The Business of Poverty in Africa: Inside the Travel Philanthropy System

This timely and thought-provoking book critically explores key theories, concepts and contemporary issues associated with the travel philanthropy phenomenon within the debates of sustainable development in Africa.

By drawing on the authors’ extensive experience in the field and by using empirical evidence from case studies in Uganda, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, a systems approach is employed to explain the complexity of travel philanthropy as a growing exchange economy within tourism in Africa and the importance of considering the influence of multi-stakeholder perspectives. Through an interdisciplinary lens and framed by a critical realism philosophy, this book provides a thorough investigation and new understanding of travel philanthropy as a system, challenging myopic views of gift-giving and receiving practices in Africa. Here, key system outputs revealing emerging moral dilemmas within gift-giving, lead to a call for adequate policy and practice interventions for the advancement of sustainable development. Incorporating observable and unobservable phenomena as matters of causality, a new conceptual model is presented, which redefines how impact of travel philanthropy may be conceptualised and approached. By doing so the analysis offers significant insight into the real-world complexity of gift-giving and aid interventions through tourism, and how it differentiates from other forms of aid. The research presented in this book provides a solid basis to inform strategies for more effective and ethical pathways to gift-giving/receiving engagements, responsible tourism business management practices in Africa and contributes to wider debates concerning international aid and donors’ intervention implications in African contexts.

This book is a valuable resource for the tourism industry, policy makers, development professionals, students, researchers, academics in tourism, geography, business and management, economics, international development studies, anthropology, sociology, area studies and applied ethics.

Amy Scarth is an independent consultant and applied social scientist specialised in sustainable development, protected area conservation and tourism strategies in sub-Saharan Africa. Extensive practitioner experience in community engagement, especially with marginalised populations in fragile contexts. She has contributed to thinking through leadership roles across the private, NGO, social enterprise, community organisation, academia, and consultancy sectors.

Marina Novelli is a globally renowned tourism and sustainable development expert, Director of the Sustainable Travel and Tourism Advanced Research Centre (STTAR Centre) and Professor of Marketing and Tourism at The University of Nottingham Business School (UK). She is known for her contributions to the concept of Niche Tourism, Tourism Development in Sub-Saharan Africa and critical elaboration of the Overtourism phenomenon as well as her extensive work shaping a better future for travel and tourism.