Visit Rwanda

Another very slick video about Rwanda, this one promoting RwandAir (via Mark Doyle).

Rwanda: The Trailer

This video is really great. Come and visit! Prepared for the Rwanda Tourism Board. Though why they decided to call it "Africa".... (they apparently changed the name to "Rwanda" - better!)


AFRICA from MAMMOTH on Vimeo.

David Cameron reads RovingBandit.com

Last April I wrote:

David Cameron has recently proposed a new non-military and optional national service scheme for British youth. That’s £5000 each. How about giving them all a £5000 flight voucher instead, and creating an international service scheme?

Today DFID announced this:

Young adults from across the country and from all walks of life will be given the chance to make a real difference in the poorest parts of the world - by volunteering overseas 

Prime Minister David Cameron and Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell have officially opened International Citizen Service (ICS) for applications.

Dave, you're welcome. And I've got plenty more where that came from. Give me a bell if you need some fresh ideas.

World Touristiness Heatmap

Some clever soul has mapped the location of holiday photos uploaded to website Panoramio and made this cool “touristiness heatmap.”

Look how bright Europe is! Given that tourist spending in developing countries is already 3 times official aid, how to harness a bit more of all that spending in Europe? Could the World Cup have a disruptive impact?

HT: Lifehacker

How to boost the development impact of UK tourism

Global tourist spending is 3 times the size of global aid. So the development challenge is to think about how to get as much of this money as possible into the hands of the poorest people.

One way to do this would be to subsidise travel to the poorest countries, perhaps especially amongst the young who are forming lifetime holidaying habits.

David Cameron has recently proposed a new non-military and optional national service scheme for British youth.

In its first year in office, a Tory government would redirect £50m from the government's Prevent Programme, which is designed to prevent extremism, to pay for pilot schemes for 10,000 teenagers. (The Guardian)

That’s £5000 each. How about giving them all a £5000 flight voucher instead, and creating an international service scheme?

Seeing as Tourism is the new magic bullet…

(I’m joking Ranil!) But did I mention how great Logali House is? There is little better than a nice air-conditioned room in the height of the dry season when you haven’t slept for a week because of the heat.

By the way, to any other Juba businesses - I am totally for sale. I will plug you relentlessly for freebies.

The Sierra Leone Guide to Prevention of Tourism

Mark Weston makes fun of Sierra Leone’s tourism non-policy. 

He has a point though, what is the elasticity of tourist arrivals to visa fees? More broadly what are the determinants of tourist arrivals? Any research here?

I have a theory about the political economy of this. Poor country governments tend to be bad at taxing people. By far the easiest way is at ports. How about instead giving out free visas but increasing taxes on major tourist attractions (e.g. national park entry)?

More on Tourism and Poverty

Matt and Ranil make some good points about the distribution and poverty-incidence of tourist spending in poor countries. This I completely accept, but I am still stunned by the aggregate figures. Even a small proportion of this going into the hands of poor people is going to be significant, and something worthy of a bit more study and attention to see how the impact can be increased. Jonathan Mitchell and Caroline Ashley from ODI look at these issues in various papers (which I am yet to properly read), but they are in a minority. I have TWO degrees in development economics and have been taught loads about aid, but next to nothing about the poverty impacts of tourism.

Inspired by David Roodman here are a couple of graphs showing the approximate relative size of resource flows to poor countries, and the attention these issues get from academics interested in poverty (measured by Google Scholar hits).








Maybe just a little bit unbalanced?

Tourism and Poverty

"Spending by tourists in developing countries is almost three times the level of official development assistance."

(ODI launch for "Tourism and Poverty" by Jonathan Mitchell and Caroline Ashley)

I am mildly amazed. I knew that private remittances exceeded official development assistance but tourist spending as well?! Where is TourismWatch Bill Easterly? Why does this issue get so little attention?