Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on Tourism in East African Countries

The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the economy of the whole world, and the tourism industry was the most negatively affected. The pandemic significantly affected the Great Lakes region of East Africa's tourism. This study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on East African countries. Secondary sources of data with themes on COVID-19, effects of COVID-19 on East Africa, and tourism in East Africa, were consulted and qualitatively analyzed from peer-reviewed articles and individual countries’ Annual Tourism Performance Reports and National Statistics and combined regional reports. The East African countries in the study include Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Sudan, and South Sudan. The findings of the study are that there were heavy job losses in the East African countries, high number of deaths affecting tourism operations, low tourism accommodation occupancy, low international tourist arrival, reduced Gross Domestic Product, low tourist arrivals at National Parks, and reduced foreign currency earnings. The study implies that there is overdependence of the East African countries on international tourist arrivals and foreign currency receipts, less effort on domestic tourism, dependence syndrome of the East African nations on the global North, the inability of the East African countries to curb disasters and pandemics in the tourism industry due to lack of technology, research, and innovation in detecting early warning signs. The study recommends the promotion of domestic tourism, funding of the tourism industry, research, and innovation, taking lessons learned from the pandemic and applying them to future pandemics in the tourism industry.