Tourism Decolonization, Geopolitics, and Degrowth: A Theoretical Case for Tourism Sustainability in East Africa

Developing countries in the Eastern Africa region face an existential challenge of sustaining tourism livelihoods, addressing the effects of external geopolitics as well as sustaining local debt-fuelled economies. In the developing countries in East Africa, significant tourism policy priorities in the new normal have focused on “Tourism recovery” as well as “Tourism regulations” to curb inhibitors to growth. Despite the emphasis on tourism growth in most of the developing countries in the region, the rising effects of climate change, uncontrolled population growth, resource-use conflicts, and vanishing ecosystems have accentuated the physical limits to the growth and expansion of the tourism industry in the African region. This paradox has contributed to what Jim Butcher refers to as “The Moralization of Tourism” as well as rising activism concerning tourism geopolitics. This chapter seeks to address these issues as well as develop theoretical frameworks for tourism degrowth and Tourism sustainability in East Africa. As we focus on rethinking global tourism, it is important to address the effects of tourism colonization as well as the resultant threats to the rights of indigenous communities in the region.