Bulletin of Geography. Socio–economic Series / No. 38 (2017): 73–92 BULLETIN OF GEOGRAPHY. SOCIO–ECONOMIC SERIES DE journal homepages: http://www.bulletinofgeography.umk.pl/ http://wydawnictwoumk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/BGSS/index http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/bog ISSN 1732–4254 quarterly G Accommodation services for competitive tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa: Historical evidence from Malawi Alice Magombo1, CDF, Christian M. Rogerson2, CFMR, Jayne M. Rogerson3, CMR 1Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture, Lilongwe, Malawi, phone: +265 775 499, e-mail: [email protected]; 2Univer- sity of Johannesburg, School of Tourism & Hospitality, Kerzner Administration Building, Bunting Road Campus, Bunting Road, Auckland Park, 2006, Johannesburg, South Africa; phone: +270 115 591 167, e-mail: [email protected] (corresponding author); 3University of Johannesburg, Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies, D3 Lab Office 331, King- sway Campus, Kingsway, Auckland Park, 2006, Johannesburg, South Africa; phone +270 115 592 439, e-mail: [email protected] How to cite: Magombo, A., Rogerson, C.M. and Rogerson, J.M., 2017: Accommodation services for competitive tourism in Sub-Saharan Af- rica: Historical evidence from Malawi. In: Biegańska, J. and Szymańska, D. editors, Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, No. 38, Toruń: Nicolaus Copernicus University, pp. 73–92. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/bog-2017-0035 Abstract. The accommodation services sector is a vital underpinning of the com- Article details: petitiveness of destinations in especially emerging tourism regions of the glob- Received: 20 September 2016 al economy. Within the environment of Africa building the competitiveness of Revised: 31 January 2017 Accepted: 21 July 2017 countries as tourism destinations is inseparable from the challenge of establish- ing a network of different forms of accommodation at competitive prices and in- ternationally acceptable quality standards. This paper uses a longitudinal approach to analyse the development of the accommodation services sector in one Afri- can country – Malawi – which is scaling up its tourism industry. Using historical evidence the objective is to examine the unfolding evolution of accommodation services as a factor in enhancing tourism destination competitiveness. The cheq- uered pathway followed in Malawi to building the country’s network of hotels and Key words: small-scale accommodation establishments is traced from the colonial period to tourism geography, post-independence developments. It is argued that in understanding the histori- accommodation services, cal evolution of accommodation services policy re-orientations have been signif- competitiveness, icant drivers of change. Malawi tourism. © 2017 Nicolaus Copernicus University. All rights reserved. Contents: 1. Introduction . 74 2. Tourism competitiveness and accommodation services ..................................... 75 3. The evolution of accommodation services in Malawi ....................................... 77 3.1. Accommodation services in the Colonial Era ......................................... 77 3.2. Accommodation services development since independence . 79 © 2017 Nicolaus Copernicus University. All rights reserved. © 2017 De Gruyter Open (on-line). 74 A. Magombo, Ch. M. Rogerson, J. M. Rogerson / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series / 38 (2017): 73–92 3.2.1. Government planning and direction of the hotel sector ................................ 80 3.2.2. The retreat of government and facilitation of private sector investment................... 85 4. Conclusion ............................................................................ 88 Acknowledgements ..................................................................... 88 References ............................................................................. 89 1. Introduction in enhancing tourism destination competitiveness in one African country. Under scrutiny is the case of Across Africa considerable importance is attached Malawi, a landlocked country of central Africa bor- to tourism as a lever for job creation, poverty re- dered in the north and east by Tanzania, Zambia duction, improving livelihoods and generating lo- in the west and Mozambique in the south and east. cal economic development prospects (Ashley, Roe, As the former British colony of Nyasaland, Malawi 2002; Mitchell, Ashley, 2006; Rogerson, Rogerson, gained independence on 6 July 1964. From the ear- 2010; Spenceley, Meyer, 2012; Saarinen, Rogerson, liest colonial days to the present-day the economy 2014; UNWTO, 2015a; Butler, Rogerson, 2016; de has been narrowly based with agriculture the main Boer, van Dijk, 2016). It is argued that whilst the source of growth. Only in the past decade and a half economic importance of tourism in Africa in the has there occurred a positive structural change with global tourism economy remains modest, as in- a gradual shift out of agriculture into higher produc- dexed by its 5 percent share of international arrivals tivity non-agricultural sectors (World Bank, 2016). and 3 percent share of tourism receipts, since 1990 Among opportunities for economic diversification the sector has been steadily rising in terms of its an interest emerged in the late colonial period con- significance for economic and social development cerning the potential for tourism to develop as an (Rogerson, 2007; Novelli, 2015; UNWTO, 2015b; alternative source of employment, income and live- World Travel & Tourism Council, 2015). This said, lihoods in Malawi. Throughout the post-independ- the state of tourism in Africa must be looked at in ence years tourism has been a continuing focus for relation to its unexploited potential for develop- promotion and embedded in national economic de- ment given the continent’s extraordinary rich tour- velopment planning prioritisation (African Develop- ism assets of wildlife, biodiversity, natural scenery ment Bank, 2012; Mwanakatawe, Kebedew, 2015). and culture (Blanke et al., 2011; World Bank 2014; The volume of tourism scholarship on Malawi Saarinen, Rogerson, 2015; UNWTO, 2015b; Man- remains relatively limited even compared to that wa et al., 2016). In order to maximise tourism de- of several other African countries (Rogerson, Rog- velopment opportunities as well as contribute to erson, 2011). Only a small number of works exist the achievement of the United Nations Sustaina- which deal with a range of issues around entrepre- ble Development Goals it is essential that African neurship (Chilembwe, Gondwe, 2015; Krishnan, countries build their competitiveness as tourism 2016), the development pathways of the tourism destinations and overcome barriers that are con- industry (Magombo, Rogerson, 2012), voluntour- straining tourism development (Blanke et al., 2011; ism (Freidus, 2016), tourist guides (Chilembwe, Manwa, 2011; Mayaka, Prasad, 2012). Among sev- Mweiwa, 2014), employment and poverty allevia- eral factors that can influence tourism demand and tion (Gartner, Cukier, 2012), cultural heritage (Gil- competitiveness one essential prerequisite for the man, 2015) as well as recent ecotourism initiatives growth of any tourism destination is that differ- in protected areas for leveraging international tour- ent forms of accommodation be made available to ism (Novelli, Scarth, 2007; Snyman, 2013; Bello, tourists at competitive prices and acceptable qual- 2015; Bello et al., 2016). Among academic observ- ity standards (Dwyer, Kim, 2003; Ritchie, Crouch, ers and policy-makers alike there is consensus that, 2003; Ernst & Young, 2011; Christie et al., 2013; relative to its neighbours, Malawi underperforms Rogerson, 2016a). as a tourism destination (World Bank, 2011; Ma- The aim in this paper is to examine the unfold- gombo, Rogerson, 2012). Key factors are the lack ing evolution of accommodation services as a factor of air connectivity to the country from Europe and A. Magombo, Ch. M. Rogerson, J. M. Rogerson / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series / 38 (2017): 73–92 75 Asia, and limited and/or poor tourism marketing of clusive development through the tourism sector the so-called “Warm Heart of Africa” (World Bank, (Bakker, Messerli, 2016). 2011; Krishnan, 2016). Beyond issues of air access In terms of the tourism destination pyramid and of shortcomings in international marketing, Christie et al. (2013) and the World Bank (2014) however, it is acknowledged widely that progress of differentiate African countries on the basis of in- tourism development has been stifled continuously come ranking and the scale of tourism develop- by the underdeveloped state of accommodation ser- ment. Using these criteria, a fourfold typology is vices. In a report produced by the World Bank in set forth of sub-Saharan African countries as tour- 2011 the imperative to increase the competitiveness ism destinations. First, are pre-emergent destina- of Malawi’s accommodation sector was identified as tions which have not yet developed their tourism a core challenge for moving towards a more efficient economies. Examples include The Central African local tourism economy (World Bank, 2011: 44). Republic, Eritrea, Liberia or South Sudan which It is against the above backdrop that this inves- represent countries with governance problems, tigation adopts an historical longitudinal approach low government policy interest in tourism, and, to unpack the emergence and geographical pat- in the short- to medium-term, necessarily limited terns of accommodation services in Malawi.