Tourism development and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan African countries: an empirical investigation

ABSTRACT In this study, the impact of tourism development on poverty alleviation is examined using panel data from 32 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries during the period 2005–2014. Two indicators of tourism development are used, namely tourist arrivals and tourism revenue. In addition, four control variables have been used, namely economic growth, trade, the rule of law, and income inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient, the Atkinson index and the Palma ratio), thereby leading to three separate specifications for each tourism development proxy. Using the generalized method of moments (GMM) regression analysis, the study found that the impact of tourism development on poverty alleviation is not unanimous. When the number of tourist arrivals is used as a proxy, the results show that an increase in tourism development consistently leads to an increase in household welfare; hence, a decrease in poverty, irrespective of the specification used. However, when tourism revenue is used as a proxy, no significant impact of tourism development on household welfare is found to exist, irrespective of the model specification used. The results also show that income inequality has a clear negative impact on household welfare in SSA countries when it is measured by the Gini coefficient, while economic growth and the rule of law have a distinct positive effect.