Côte d’Ivoire’s Potential as a Sustainable Tourism Destination

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Côte d’Ivoire’s Potential as a Sustainable Tourism Destination

Sanni Lipponen

Bachelor’s Thesis

Travel & Tourism Management

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Tiivistelmä

Author

Sanni Lipponen Degree programme

Travel & Tourism Management Thesis title

Côte d’Ivoire’s Potential as a Sustainable Tourism Destination

Number of pages and appendix pages 54

The main objective of this thesis is to discover the possibilities of developing Côte d’Ivoire as a competitive and sustainable tourism destination by identifying its natural and cultural resources, the main areas of development and needed actions that would help the country towards its full competence. The study is about Côte d'Ivoire as a whole country but the focus is on the city of Abidjan, which is the economic capital and likely the main destination of travel. The study was conducted between September 2020 to May 2021

The research method is a literature review based on quality resources and analyzing previous studies and statistics. It includes a comprehensive view on sustainable tourism management and governance and aims to suggest those strategies as part of Côte d’Ivoire’s travel &

tourism policies. Firstly, the thesis is evaluating Côte d’Ivoire’s potential based on the quality of UNWTO’s Basic Elements of a Tourism Destination, which are Attractions, Public & Private Amenities, Accessibility, Human Resources, Image & Character and Price. Since there are no studies found of the motivation of traveling to Côte d’Ivoire’s, this thesis aims to identify the country’s pull factors and uses previous studies of competing countries, critically evaluates them, and concludes Côte d’Ivoire’s pull factors based on the results and findings from the framework of Basic Elements of a Tourism Destination.

The study also uses analyzing method SWOT, that summarizes the findings from the theoret- ical framework and the objective is to identify Côte d’Ivoire’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Another method, competition analysis, which is based on the results of 2019 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index, will compare Côte d’Ivoire to its top competitors and evaluates its competitive advantages, or areas of development. Both methods have a focus on sustainable tourism development.

The results suggests that Côte d’Ivoire does have potential for sustainable tourism, especially in terms of its natural and cultural resources. Inbound arrivals have been rapidly growing for the past years, but the tourism infrastructure and supporting amenities are still evolving mainly around Abidjan. The economic growth and improved living standards, as well as the government’s efforts to improve the country’s infrastructure and investments on new hotels and hospitality education, nearly year-around sunny weather, and the reputation as the West Afri- can cultural & business hub are all supporting factors for sustainable tourism development.

When it comes to the areas of development, the country’s corruption, inequality between local people and less developed road infrastructure are the main concerns for sustainable tourism. It also seems that the matter of utilizing the existing natural & cultural resources and effective destination marketing are the main challenges for further tourism development and competitiveness, which reflects to poor human resources. One significant threat for the future development is the country’s fragile political environment which affects to the perception of safety and security of possible travelers.

Keywords

Côte d’Ivoire, sustainable tourism, destination management, competitiveness

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1 Introduction

My inspiration towards this topic begun when I visited Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in West Africa for the first time. Claiming its independence only 60 years ago and recovering from 2 civil wars (latest in 2011ꟷ2012) Côte d’Ivoire has done remarkable progress as a nation. My one-month vacation was mainly taking place in the economic capital Abidjan, but I also got to see smaller villages, for example one called Yassap. Since I was traveling with a former local resident, I possibly saw and experienced more than an independent traveller would. For me, this travel was an eye-opening experience, and I could feel the desire for economic growth, eagerness to develop the nation and the huge potential this country could have as a travel destination.

Not only has the economy been growing steadily during the past decade, but Côte d’Ivoire also has a lot to offer for different travellers. Ivorian culture, food, music, beautiful beaches

& resorts, national parks, nightlife, shopping and natural and man-made attractions. Also, the construction work in the country is only speeding up creating more recreational activities. I am positive that we will continue to see Côte d’Ivoire developing as a country and destination in the upcoming years and decades.

My main objective is to research the potential of Côte d’Ivoire and mainly its economic capital Abidjan of becoming a competitive sustainable tourism destination. Therefore, the research is evaluating Côte d’Ivoire and comparing it to the UNWTO’s (United Nations World Tourism Organization) list of tourism destination’s basic elements. According to UNWTO, the basic elements of a tourism destination are attractions, public & private amenities, accessibility, human resources, image & character, price. There will also be comparing to the UNWTO’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index that includes factors like enabling environment, travel & tourism policy and enabling conditions, infrastructure and natural & cultural resources.

In the study there will also be discussion of the benefits sustainable tourism practises would have for Côte d’Ivoire. This production will be a research based on literature review and reliable statistics found online for example from UNWTO. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that there’s new opportunities and possible destinations in the Travel & Tour- ism industry. Why is the tourism business in Sub-Saharan Africa mainly focused to safaris in East- and South-Africa, when there’s so much more to offer in this huge continent for example in the West Africa region? Tourism can be a powerful tool for economic growth, and it can give a lot of benefits to the destination. Among many benefits the most significant is direct and indirect employment and in-come.

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1.1 The research problem and goals

The research problem and the aim of this work is to discover possibilities of developing Côte d’Ivoire as a competitive sustainable tourism destination. It also aims to identify the country’s main pull factors as a tourism destination.

Therefore, the research questions are:

1. What kind of natural and cultural resources Côte d’Ivoire has for developing its tourism sector?

2. What are the main areas of development when it comes to Côte d’Ivoire’s competitiveness as a sustainable tourism destination?

3. What actions should be taken towards sustainable tourism development in Côte d’Ivoire?

The research is geographically limited to Côte d’Ivoire with the main focus on its economic capital Abidjan, as the purpose is that it would be the primary destination for the traveler and the rest of the country would be explored by taking day or weekend trips from the main destination Abidjan. This because, the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Airport in Abidjan is internationally well connected and Abidjan as a city could be considered the most developed in the country, also by having the most of the country’s tourism facilities. However, the natural & cultural resources outside of the Abidjan district are too remarkable to leave out from this study. Also, the Ministry of Tourism of Côte d’Ivoire has introduced some example tours from Abidjan to other areas of the country in their national tourism strategy.

This is a literature review which is based on carefully selected and evaluated resources, statistics and previous studies of the subject. The research methods used are SWOT and competition analysis with a focus on sustainable factors.

1.2 Research settings

The research methods and how I have used them in this thesis are introduced in this chapter. Firstly, this thesis includes a literature review that generally refers to secondary research. It means collecting data from previous studies and using that to form a comprehensive view on the topic. In literature review one can use data sources such as academic literature, material found from online sources, available statistics or research on the topic.

Literature review can be used as a tool to develop the existing theories of the topic for- ward and to build new ones as well. (Hofman & Sutherland 2018; Salminen 2011) This thesis intends to objectively evaluate available data on the topic of sustainable tourism

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management and link together existing theories and statistics to create a comprehensive overview on Côte d’Ivoire’s potential as a sustainable tourism destination.

SWOT analysis is a strategic management tool to assess a desired object, for example an organization, project or in this case, a tourism destination. The acronyms stand for:

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, from which two first indicators measure the internal factors of the destination, and two latter measure external factors, like the micro and macro environment. SWOT analysis is a great development tool that creates a big picture of the destination’s situation in the market. (Gürel & Tat 2017, 995–996) After being aware of the current situation, the development plan aims to empower the destinations strengths, cut out its weaknesses, utilize the laying opportunities and balance with the external threats. (Goranczewski & Puciato 2010, 49)

Strengths are internal positive factors, that in a case of tourism destination can be in example its unique features like natural resources or for instance well developed tourism infrastructure or destination brand. Weaknesses on the other hand, covers the destinations internal negative factors that might appear as weak financial status of the local government or poor accommodation facilities. (Goranczewski & Puciato 2010, 49) Weak- nesses are those elements that are lacking or more disadvantageous when compared to competitors. Opportunity is an external, favorable condition for the organization (or in this case destination), that the environment presents. (Gürel & Tat 2017, 998) In tourism context it can be for example change in tourism legislation or economic growth. Threats are external risks that might have an influence of the destination’s development, like economic decline or unexpected events like terrorist attacks. (Goranczewski & Puciato 2010, 49)

The competition analysis in this research is based on the 2019 Travel & Tourism Competi- tiveness Index. I have selected 6 pillars out of 14, that are the most important for sustainable tourism development and justified the choices. Each pillar has its own indicators that are measuring the country’s competitiveness in that section. For instance, in the Natural Resources-pillar, one indicator is the number of World Heritage natural sites. Overall performance of these indicators creates a score in a scale of 1 to 7 in each pillar. (Calder- wood & Soshkin 2019) In this competition analysis Côte d’Ivoire’s scores in the selected pillars, will be compared to four of its most significant competitors in the subregion. The final result will also be presented in a spider web diagram that demonstrates the overall situation among all countries in the subregion and one can easily see which area is lacking or which might be advantageous for each country.

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2 Sustainable Destination Management

Sustainability as a concept is often considered as three-dimensional: social, environmental, and economical sustainability. It has been defined by the Brundtland report (which was commissioned by United Nations) with five basic principles:

1. The idea of holistic planning and strategy making.

2. The importance of preserving essential ecological processes.

3. The need to protect both human heritage and biodiversity.

4. The need to develop in a way that sustains productivity over the long-term for later generations.

5. The need to achieve a better balance of fairness and opportunity between nations.

(Coghlan 2019)

In tourism concept it can be defined as relationships between people (social), planet (environmental) and profit (economic). In practice it means how to maintain those relationships in a way that allows you, but also the future generations to function well in present and in the future. Some examples of relationships with people are your employees, customers, local producers and the community that shares the same resources as you. It is also about considering how your actions influence other people, not just the ones close to you, but everyone who are part of the environment you operate in and even beyond. The relationship with planet is about the environment and the landscape in which you are living or operating in. How will you protect that landscape and its flora and fauna while building tourism infrastructure and how do you maintain the environment for example by disposing your waste material on land, in water and in the air. And finally, the relationship with profit is your wallet, shareholders, supply chain and employees. It is about long-term economic growth that has ability to recover when the unexpected happens. (Coghlan 2019) UN- WTO’s official definition of sustainable tourism is: “Tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.” (UNEP & UNWTO 2005) UNWTO and other international organizations have also strongly emphasized the fact that the limits of constant growth in tourism must be recognized, for example the quantity of different tourism facilities or tourist arrivals must be controlled to secure the long-term benefits. (Saarinen, Becker, Manwa & Wilson 2009, 77)

Travel destination is a location a person travels to, that is unusual for the persons natural everyday environment. (Wang 2011, 2) Destination management then, aims to guarantee that the travelers are receiving excellent value for their stay. It can be a complex task,

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since the tourism product is an intangible experience that consists of various components in the destination. In its entirety, the foundation of destination management is creating a suitable environment to develop tourism, meaning there must be the right social, economic and physical environment in the destination. This includes developing the destinations infrastructure, human resources, the tourism product, technology, related industries and procurement. After the foundation is on its place, destination management requires all the basic tourism destination elements; attractions, amenities, accessibility, human resources, image and price, to be managed towards the common goal. Usually a DMO – Destination Management Organization – is in the center of all, leading and coordinating these different aspects. (UNWTO 2007)

Strategic roles of a DMO in destination management and as a primary marketeer are providing information, building community brand, facilitating the areas tourism activities, organizing destination marketing campaigns, searching funding for collective marketing activities and managing the networking between partners to ensure collaborative initiative.

This also includes coordinating partnerships between public and private sectors. (Wang 2011, 7–8) As supporting factors for the basic destination elements, marketing and delivery on the ground, are crucial part of destination management. Marketing is what gets people visit the destination in the first place, it includes actions like destination promotion (including branding & image), campaigns (especially for small medium and micro enter- prises), unbiased information services, operation of bookings and CRM (customer relationship management). Delivery on the ground on the other hand, ensures that the travelers’ expectations are exceeded by managing or coordinating visitors experience once they arrive to the destination. Product start-ups, events and attractions development, training and education, business advice, common strategy and development based on research are tools for ensuring the quality travelers are expecting. By developing the resources (natural & cultural attractions) in a way they are highlighting the destination’s uniqueness, competitive advantage can be attained. The complexity is, there are many different public and private sector stakeholders who are part of the big picture of destination management. Also, since tourism product is each traveler’s personal experience, customers’ satis- faction is highly affected by many variables in the destination, like services, transportation, accommodation, attractions, the hospitality of local people and many other aspects. (UN- WTO 2007)

2.1 The negative and positive impacts of tourism growth

When destinations visitor numbers grow, you can slowly start to see the impacts of tourism. Butler’s tourism area life-cycle model is based on many destinations’ evolution from

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little tourism activity – exploration stage – to the critical range where the carrying capacity of that area has been reached. This is the stage that the impacts of tourism become evi- dent to all stakeholders (visitors, locals, investors etc.), for example the area is becoming too crowdy, polluted, too “touristic” and possibly overpriced. (Saarinen & al. 2009, 80–81;

Coghlan 2019) The negative environmental impacts of tourism might be the most conse- quential, but at the same time the most difficult to determine since is some cases the pollution or greenhouse gases caused by tourism are difficult to distinguish from overall environmental change and there is only a little baseline data available from the era before tourism in the touristic areas. However, at least six possible negative impacts have been found. Firstly, carbon emissions are the most significant of the negative environmental impacts of tourism. It has been calculated that tourism industry alone, accounted 8 % of the worlds greenhouse gasses in 2018, and 2 % is from the aviation industry only. Second impact is the increase of resource use such as water, energy, food and building materials.

After transportation, accommodation accounts for the next highest use of energy in tourism. For example, travelers tend to use more water than the local people, and in Bali in 2012 it was evaluated to be 65 % of total local water resources. Long showers, frequent laundry washing, and maintaining pools and other water features contribute to the exces- sive water use. Third negative impact is possible changes in land cover and use, particu- larly in coast lines. Beach resorts and other coastal activities can have an impact on the natural habitants of coastal environment and its ecosystem. Fourth issue is waste disposal and pollution, including noise pollution from aviation and for example jet skis or snow mo- biles. Increased sewage and litter can become an issue in some destinations where the waste management is not that developed yet. Also, physical impacts of trampling on vege- tation, like erosion which can lead to loss of ground cover and can affect species composi- tion, for example coral reefs are delicate systems that can be harmed by a boats anchor or a tourist that goes too close for them. Finally, wildlife disturbance, like taking pictures with animals or feeding them, can make significance changes in animals’ behavior. It can create expectations to get food easily and eventually even lead to aggression. (Coghlan 2019)

Even though the negative environmental impacts of tourism might seem inevitable, there can also be some positive impacts if tourism generated income is used right, like for conservation of natural heritage. Visitors who pay entrance fees for example to national parks can bring direct revenue for conservation. Tourism can also help in creation of new con- stituencies for conservation, in areas that could otherwise become agricultural land, can be preserved as natural heritage. There can be more resources in deterring wild animal poaching, by protecting or simply being present in areas that could otherwise be con-

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cealed locations for poachers. Also, nature-based tourism gives an opportunity for environmental education and learning. (Coghlan 2019)

Tourism industry indeed may generate economic development and growth. As an industry it is accounting 10 % of all jobs around the world. However, when considering these positive impacts, we must take into account how much of the returns actually reflects gains to the local communities. There can be at least 4 economic negative impacts caused by tourism, from which leakage of revenue is probably the most common negative economic impact. It is based on the concern that the locals, who after all must deal with all the costs of tourism, won’t get most of the economic benefits for themselves. For instance, in enclave tourism international resorts or hotel chains are managed by foreigners, who may offer goods and services that are not local. Hence, the money used by travelers who are stay- ing in this hotel, is leaking outside the local service providers or exporters pockets. Sec- ondly, the issue of seasonality which means that the tourists only visit during a certain period in a year because of the weather conditions. It can become a possible issue in some destinations (i.e., skiing resorts), when tourism may offer a job but because of the destination’s seasonality, it is only temporal, and the revenue may not be enough to sustain living a year around. Thirdly, casualization of tourism jobs that occurs if something unexpected like natural disaster or terrorist attack happen in the destination, which imme- diately affects the tourism industry and therefore the available jobs. Finally, the lack of opportunities for advancement or upskilling. Even though the positive side is that tourism can easily offer low-skilled jobs, it can turn to negative if the jobs remain low-paid and there’s not much supporting education to help workers to advance in their career. (Cogh- lan 2019)

However, when the tourism in practiced in a sustainable way, the positive economic impacts are most of all direct in indirect revenue and employment. Direct revenue is all consumption expenditure, payments for goods and services and indirect revenue is for instance restaurant bills, taxis and many other supporting services. In WTTC’s 2017

benchmarking report it is claimed that when tourism generates one direct job, at the same time it creates 2 undirect job opportunities in the supply chain. And what comes to direct employment, like stated before, tourism as a service sector can offer variety of low-skilled jobs, but also opportunities for entrepreneurship. There is also taxation revenue, that can be collected for example from international visitors who are paying a departure tax (usually included in the flight ticket or the package tour) or from an entry fee to a national park.

Tourism’s contribution to the country’s GDP can be enhanced for instance by increasing the visitors spending in form of indirect revenue. By maximizing the revenue flow through the supply chain, the local economy can benefit even more from tourism. And finally, there

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can be regional development opportunities through tourism and enhancement of basic infrastructure like roads, street lightning, parking, waste disposal, clean water availability and health services among others. (Coghlan 2019)

The socio-cultural impact of tourism to the host community is strongly influenced by various factors, for example the ratio of tourists compared to the local population and the differences (cultural and economic) between the tourists and locals. Tourism development may have at least 5 negative impacts on the host community. Firstly, concept of neo- colonization is a concern of some academics, who fear that the more economically and politically powerful culture (often the visitors’) will eventually begin to dominate the destination’s culture, which could lead to disappearance of its unique features or traditions.

Secondly, cultural commodification happens when the traditional objects like crafts and arts, music, costumes and performances change their appearance into more commercial form, for example changing objects into travel size or modifying them to meet the prefer- ences of tourists. The traditional objects might then lose their original meaning, like Ha- waiian lei that was once an ancient symbol of peace between tribes. Commodification can also be connected to neo-colonialism when some traditions of a minority culture are adopted by the dominant culture and the original meaning is once again left behind. This is called cultural appropriation. Third issue related to tourism is crime, all though in many cases a crime against a tourist gets much more attention by the media than if it was for the local people, tourists may actually be more vulnerable for crime. Tourists might stand out from the crowd, often carry valuable objects or cash, get lost more easily and they might not be aware of local ways which makes them easy to take advantage of. There can also be relocation of local communities and overcrowding or loss of amenities for resi- dents, in case the visitor numbers grow too high in proportion to the locals. (Coghlan 2019)

There are also many socio-cultural positive impacts of tourism, which can be enhanced with sustainable tourism practices. Some of them like the first and second impacts are overlapping with the economic benefits of tourism and thereby already explained in the economic impacts paragraph above. Firstly, there is economic benefits & employment and secondly, improved infrastructure. Thirdly, improved quality of life for locals and possibly more services like pharmacies and doctors. There can also be more leisure activities and amenities, wi-fi availability and improved security in some more touristic areas, which will also benefit the local people. Fourth positive impact is cultural rejuvenation, cultural pride and conservation of cultural heritage. For example, by collecting entrance fees to museums or other historically or culturally important attractions, it’s possible to better maintain

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these cultural heritages. Finally, the opportunity for cross-cultural understanding and learning, where differences in cultures become normalized and accepted.

(Coghlan 2019, 59–86)

2.2 Approaches to sustainable destination management

There are many different understandings of what sustainable development in the context of tourism is. However, many seem to agree that socially sustainable development includes involving the local communities in the decision-making. This can offer advantages such as new insights on different matters, that can lead to richer understanding and more innovating solutions. However, involving the community in a society where there might be inequality between the local communities or authorities might create difficulties, in terms of how equally everyone in the community can be part of the decision-making. Thus, the participants of the community should represent all the applicable stakeholders, who can be anyone affected by the causes of the issue. (Bramwell & Sharman 2000, 15–35)

According to the resource-based approach in sustainable tourism, there must be a meas- urable limit of how many travelers or travel-based activities there can be in the certain environment, to avoid density, erosion and disturbance of other creations in example. The challenge, however, is to find the absolute maximum number of tourists allowed at a destination, where many have failed. Slightly more industrially orientated approach, activity- based tradition sees the tourism more as an economic activity that has a certain limit of growth, when the environments carrying capacity has reached its limits. Activity-based approach of sustainable development argues the growth of tourism industry can be “free”, in certain limitations. In other words, the growth should be controlled in a way it doesn’t excessively use all the resources (reach the carrying capacity), so the tourism business can be profitable in a long run. Thus, a non-growth situation suggests that the limit of the carrying capacity and sustainability are reached and actions in that area must be recon- sidered for further development of the tourism product. (Saarinen & al. 2009, 78–82)

Managing the tourism industry, as stated before, is a complex task. Minimizing the negative impacts affected by growing tourism business is what different local authorities should aim to do. There must be a nation-wide policy and planning, thus good sustainability principles include these three features: A long-term comprehensive, integrated, and inclusive strategy, collaboration and participation of all relevant actors and cross-sectoral harmony in policies and integrated decision-making processes. (Coghlan 2019) In 2015 The United Nations set its 17-Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) aiming to build a global frame-

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work to fight issues like poverty and climate change. The guidelines include ambitious goals like in example; taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, con- serving the oceans, ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting life- long opportunities for all and achieving gender equality. Tourism sector can have a significant role in achieving these goals, and the industry can contribute in all SDG’s, but especially to five key areas:

1. Sustainable economic growth

2. Social inclusiveness, employment and poverty reduction

3. Resource efficiency, environmental protection and climate change 4. Cultural values, diversity and heritage

5. Mutual understanding, peace and security (UNDP 2018)

A study suggests that in 12 out of those 17 SDG’s, solid waste management is a crucial action to achieve the goal. A well-functioning waste management improves living conditions, sanitation, public health and condition of marine & terrestrial ecosystems. It can also improve access to jobs, and sustainable use of natural resources. Therefore, in lower income developing countries, enhancing solid waste management can be one of the most effective means to be closer in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. There are few key governance actions to extend waste disposal to all and finally secure controlled disposal. To provide waste disposal for all citizens, there must be direct regulation to put together a legal framework and inclusion of service providers (private and public), economic instruments for financing the sustainable services, as well as contribution for direct charges and social instruments to raise awareness for behavior change and to set clear instructions. (Rodić & Wilson 2017)

2.3 Case examples of sustainable management

An example of resource-based approach, South-Africa’s Kruger National Park has adapted a zoning system, which allows intensive tourism business and utilization of the surrounding resources in some parts of the national park but disallows access to other parts which are preserved and protected for example from poachers. (Petersen &

MacFadyen 2011) In fact, the elephant population in the Kruger National Park area has increased during the last decade. (Ferreira, Greaver & Simms 2017) The map of the national park has been divided into areas of high intensity leisure, low intensity leisure, primitive, remote and wilderness areas. There are also buffers added to the existing roads to limit development outside of the zones and to diminish the impacts of roads to the environment. Camp buffers in high intensity zones are extended to 2 km, in low intensity zone

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to 1km and in primitive camps there is no buffers at all which excludes any development on those areas. The buffered zones are critical to ensure the ecological integrity of the core areas of the national park, helping to diminish the negative impacts of the tourism activities. (Petersen & MacFadyen 2011)

A research discussing about the 17 sustainable SDG targets and how little different nations get guidance to achieve them, has an approach to Natural resource management that could help nations towards the 2030 agenda for sustainable development goals. In the 7-step management strategy everything begins with identifying and describing the resources that must be managed. The seven steps towards resource management in the figure 1 explained below.

1. Mapping the resources to be managed means dividing the country to different Management Areas (MAs), that are geographically homogeneous, and gather all the information about their socio-ecological situation, i.e., ecosystems and land- use. Sub-divide each MA into Resource Units (RUs), which means identifying areas containing natural resources that have their own specific requirements, like freshwater or forest. Select relating SDG goals that support these areas’ sustainable development.

2. Describe the vision for each MA, that is related to the SDG targets and considers the need to use and protect the resources. Then draw the vision out to different management objectives for MAs that are according to national policy or management plans. If necessary, compare and harmonize the vision with neighboring countries.

3. Prioritize and short-list RUs where benchmarks will be set, which means setting targets only for the RUs that are the most important for the MAs (for users and to the wider ecosystem) and are subjects to the greatest strain. Assess actions within RUs that may harm their continued supply, also consider practical matters (in example the ease of getting samples).

4. Prioritize and select resource components and indicator methods with required di- rection of change, means there must be data gathered about the present state of the prioritized RUs and their usage. After, the desired change of each unit must be determined, should it stay in the present condition or does it need strong improvement.

5. Develop draft target statements for each RU, means defining the target measures in a narrative statement that also fits to the vision and management objectives from step 2. Setting benchmarks helps to measure the success of development

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targets objectively, for example telling what an average annual phosphorus con- centration of a lake would be.

6. Agree priority RU’s targets and benchmarks with all relevant stakeholders and get allowance for previously very scientifically assembled improvement goals.

7. Finalize and implement.

(Dickens, Smakhtin, McCartney, O’Brien & Dahir 2019)

Figure 1. SDG National Target Setting Method for Natural Resources (Dickens & al. 2019)

An example of a destination where the community is well involved in decision-making is in Namibia. The Namibian government supports a national non-profit organization, NACOB- TA (Namibia Community-based Tourism Assistance Trust) and their policy in Namibia has the following benefits: People can benefit from tourism on their land and conserve wildlife and natural resources and participate in tourism planning. They are also encouraged to create tourism business of their own. Communal land development must be accepted by the local people, tourism businesses are encouraged to work with locals and tourism development goes hand-in-hand with protecting the environment. (Saarinen & al. 2009, 84)

The Chumbe Island Coral Park (CHICOP) in Zanzibar, Tanzania is an uninhabited coral island and private nature reserve. The effective and multi-award-winning conservation

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area management is based on involving all local stakeholders from relevant government departments to local fishermen, into the decision-making of the management plan. (Dodds 2012) The ecotourism revenue funds 100 % of the Chumbe Island’s conservational and educational activities. In total 40 % of all the generated revenue goes to Chumbe’s Envi- ronmental Education program and conservation work of The Reef Sanctuary and Closed Forest Reserve. The 33-ha island only allows 18 overnight guests or daytrip visitors at a time. The accommodation bungalows are all eco-designed to ensure minimum impact for the surrounding environment. The bungalows and the education center all have a rainwa- ter collection system, which means large roof surfaces collecting the falling rain and stor- ing it for later use. There are solar panels which provide all energy needed for the island, composting toilets, greywater filtration system, and even the light pollution at night have been taking into consideration by offering the guests solar powered torches. The materials used for the interior design, food and drink are from local producers as much as possible.

(CHICOP 2017)

2.4 The principals of good governance

Based on gathered information it indeed seems like good governance is the key to sustainable destination management. Also, according to some research, tourism governance has been poorly applied to some countries, in this case South-Africa and Zimbabwe, where there is inequality between different stakeholders and local communities have not been able to participate in development. This can lead to distrusting the local authorities and therefore neglecting the common goals in terms of sustainable development.

(Siakwah, Musavengane & Leonard 2019) Governance in the destination is an important tool to enhance cooperation between different parties who can then take influences into their own management, increase their competitiveness and sustainable development.

Thus, the destination management authority must set common policies and strategic planning for the destination. Also, each region, attraction and business should have their own sustainability strategy that is coherent with the big picture. Developing good governance is not simple, since in the complex tourism network all stakeholders might have different interests. Therefore, it is crucial to avoid conflicts and develop common goals that benefit everyone. Open and participatory management model should be applied to the destination governance, where all have a will to negotiate and participate towards the common goals. The principles of good governance must be present throughout the process. (Pulido-Fernández & Pulido-Fernández 2019) The 3 principals of good governance are transparency, accountability, and inclusiveness. Transparency means the decisions and the decision-making processes are visible to the public. Responsibility means that someone will take responsibility of the decided actions and Inclusiveness means that all

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the people who are affected by the decisions made, are represented in the process.

(Coghlan 2019)

3 Côte d’Ivoire Potential for Sustainable Tourism

Côte d’Ivoire – as the nation prefers to be called – or Ivory Coast (English translation), is a country in West Africa. It is located by the Gulf of Guinea and its neighbouring countries are Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea & Liberia. The country’s political capital is Ya- moussoukro, but the “economic capital” and the largest city is Abidjan. Altogether there are nearly 26 million inhabitants and over 60 different ethnic groups as well as spoken languages, although the official language is French. (Mundt 2020) Côte d’Ivoire’s has two climates, humid equatorial climate in the south, that is covered by forests, and dry tropical climate in the savannah dominated north. The average temperature stays between 24- 28°C year around. The rainy season in the whole country is typically between June to Oc- tober. In the southern part of the country where Abidjan is located as well, there is generally 4 seasons. From May to June there is heavy rains, in August and September there is shorter rains, whereas the shorter dry season lasts from October to November and the main dry season from December to April. (The World Bank 2021a)

Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire is one of the biggest cities in Africa, with 5 million inhabitants. In 1980s and early 1990s before the political unrest, Abidjan was often called “The Paris of West Africa”. Now the city is back to flourishing and according to the country’s trade minister Jean-Louis Billon it has entered the consumption market, with its emerging middle class. (Kuwonu 2016) It is the cultural and business centre of Franco- phone Africa, and the Ivorian Government has high ambitions to keep it that way with constant new construction projects and development of the city. (Ipsos Editions 2019) 3.1 Short history and current situation

After nearly 100 years of colonization, Côte d’Ivoire finally gained its independence from France in 1960. The economy started growing steadily for decades under the first president Felix Houphouet-Boigny and Côte d’Ivoire was known as a country with ethnic and religious harmony, despite the scars of colonization. (Lawler etc. 2020; BBC 2019) Unfor- tunately, the “Ivorian miracle” did not last so long. In the 1990 the doubled GDP de- creased to the same level than in the 1960s, and the economic crisis led to political insta- bility. Finally, an armed rebellion ripped the nation in two in 2002. In 2007 the two opponents managed to sign an agreement to end the crisis, but presidential elections in 2010 awakened the unsolved problems leading to the second civil war in 2011. The opponents

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of the wars were mainly the “rebels” from the north of the country, mainly Muslims, and the supporters of sitting government at the time, mainly Christians. (Lawler etc. 2020) To- day, like stated before, Côte d’Ivoire is one of the fastest growing economy in the whole world. It has recovered well from the devastating civil wars and for example in 2012 it marked amazing 10.1 % growth in GDP. (The World Bank 2019) It’s the world’s largest cocoa producer (Shahbandeh 2020) and the third largest natural rubber producer. (Gar- side 2020) Other important export products are nuts (like cashews), petroleum and gold.

(OEC s.a.)

The country is determined to become an emerging economy by 2020. The term “emergence” basically means national development that can be defined in multiple ways. In Côte d’Ivoire’s own review on how to achieve emergence by 2020, national development is measured in different aspects like thriving job market, good healthcare system, efficient transport network and others. (OECD 2016) Although, the economic growth has been steady for long, it does not yet reach all Ivorian people. Today’s growing population of nearly 26 million (Lawler 2020) and the poverty rate of 46.3 % indicates that the wealth is not distributed equally to the whole population. (The World Bank 2019) There is still a lot to improve the lives of all Ivorians, and this study aims to provide Travel & Tourism business as one powerful vehicle for not only economic but also for the growth of social wealth.

3.2 National Tourism Policy and Travel & Tourism statistics

The tourism strategy – Sublime Côte d’Ivoire – by the Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Tourism aims to make Côte d’Ivoire one of the top five tourism destinations in Arica, by 2025. The strategy has three main development goals: to develop an engine for GDP growth and increase tax revenue, to promote regional development outside Abidjan and to create skilled and unskilled jobs and labor. It also identifies the 4 main challenges of Côte d’Ivoire.

1. The tourism supply is not yet well developed, and it still evolves too much around Abidjan, that has 60 % of all hotel rooms of the country.

2. There is a low number of potential international touristic sites with quality that’s clearly left behind compared to international competitors.

3. The professional side of the value chain needs to be reformed with some limitations regarding accessibility, quality and price competitiveness, on each activity of the chain.

4. The tourism ecosystem is very limited and has significant gaps in the transport infrastructure, real estate and training of industry professionals.

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The strategy aspires to completely reform the country’s ecosystem with 9 key improvement areas: air travel & visa, infrastructure, real estate, health, security, education or training, promotion, funding and the capability of the Ministry of Tourism. By advancing these 9 key elements the strategy aims to develop entrepreneurship in tourism business but also the whole region of Côte d’Ivoire. The main goal for this strategy is to first become one of the leading countries in Africa for business tourism. The second goal is to become the foundation of entertainment services for domestic and sub-regional market and the third goal to attract international tourism where there’s a need for change of scenery that is authentic at the same time. When it comes to international tourism, ecotourism is also mentioned as a driver for international visitors. (Ministere du Tourisme s.a.)

Ecotourism is a form of sustainable tourism, as it aims to minimize the negative impacts of tourism. It is a niche market where the main reason for travel is the destination’s nature and natural heritage, flora & fauna and it focuses on preserving and learning about the destination’s natural environment. (UNWTO 2002) There is an urge for ecotourism activities and tours in the Sublime Côte d’Ivoire report but no detailed information about how it would be executed, how the preservation of the environment would be guaranteed and what kind of financial or educational support the ecotourism operators would be permitted to. Although, in 2015 the country’s Ministry of Environment released its Intended National- ly Determined Contributions (INDCs), which is the fruit of the UN climate conference held in Paris. (UNFCCC 2015) According to Côte d’Ivoire’s INDC the sustainable management of classified forests and protected areas will be reinforced, and ecotourism should be utilized to stimulate different tourism activities in the areas, which would create job opportunities and reduce migration of young people. There would also be maintaining and preserving the biodiversity of those areas and the ecosystem.

The most current statistics from UNWTO show that Côte d’Ivoire had 1 965 000 international tourism arrivals in 2018. It is a huge growth of over six times more than 254 000 arrivals in 2010. In Sub-Saharan Africa that’s the third most arrivals after South-Africa and Zimbabwe. Although unfortunately, some West African countries and potential competitors like Ghana and Gambia do not have arrival statistics at all in this report to compare with.

However, Ghana’s tourism receipts in 2017 was 850 million (USD) and Côte d’Ivoire’s receipts were only 396 million, which indicates that the tourism business could be more vibrant in the neighboring country after all. (UNWTO 2019a) In 2016, 62 % of the travelers were leisure travelers and 38 % business travelers, overall 270 000 jobs were generated by the tourism industry and the tourism sector was 5,5 % of the whole economy, which is over double than what it was in 2012 (2,2%). (Ministere du Tourisme s.a.) In 2017 Côte

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d’Ivoire had an average 59 % hotel occupancy rate, which is somewhat same than the average rate in Africa and Middle East. However, Côte d’Ivoire’s 59 % rate was higher than in many other African countries, like Ghana, Morocco, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Kenya.

(Lock 2019)

3.3 The Basic Elements of a Tourism Destination

The World Tourism Organization UNWTO has defined a Tourism Destination as a physical place where a traveler stays one overnight or more. The quality of these 5 basic elements affect to the consumers traveling intentions to one specific destination: Attractions, Public & Private Amenities, Accessibility, Human Resources, Image and Character and Price. (UNWTO 2007) In this section I am evaluating the quality of these 5 elements in Côte d’Ivoire and how efficiently they are managed in the destination.

3.3.1 Attractions

Attraction is something that attracts visitors and evokes interest towards the destination.

They can be categorized into natural, build or cultural. (UNWTO 2007) In this section I will give some examples of each type of attraction that can be found from Côte d’Ivoire. A simple example of natural attraction in Côte d’Ivoire is its beaches. Located by the Gulf of Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire’s coastal area has many beautiful beaches, from which some are already utilized for tourism business by adding services like restaurants and hotels by them. For example, Assinie-Mafia is a beautiful coastal town just 1–2-hour drive from Abidjan. In this magical area on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean and lagoons you can also find beautiful resorts and restaurants. (LaGoKenyane 7.5.2017) Another city with 150 kil- ometers of beaches is San Pedro. To name a few there are for example the Taki bay, Sassandra bay, the beach of Derwin and the Tabou beach. In San Pedro region you can also visit the NAWA waterfalls which is also a sacred and spiritual place for the inhabitants of the region. (Discover Ivory-Coast s.a.a) The initiates perform rituals and communicate with ancestors by the NAWA waterfalls that is considered to be ”the protective mother” of the natives’ personal success, abundance and fertility. (Le conseil regional de la Nawa s.a.) Another region that has beautiful natural attractions is Man “the city of 18 moun- tains”, which is located near the Western border of the country. The main attractions in Man are the beautiful waterfalls (La Cascade de Man) and also a mountain called The Tooth of Man (La dent de Man) which is 881 meters high and from the top you can see the whole city of Man. (Coulibaly 2021) Not far from Man, in the border of Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea, there’s Western Africa’s highest point, the Mount Nimba. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site with an altitude of 1752m and it’s a home for many endemic species like chimpanzees that use stones as tools and viviparous toads. (UNESCO s.a.a)

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There are eight national parks in Côte d’Ivoire with astonishing biodiversity. 4700 species of flora and nearly 1200 species of fauna, including mammals like elephants, buffaloes, chimpanzees, antelopes, crocodiles, leopards, hippopotamus, and different types of mon- keys. (Oishimaya 2018) From these national parks Comoé- and Taï National Park are on the UNESCO World Heritage list. (UNESCO s.a.b) In Taï National Park you can hike to the Nienokoue mountain, or possibly observe chimpanzees using tools for nut cracking.

(Ecotourisme Tai s.a.) Another national park just in the heart of Abidjan, Banco National Park, offers greenery for the people who need some break from the city life. The park holds in 600 hectares of primary forest, over 800 species of plants, fishponds and even chimpanzees. (UNEP 2020)

Possibly the most beautiful manmade attraction in Côte d’Ivoire is the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace which is the largest church in the whole world. This beautiful building is located in the capital Yamoussoukro. (Discover Ivory-Coast s.a.b) Another architecturally interesting attraction is the St. Paul’s Cathedral in Abidjan, district of Plateau, which also has stunning and colorful stained-glass windows. (TripAdvisor 2021) Perhaps the most popular man-made attractions in Côte d’Ivoire are the beautiful beach resorts in the region of Assinie, like already mentioned before. An example of a luxurious type of beach resort, there is for example La Maison D’Akoula with facilities that include a beach club, garden, swimming pool and jacuzzi, gastronomic restaurant and a conference room. (La Maison D’Akoula s.a.; Nader Fakhry 18.12.2019)

The economic capital Abidjan is full of surprises. For example, a region called Le Plateau is known for the St. Paul’s cathedral, but it is also a vibrant part of the city’s business life where you can find interesting architecture, skyscrapers and different shops, restaurants and other services. It’s considered to be the commercial center of Abidjan. (Nader Fakhry 24.10.2018) The floating island (L'île Flottante) is located in the lagoon in front of Abidjan.

It was built from 700 000 plastic waste bottles, and the facilities that include restaurant, accommodation, karaoke bar and two swimming pools are all powered by solar power.

The entrance fee is around $25 for day including a meal and the price per night for accommodation is around $100. (Ankel 2019) Other interesting man-made attractions in Abidjan are for example the artisan center of Abidjan (CAVA), the luxurious Billionaires Bay built on the Boulay Island, Abidjan Zoo, the Bingerville Botanical Garden and an ecological site BINI domain, where you can immerse yourself in the nature but also do activities like hiking, zip lining, taking a clay bath and swimming. (Discover Ivory-Coast s.a.c)

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Côte d’Ivoire has a rich culture with over 60 ethnic groups and therefore has various cultural attractions and things to experience. You can for example go on a tour to the village of Alépé (a one-and-a-half-hour drive away from Abidjan) to see local community’s Komian, which means “witch doctor school” and get to know their traditional beliefs.

(LaGoKenyane 23.3.2020) Côte d’Ivoire is also a great destination to explore different types of West African food. All major ethnicity groups have their own culinary specialties, for example seed sauce is popular in the Western region of the country. It’s made of palm nut and usually accompanied with snails, fish or beef. Foutou, that is a traditional dish especially for the Akan people, can be made of cassava, yam or for example banana. Two probably the most popular dishes among Ivorian people are alloco and attiéké. Alloco is made by frying ripe plantains, and attiéké is made of fermented cassava, and it’s usually eaten with different type of sauce, vegetables, meat or fish. (Discover Ivory-Coast s.a.d) One cultural attraction is the Treichville market in Abidjan, where you can find almost any- thing from local foods and spices to Ivorian style clothes, jewelry and souvenirs, all in affordable prices. (LaGoKenyane 8.6.2019)

To learn about the country’s rich history and culture there are few attractions that are a must visit. Grand-Bassam, the historical town from the 19^th and early 20^th century is a UNESCO world heritage site. It was the country’s first capital and a commercial hub of region that time, thus the colonial time buildings are still preserved. (UNESCO s.a.b) One of the buildings is a museum today, the National Museum of Costume presents traditional clothing of many different tribes and also some history and historical photography from the colonial times. You can also see the living room, bedroom and toilet of the colonial ruler of that time. (Afro tourism s.a.) There are also many museums and galleries in Abidjan. The Civilizations museum of Côte d’Ivoire, where one can learn about the history and the diversity of Ivorian culture, traditional religions and see historical objects like musical instruments, archeological findings, every-day goods, weapons and much more. (abidjan.net 2012a) For art lovers a must visit is the Charles Alphonse art museum which used to be an art school established in 1938, (abidjan.net 2012b) or for some African contem- porary art, one can visit the Galerie Cécile Fakhoury. (Galerie Cécile Fakhoury 2019)

Abidjan is full of life and famous for its nightlife. When it comes to events, there are several around the year. Some popular music events are the Marché des Arts et du Spectacle Africain (MASA), the Festival des Musiques Urbaines d’Anoumabo (FEMUA), ABI Reggae Festival, L’émoi du Jazz, and the Abidjan By Night Festival. For fashion enthusiasts for instance Afrikfashion Show, Abidjan Fashion Week, FIMDA (Festival International de la Mode d’Abidjan). There are also other festivals around the year like Barbeque festival at

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Palai de la Culture, The Festival International de Glace and The FEJA. (Festival de l’Electronique et du Jeu vidéo d’Abidjan) (Ipsos Editions 2019)

3.3.2 Public & Private Amenities

Private amenities include different services and facilities such as accommodation, visitor information, recreational facilities, guides, operators, catering & shopping facilities. Public amenities on the other hand, include basic infrastructure like public transportation, roads and utilities. (UNWTO 2007) Like the Ministry of Tourism states in the report, most of the accommodation properties are still located in Abidjan. According to TripAdvisor there are 465 accommodation properties in Abidjan from which 28 are hotels. A search engine Kay- ak from Booking.com gives 431 different properties, from which 74 are hotels. Altogether there are four 5-star hotels in Abidjan. (TripAdvisor 2020; Kayak 2020) This is more accommodation properties than in some destinations in Europe, like Stockholm, Malta, Hamburg, Wien or Lisbon. (Eurostat 2020) There are also new investment activities in the hotel segment and major international hotel chains are looking to expanding to Côte d’Ivoire, due to the growth in tourism numbers. (Oxford business Group s.a.a)

The service sector was 43.4 % of the country’s GDP in 2018 and in comparison to West Africa region Côte d’Ivoire’s travel in services-related export values were higher than the average in 2017. In this context travel & tourism related services include services provided by hotels and restaurants, tour operators, travel agencies and other related services like guiding services. (WTO 2020) The export trade in travel related services has more than doubled from 158 million US$ in 2015 to 396 million US$ in 2017. (Schlumbohm, Staffa, Zeppernick & Franken 2020) There are some activity or sightseeing providers found online in Côte d’Ivoire and in Abidjan, in reality there might be more providers that are just not easily found from the internet. From TripAdvisor’s search engine you can find nearly 30 different tours including day trips to Yamoussoukro’s Basilica of our Lady in Peace Cathedral, visiting Grand Bassam’s UNESCO World Heritage site, workshops, Abidjan city & smaller village tours and many more. (TripAdvisor s.a.) In Abidjan there is also lots of good shopping facilities, like the Abidjan Mall and PlaYce. The latter for example has local and international products, fashion and a food court. You can also buy local pro- duced chocolate or do proper grocery shopping in Carrefour Supermarket which has a comprehensive selection of different products. (Ipsos Editions 2019) Generally, pharmacies can be found in several locations, some of them also open during the night. (Abid- jan4you 2021a) In Abidjan, there are different types of taxis, for example the orange - very affordable ones, that are going around the city and you are usually able to find one very

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quickly. (Abidjan4you 2021b) There are also possibilities for a bit more comfortable and cleaner taxi service, which you can order using a taxi app called TaxiJet. The prices are naturally a bit higher, but still very affordable. (Ipsos Editions 2019)

Like stated before, even though Côte d’Ivoire is a wealthy country in its region, the wealth does not come across to all inhabitants, for example in a form of well-managed public services. In Afrobarometer’s study about the perceived quality of public services around African countries in 2018, Côte d’Ivoire was below average in many categories. The study includes three services which are considered most important: school services, medical services, and assistance from the police. In these services three main factors which were examined were: ease of access, response to complaints and corruption, when it comes to perceived development of these public services. (Bratton, Seekings & Armah-Attoh 2019) In “perceived improvement in state performance for three services” 17 % of Ivorians an- swered they have seen improvement from 2016. The 34-country average was 19 %. Only 44 % of Ivorians reported contact with public health service during the year, which is a fifth lowest result among other countries in the survey and only 5 % of respondents had a clin- ic, a post office, and a police station in their local area. (Bratton etc. 2019) What comes to corruption control Côte d’Ivoire was rated as medium in a comparison of all countries in the world and in a scale of strong to weak. (Schlumbohm & al. 2020) When asked, what is the likelihood of official action in response to corruption, 53 % of the respondents said is not very or at all likely and 46 % reported they have had to pay a bribe once or more often to the local police. The score in the latter one is third highest among the 34 countries. In the 2020 global corruption perceptions index that measures transparency in the countries of the world, Côte d’Ivoire is ranked 104^th with 34 points out of 179 countries. In the index other Sub-Saharan countries like Senegal, South Africa and Ghana all have scored more than 43 points and the top performing countries – Denmark and New Zealand – scored 88 points. (Transparency International 2021) Seems that there is corruption in its smaller and larger forms in Côte d’Ivoire. Positive note from the Afrobarometer’s study is, 35 % (third most compared to other countries) of the respondents said that they got police assistance right away, when asked. In these results however, it must be taken into consideration that only 34 of the 54 countries in Africa were taken part in this survey. (Bratton etc. 2019)

There are constant improvements made for basic infrastructure, especially in road construction. The Ministry of Tourism’s strategy aims to ease the roadway in between the key touristic areas, for example between Abidjan – Assinie, Abidjan – San Pedro and San Pedro – Korhogo. The goal is to get from one tourist zone to another in less than four hours. (Ministere du Tourisme s.a.) In example, the current travel time from Abidjan to San Pedro via road is up to 8 hours, even though the distance between the two cities is

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less than 300 km. (Google Maps 2021) Other development goals are to create regulated passenger roads for routes between different sites, ensuring their availability, speed and comfort and to consolidate a lagoon service that would allow transporting between Abidjan and Grand-Bassam by water. (Ministere du Tourisme s.a.) In the whole country but especially in Abidjan, new construction projects are running constantly and by 2030, the government aims to have completed the new Abidjan metro project (a 37km metro line with 20 stations trough Abidjan) (Fitch Solutions 2021), tramway lines, 7 new bridges over the lagoon, water transport and the Cocody bay project, just to name a few.

(Ipsos Editions 2019)

3.3.3 Accessibility

Accessibility is measuring how well a large population can reach the destination via air passenger services, road, rail or cruise ships. Visa requirements and international openness are also part of accessibility. There are some similarities with the definition of accessibility and what was mentioned in the previous section about public amenities and basic infrastructure, like transportation. (UNWTO 2007) The busiest airport in Côte d’Ivoire is in Abidjan, named after the first president, Félix-Houphouët-Boigny International Airport. It has direct flight connections to several destination locally and abroad. The destinations abroad and in Europe include Lisbon, Paris (CDG & ORY), Brussels and Istanbul. There are also connections to Dubai, Casablanca, Tunis, Nairobi and Addis Ababa and to all neighboring countries. Other main airports in Côte d’Ivoire are located in San-Pédro, Bouaké, Korhogo, Odienné & Man. (Flight Connections 2020)

In the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index, Côte d’Ivoire was ranked 108^th out of 140 countries in a category infrastructure. However, these statistics are measuring the countries as a whole, and neglects regional improvement. (Calderwood & Soshkin 2019) The infrastructure in Abidjan is significantly ahead compared to other regions of the country (Ipsos Editions 2019) According to UNWTO’s 2018 visa openness index, globally Côte d’Ivoire is one of the most open countries. Overall “advanced economies” like most of the European countries have the lowest visa openness and “emerging economies” have the highest openness. (UNWTO 2018) The economic bloc ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) which includes Côte d’Ivoire, and 14 other West African economies (ECOWAS 2020) had the highest open reciprocity among members, same score than in Schengen area. (UNWTO 2018) All West African countries have a totally visa-free access to Côte d’Ivoire, and some other countries like: Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Morocco, Tunisia and Philippines & Singapore. (Immigration and Visa Guide 2020) Côte d’Ivoire is also among the top destinations in Africa who have been improving

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visa procedures between 2008-2018. (UNWTO 2019b) Even though visa is required when traveling to West Africa for most of the travelers coming from Europe, Asia & Pacific, Americas and Middle East, there’s still options for visa on arrival or eVisa. Also, in example, visa for a Finnish residence is relatively easy to get. The application needs to be done two weeks before the trip and costs not more than 58 €. (Rautalahti 4.8.2020)

3.3.4 Human Resources

Well trained or educated workforce and the support of local communities for tourism can be important factors on how appealing the destination will be for the traveler. Côte d’Ivoire as many other African countries has a growing population as well as increasing life expec- tancy (The World Bank 2021b) which means that there is, and there will be a huge working age population available. When looking at demographics and different age pyramids (which show the population division by age and gender) worldwide, the population in Côte d’Ivoire is very young, like in Africa in general. Furthermore, compared to the population pyramid of Europe, where the population is aging, and the birth rate is decreasing (United Nations 2019) it’s no doubt that most of the world population – especially young people who are the future’s working age population – are from Africa and Asia.

Figure 2. Population pyramid of Côte d’Ivoire (United nations 2019)

Côte d’Ivoire health expenditure per capita was 71.88 $ in 2018, it is higher than in some other West African countries like The Gambia (22.16), Guinea (38.32) and Senegal

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(58.90), but lower than is some other Sub-Saharan countries like Nigeria (83.75) and Ghana (77.91) or South Africa (525), Botswana (482.96) and Namibia (471.49). (WHO 2021a) The expenditure as a percentage of Côte d’Ivoire’s GDP is relatively low compared to the last-mentioned countries, only 4 %, when in South Africa the percentage is 8

%, in Botswana 5.85 % and in Namibia 7.95 %. (WHO 2021b)

Even though the country spends 4.4 % of its GDP in education, which is higher than the average in the region (4 %), the education in Côte d’Ivoire has not developed in a way that would support all children in the country. For instance, only 51 % of kids in Côte d’Ivoire enroll to secondary school, which is significantly lower than the average 70 % of Côte d’Ivoire’s income group. Some statistics indicate that there is somewhat remarkable gender gap in Côte d’Ivoire, for example 50 % of the country’s adolescent girls are out of school, when the average in the region is 33 %, and the average in Côte d’Ivoire’s income group is 17 %. Also, only 20 % of 15–49-year-old women use contraception, which is again lower than the average of the region (28 %) and the income group (42 %). (The World Bank 2020a) Côte d’Ivoire is also one of the countries with the biggest gender gap in the world, placing 134^th out of 156 countries in the 2021 Global Gender Gap Index.

(World Economic Forum 2021) However, constants improvements have and are being made to improve education, for example according to The World Banks 2020 Human Capital Index, that measures the quantity and quality of schooling and the expected human capital of future children, Côte d’Ivoire made the 6^th largest gains in the HCI in the past decade and is among the countries with the most development in EYS (expected years of school), which is now 8.1 years. (The World Bank 2020b) There is a will to develop the education further, according to the Ministry of National Education’s report (conducted with Global Partnership for Education), the Ivorian government assured new funding and educational reforming plan for the country. The report from the year 2018 shows for example following improvements:

1. The number of functional classrooms increased from 68 810 in 2017 to 73 170 in 2018.

2. The completion rate is improving in high schools from 49,3% in 2017 to 54.6% in 2018. (Although girls’ completion rate is 10% lower)

3. In 2018 twenty new educational establishments were rehabilitated and equipped.

(Ministere De l’Éducation Nationale 2020)

There are also few Hotel & Hospitality Schools in Abidjan as well, like in example Grand- Bassam Hotel School (École Hôtelière de Bassam) which was opened in 2017 and is working in partnership with Casablanca Hotel School and the Geneva Hotel School. The school is teaching around 300 students annually in specialization degrees in hotel busi-

Côte d’Ivoire’s Potential as a Sustainable Tourism Destination