New African Tourism Rankings to Assess Continent’s Tourism Potential Across 55 Countries
Johannesburg - The TourismX Africa Destinations Index, a new industry benchmarking initiative, is set to assess the tourism performance, economic contribution and future opportunity of all 55 African countries.
The rankings have been compiled using data sourced from various publicly available reports and are designed to provide a comparative view of the scale, economic importance, market structure and future potential of tourism across the continent. The framework considers tourism flows, visitor spending, employment, source markets and investment-related information, with the final rankings also assessing each country’s contribution to tourism GDP.
Rather than focusing solely on visitor numbers, the rankings combine quantitative tourism performance indicators with qualitative measures of future tourism potential. This recognises that a country’s tourism significance extends beyond arrivals to include economic value, employment, source-market diversity, investment opportunities and government support.
In addition to ranking countries with available data in the Index, with ranking status awarded at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Emerging levels, the Index will also recognise achievements across nine awards' categories, respectively.
The TourismX Africa Destinations Index will recognise performance across the following categories:
- African Destination Tourism Volume Leader - visitor arrival performance.
- African Destination Tourism Economic Impact Leader - contribution of tourism to GDP.
- African Tourism Destination Visitor Spending Leader - foreign and domestic visitor expenditure.
- African Tourism Employment Destination Leader - contribution to tourism-related employment.
- African Destination Foreign Source Market Diversity Leader - diversity of identified - international visitor markets.
- African Destination Growth Outlook Leader - future tourism growth prospects.
- African Destination Tourism Investment Opportunity Leader - strength and breadth of identified investment opportunities.
- African Destination Government Tourism Support Leader - policies, strategies and initiatives supporting tourism development.
- African TourismX Destination of the Year - a combined assessment across all measured dimensions.
The methodology used compiling the Index provides a comprehensive measure of tourism opportunity by assessing eight dimensions like visitor arrivals, economic impact, visitor spending, employment, source-market diversity, growth outlook, investment opportunities and government support, using the latest relevant data available in each country profile.
According to Gerrit Davids, Director, TourismX Index, “The forthcoming Index will provide tourism stakeholders, investors, policymakers and industry organisations with a comparative benchmark of tourism performance and opportunity across the continent as a whole.”
“The objective is not simply to identify the largest tourism markets, but to highlight the different dimensions in which African tourism destinations demonstrate scale, economic impact, visitor value, employment contribution, market resilience, growth potential, investment opportunity and government commitment,” said Davids.
The final rankings will be released on a date yet to be decided and further details will be provided in due course.
ENDS
For more information on the Awards, contact
Gerrit Davids
MD
Gerom Media
Mobile. +27 (0) 82 496 1657
E-mail: info@gerommedia.co.za
Bedfordview, South Africa