The Socio-Economics of the West, Central and Southern African Coastal Communities

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3.4 A Cultural Service: Tourism
Mangroves, lagoons and sandy beaches are among the
coastal ecosystems that are vital to the west, central and
southern African tourism industries and their related national
income and employment. For example, tourism accounts
for approximately 900,000 jobs in the CCLME countries, of
which 300,000 are in Morocco.173 Nevertheless, this industry
is vulnerable to pollution, with areas such as Dakar, Senegal,
being badly affected. Further damage to marine and coastal
ecosystems could considerably affect other economies
where tourism is a main source of foreign exchange, such as
in Cape Verde and The Gambia.174
Both the ocean and coastal ecosystems are integral to
tourism services, but lack of specific tourism data makes
it difficult to quantify the extent of each ecosystem’s role
in the GCLME or CCLME tourism industry. Interwies (2011)
categorizes tourism as a coastal ecosystem service175 and
approximates 70 per cent of national tourism incomes,
totalling US$ 720.8 million per year, to be attributable
to the entire coast of the GCLME (see appendix E).176
Interwies and Görlitz (2013) considers “opportunities for
tourism and recreation”,177 totalling US$ 4.684 billion per
year, as an “overall” value provided by CCLME coastal and
ocean ecosystems.178 Interwies and Görlitz (2013) assumes
that 100 per cent of CCLME tourism income results from
coastal/ocean (as opposed to inland) tourism due to the
fact that the ratio of coastal/ocean to inland tourism is
unavailable (see appendix F).179
The economic impact of tourism varies greatly among the
west and cental African countries. In the GCLME region,
Ghana has the largest estimated tourism income, at $326.2
million (Figure 20).180 Overall, the CCLME has a much larger
economic impact from tourism than the GCLME, mainly due
to the booming Moroccan tourism industry (US$ 3.3 billion)
(Figure 21).181
Guinea,
112.6
Senegal,
6,932
Mauritania,
210210
Morocco,
3,302
Cabo
Verde,
290.5
Verde, Gambia,
75.3
Sao Tome &
Principe, 10
Liberia, 0
Nigeria, 144
Guinea, 30
Equatorial
Guinea, 5
Gabon, 14
Ghana, 466
Guinea-
Bissau,2
Sierra
Leone, 83
Togo, 34 Angola, 59
Benin, 68
Cameroon, 34
Republic of
Congo, 17
Democratic
Congo, 0.65
Côte
d’Ivoire, 77
Figure 20: Share of GCLME Total Coastal Tourism Income in
US$ millions/year (based on 2009 country GDPs).
Source: Interwies (2011).
Figure 21: Share of CCLME Total Coastal/Ocean Tourism
Income in US$ millions/ year (based on various years); No
portion of GDP was attributed to tourism in Guinea-Bissau.
Source: Interwies and Görlitz (2013).182