Title: Political crises and tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa: destination recovery post-coup d'état

Authors: Regis Musavengane; Zibanai Zhou

Addresses: Department of Tourism and Hospitality, Midlands State University, P. Bag 9055, Gweru, Zimbabwe; Department of Environmental Science, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, School of Ecological and Human Sustainability, Environmental Sciences, University of South Africa, Pioneer Avenue, Florida, Roodepoort, 1710, South Africa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5276-7911 ' Department of Tourism and Hospitality, Midlands State University, P. Bag 9055, Gweru, Zimbabwe ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7918-2200

Abstract: Most African countries are associated with unending political disputes. Instead of amicably ending them, smart power-play approaches continue to degenerate the African nations. The paper therefore seeks to establish the nexus between political crises, coups d'état and tourism in the Sub-Saharan African region and determine destination survival strategies for tourism businesses in environments with a political crisis. Document analysis was adopted to obtain data, this was thematically analysed. The key finding is that military coups are detrimental to tourism. They retard tourism growth by eroding the strides and gains painstakingly made over time through the building of international goodwill. Anholt's hexagon on nation branding is used to suggest strategies that politically disturbed nations can adopt to rejuvenate their tourist destinations.

Keywords: political crises; coups d'état; tourism development; nation branding hexagon; peace tourism; tourism crisis; threats; distressed destinations; Zimbabwe; Sub Saharan Africa.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTP.2021.114455

International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2021 Vol.11 No.1, pp.52 - 72

Received: 06 May 2020
Accepted: 18 Nov 2020
Published online: 22 Apr 2021 *

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