Tourism is currently growing faster in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and in many other developing regions compared to the rest of the world. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) estimates that in absolute terms there were 63 million international tourist arrivals in SSA for the year ending 2017 – a 9% growth rate. However, this is only 5% of global international tourist arrivals with the share of receipts for SSA at 3% (World Tourism Organization [UNWTO], 2018). While tourism in SSA has long been touted as a potential vehicle for economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction (Novelli, 2015), the outcome has been inconsistent and implications at the local level questionable (Adu-Ampong, 2017, 2018a; Mbaiwa, 2005; Kimbu & Ngoasong, 2013). Nonetheless, the growing influence of the tourism sector in SSA calls for careful consideration of the past, present and future planning and policy contexts through which tourism can be leveraged to achieve sustainable outcomes.

This Special Issue on Sustainability in tourism policy and planning in Sub-Saharan Africa: past, present and future, reassesses the process of tourism policy and planning in SSA over the years. This is set against the wider context of the UNWTO having declared 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development and the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) having three of the seventeen goals making an explicit reference to tourism in goal 8: economic growth and employment, goal 12: sustainable consumption and production, and goal 14: conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development (United Nations, 2016). The tourism sector is ergo being called upon to explicitly integrate sustainability in its economic, social and environmental dimensions than has been done previously. This Special Issue therefore considers how the increasing focus on sustainability in policy discourses are shaping current and future tourism policy and planning in the SSA context. The papers are drawn from across all the different sub-regions of sub- Saharan Africa and provide a critical (re)examination of the role of tourism policies, plans and practices in achieving sustainable development in SSA.