Sustainable Tourism Dialogues in Africa, Judy Kepher Gona, Lucy Atieno

This book is about articulations of issues whose relevance for defining action for development in tourism has been brought forward by different stakeholders in tourism destinations. The dialogues first emerged during a series of monthly inter university seminars on sustainable tourism, hosted by universities in Kenya. Sustainable Tourism Dialogues in Africa seeks to encourage debate, while facilitating the development of both theoretical and practical foundations for managing tourism sustainably in destinations within Africa. Sustainability is not a fully developed perspective as a destination management system in Africa, and this is because it takes into account socio-political processes that pertain to stakeholder interaction in tourism. This book therefore captures key narratives on sustainable tourism in Africa, identifying main actors in destination context needed to bring about transformations, and presenting their politics and interests, as illustrative of the socio-political context for managing tourism responsibly in destinations. This consequently aims to create an understanding to bring about implementation efficiency in addressing developmental challenges through tourism. Each chapter covers a topical issue, such as tourism planning, tourism product development, and describes:

• perceptions and priorities of people in destinations within Africa, in the sustainable management of tourism.
• feasibility and acceptability of potential sustainable management solutions for tourism in destination contexts within Africa.

Sustainable Tourism Dialogues in Africa draws its thematic content from 30 monthly inter university seminars on sustainable tourism, running from 2017 to November 2019, involving participation of 17 universities in Kenya, as well as drawing interest from university students across East Africa. Students at each university selected seminar topics, and this strongly incorporates young peoples perspectives on defining important issues for sustainable tourism in Africa. It therefore hints at the ideals for sustainable tourism that young people would want in tourism futures.

1. In 2017, the first monthly inter university seminar was held in Nairobi, and discussed the issue of tourism impacts. 2017 was the International Year for Sustainable Tourism, and STTA launches the monthly inter university seminar.
2. In 2018, the seminars pick consistency in participation, and attract partners, who are key destination actors for tourism, in select topics of their specialization. The seminars continue to facilitate dialogue between academia, government representatives, tourism students, non-governmental organizations, local communities, and private sector business in tourism.
3. By 2019, 30 seminar highlights have been published.

Each chapter grouping dialogue will comprise chapter contributions, research notes, and box section for each chapter, allowing for other destination stakeholder insights. Box section case studies to showcase chapter topics at specific case examples. Research notes will be a summarized scholarly review of presented thematic issues in the book.

The chapters will have contributions from research and professional networks at the Sustainable Tourism Africa Institute (www.sttakenya.org), which already has faculty participation from 17 universities in Kenya and private sector.

Some box section contribution will be from Network of Education in Sustainable Tourism (https://www.nest-tourism.org), which is a professional network for open dialogues in tourism, with regional representation of 6 countries from Africa, among others.