Informal Sector Business Tourism and Pro-poor Tourism: Africa’s Migrant Entrepreneurs

Abstract

Debates about tourism and poverty and around ‘pro-poor tourism ’ are at the forefront of current tourism scholarship in Africa. However, much of the existing body of African writings is focused upon questions relating to international leisure tourism. It is stressed that in light of the scale and importance of business tourism in contemporary Africa this oversight requires correction. This article highlights the existence of different forms of business tourism in sub-Saharan Africa and draws an important distinction between formal business tourism and an extensive segment of informal sector business tourism. The pro-poor impacts of informal variants of business tourism are explored through a review of available research. Informal sector business tourism is shown as the domain of migrant entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa