Tourism Trade With Africa Benefits Few African Countries

LAST year, to much fanfare, 26 African nations signed off on a free-trade ‘super bloc’ that seeks to improve the absurdly low levels of intra-regional trade on the continent, at the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

In the same city at the Africa 2016 Forum last weekend, African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina painted a picture of just how insufficient trade with other African countries is.

African trade represents just 2% of the global total, and intra-African trade makes up 12% of the continent’s activity, compared to 60% in Europe and 35% in Asia.
“This is not acceptable,” Adesina said.

He added that AfDB will continue to invest heavily in regional infrastructure, especially rail, transnational highways, power interconnections, ICT, air and maritime transport, reducing the bottlenecks that cost the region billions in inefficiencies and lost opportunities.

While tariffs on the continent are high—according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) an African company making sales on the continent would pay more than three times the 2.5% average tariff rate elsewhere – non-tariff barriers tend to wreak more damage than levies.

Despite an abundance of trade blocs on the continent—17 at the moment—their poor internal workings has led potential benefits such as comparative advantage trading to be erased by red-tape heavy protectionist approaches.

African countries have also kept the same export-geared infrastructure, leaving the continent vulnerable to global market shifts.

One promising way of solving this is seen as ramping up regional trade in services—a model that has contributed to the booming growth in many Asian countries.

It may be already happening and could herald exciting possibilities.

The number of tourists visiting Kenya from neighbouring countries has increased over the past few months as the East African nation set off on promotions around the region to make up for dwindling numbers from its traditional source markets in Europe.

While tourists arriving at the nation’s two main airports dropped by 13% to 748,771 last year, the decline was less steep than the previous year’s reduction of 28%, according to the country’s statistics agency. Visitors have shied away from going on world-renowned safaris in the country or lounging on its white sandy beaches after a series of deadly attacks by al-Shabaab Islamists in the past few years.
The government targets annual tourist arrivals of 10 million in about a decade’s time. Visitor numbers are expected to rise now that France, the US and Britain have lifted travel bans to the country, which will allow tour operators to market the destination once again.

East African holidaymakers staying at Amani Tiwi Beach Resort on the Indian Ocean Coast more than doubled in the past three months, General Manager Aditya Mata said in Kwale County, at the Kenyan coast. “Forty five to 50% of our visitors have been from Kenya and the rest of the East African countries,” he said.

Bed occupancy improved to 85%, compared with 50% a year earlier, he said.

Diani Reef Beach Hotel in the same county received vacationers from Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia in the past six months, according to Chief Executive Officer Titus Kangangi. “Even Nigeria, which is a first for me,” he said. “I would put the number of regional visitors at around 10-15%, excluding Kenyans. It’s very good, it’s looking up.”

Carriers such as Ethiopian Airlines and RwandAir now have flights to the coastal resort city of Mombasa.
While cash remittances and agricultural exports have relegated tourism to third place in the hierarchy of leading foreign exchange sources, the industry is still key for the economy. As many as one million Kenyans depend on it for their livelihoods at the coast.

Regional visitors account for a third of arrivals with Uganda the second highest source market after South Africa, acting Kenya Tourism Board Chief Executive Jacinta Nzioka Mbithi said by e-mail.
It is perhaps no surprise that the East African Community bloc is seen as the regional grouping that has made the most trade gains on the continent.

If such chains continue to grow, concerns about external market performance could soon be a flash in the pan as the continent’s future growth is powered from within.

PAKISTAN: Karachi's Nightlife Behind Closed Doors

Pakistan's biggest and most diverse city, was once home to a famous nightclub scene where alcohol flowed freely and luminaries from the world of jazz played to packed crowds eager for a taste of Western culture.

Today, a new generation is seeking to revive the partying traditions of their parents and grandparents – albeit behind closed doors.

At a luxury hotel in the metropolis of 20 million – better known for bitter political acrimony, gang violence and bloody turf wars – it is after midnight and the private party has just started.

In a room decorated with chandeliers, several hundred guests are letting their hair down. The music is loud and the bar is busy.

A young female DJ, tanned and tattooed, is in control of the beats. Men dressed in suits and ties chain smoke as they listen to the electro-funk of Daft Punk, as women in slinky dresses strut across the dance floor.

The partygoers are from a generation that tasted the freedom of a foreign university and overseas travel before returning home to Pakistan.

The party was not advertised – and from the street you would never know it was happening – to avoid the attention of suicide bombers and extremist clerics.

Before the creeping Islamisation from the late 1970s that fundamentally altered the country, Pakistan's nightlife was legendary.

The golden-era began in the 1950s and rolled on until prohibition in 1977, which was followed by a slew of Islamist policies that drastically altered society.

Alcohol flowed freely in downtown bars and American jazz musicians Dizzie Gillespie and Duke Ellington played to huge crowds.

Clubs such as Playboy, Excelsior, Oasis, Samar, Club 007 all competed to be the place to be seen by Karachi's hip young crowd.

"We used to have a good nightlife with bands, drinks and dancing but it's gone," recalls Imtiaz Moghal, the manager of the Metropole Hotel, once one of Karachi's hottest nightspots, but which now lies semi-derelict as it awaits renovation.

"It is a haunted house," he said as he wandered through the crumbling remnants of the once-grand hotel.

Gesturing at the carpark, he said: "That used to be a club and a disco. It hurts to think about it now."

Bhutto's overthrow

In Karachi's heyday, politicians, young people, belly dancers, foreign diplomats, the cabin crew of foreign airlines and musicians from touring Southeast Asia orchestras were all swept up together in the melee of the city's nightlife.

"The order of music was that you would warm up and then play some more popular songs, and (then) you played the louder music ... towards the end of the evening you wind down because people had romantic intentions," recalls former bandmember Leon Menezes.

From 1970 to 1975, sporting long hair and oversized sunglasses, Menezes' band The In Crowd was one of Karachi's most popular.

The group played at the 1972 inauguration of president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, father of Pakistan's first female prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

The elder Bhutto was a regular at many of Karachi's nightspots and was known to enjoy his whisky.

Menezes, now a teacher at a Karachi business school, recalled the day of the inauguration as an "incredible piece of history".

"In the afternoon we were walking into his house to set up and there was Mr Bhutto ... I was carrying an amplifier and a guitar in one hand. And I said, 'Good afternoon, sir'. And he said, 'Good afternoon'. I said, 'Sir, will there be dancing?' He said, 'I don't know but (if there is) please don't hide yourself.'"

Five years later, Bhutto caved in to pressure from increasingly influential Islamists and banned alcohol, before being overthrown and ultimately hanged by the military government of Islamist general Zia ul-Haq.

"That completely changed the hotel industry in all of Pakistan," said Happy Minwalla, owner of Metropole Hotel.

"Karachi was all about entertainment, about fun, about people doing things. Sadly the situation has changed."

Velvet underground

Prohibition was the death knell for the clubs, but it did not eradicate the thirst for a nightlife.

Today, most parties happen behind the closed doors and high walls of private homes. "Wine shops", often run by Christians, sell alcohol to locals, while bootleggers deliver high-end liquor to the doors of the wealthy.

Pilot Akeel Akhtar turns his home into a club twice a month for a select group of guests with Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and modern hits blaring out.

"This is a private place, we don't put (it) on any social media, Facebook, we don't advertise it at all. It is just between friends," he explains, as he pulls out his electric guitar to the delight of his guests.

"We do not have pubs (in Pakistan), and this place is the closest to it," said Nida, as she sways to the music in the early hours.

"We end the evening with friends on the beach. Will you come with us?"