Gaps in data analysis and the tendency to measure tourism success purely by arrival numbers are holding many Southern and East African governments back from fully realising the economic value of the sector.
While the governments of Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa have fairly robust systems for gathering data from tourists, emphasis is skewed towards growing arrival volumes, as pointed out by tourism strategist and The Journey MD Mike Fabricius .
It seems that politicians still compete on numbers but the emphasis shouldnt be on this. It should be on the value that each tourist provides. The money that comes into the country through tourism is where job creation happens and where all the positive effects of tourism start, said Fabricius.