Tourism

Despite a growing African tourism industry, which increased by over 8% per annum from 2000-05, many African countries have been unable to harness this economic opportunity due, in large part, to weak capacity and poor business skills. According to a recent market survey conducted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on tourism training in Africa, tourism and hospitality enterprises have little access to local tourism management training, and as a result, face obstacles such as the inability to form franchises or market internationally.

Tourism experts at the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), USAID, IFC and the World Bank have all recognized limited human capital as the major hindrance to scaling up tourism in Africa. Drawing from GBSN's experience developing the capacity of management education globally, the IFC launched a tourism management training program which assisted African management schools in Senegal, Mozambique, Madagascar, Kenya and Rwanda in strengthening their capacity to meet the training needs of their tourism sectors.

Using the GBSN model, the IFC worked with experts at George Washington University and the University of Pretoria, to conduct a market survey of tourism management training in nine African countries; develop seven short term tourism management course modules that include local African case studies; and train faculty from five participating management schools to deliver the courses and establish short term tourism management training programs.