An empirical insight into the international tourism – foreign direct investment nexus in Africa

Abstract

This study examines the international tourism-foreign direct investment (FDI) nexus in Africa. To do this, it investigates the causal relationship between international tourism and FDI in a panel dataset of 43 African countries for the period 1995-2016. Using the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) panel Granger noncausality test which is robust to cross-sectional dependence, this study finds a homogeneous unidirectional causality from FDI to international tourism in Africa. Also, it finds causality between international tourism and FDI in at least one direction in majority of the countries. Policy implications are documented in this study.