandemic to avoid worst-case scenarios next time, promotion of domestic tourism, aggressive tourism, practice customized tourism, widening the source markets for tourists, invest and improve in tourism research, technology and ensure sustainable tourism.

The COVID-19 pandemic has destroyed the economies of many countries. The tourism sector has been one of the hardest-hit sectors in South Africa. This study aimed to highlight the negative effect of COVID-19 on the tourism sector, analyze mitigation strategies that have been employed, and suggest recovery strategies and mechanisms that could assist in the possible full recovery of the industry. This qualitative research approach utilized document review from impeccable sources such as Statistics South Africa, annual reports and strategic reports from Tourism South Africa, Department of Tourism strategic documents, and annual reports from hotel groups operating in South Africa. The study found that South Africa has employed some mitigation strategies including the COVID-19 vaccine, and the following of health and safety protocols which prompted the easing of lockdown restrictions, allowing mobility. The study suggests that more and better strategies could be utilized by tourism stakeholders to enhance the full recovery of the tourism industry, including confidence building, responsive marketing strategies, digitization, adoption of the SAFSERV model, and employing qualified personnel in leadership positions. The study recommends that the fusion of some of these progressive recovery strategies will enhance speedy recovery.

Tourism is a key sector in Kenya’s economy that creates networks for stakeholders. These networks create a complex supply chain that supports over 35% of the total job opportunities in the country. Unfortunately, COVID-19 pandemic restrictions diversely affected these networks at the organisational and household level. This study aimed to establish the post-COVID-19 pandemic coping strategies of Tourism-Dependent Households (TDHs) along Kenya’s Coastal Tourism Circuit (KCTC). Though the Kenyan government formulated measures to mitigate the pandemic and revamp the tourism Industry, negligible effort was made to cushion these TDHs. Based on the stress and coping theory, this study adopted a qualitative exploratory approach. The oral responses were collected using three FDGs each consisting of between 16 and 24 respondents, represented by segments of TDHs within KCTC. Data was thematically analysed using both inductive and deductive coding techniques. In each destination, the TDHs derived a livelihood from either of the 24 tourism-related activities. The resultant effects of the pandemic restrictions were both positive and negative. To cope, the study unravelled both short-term and long-term strategies. While some of their short-term strategies; change in diet and depending on other family members helped equalise and bond the families respectively, involving children in seeking a livelihood exposed them to social ills. The long-term strategies such as forming self-help groups, and updating themselves with current marketing trends will help them have a stronger financial base and enable government agencies to formulate contingency plans that can mitigate future crises.