13. Exploring COVID-19 Tourism Recovery Strategies in East Africa

COVID-19 brought unprecedented suffering to all sectors of the economy, globally. Tourism was one of the most affected sectors of the economy in East Africa. There was a need to find ways of recovering from this pandemic. This study aimed to explore recovering mechanisms and strategies adopted by the region to recover from the ravages of COVID-19 and how they are adapting to the new normal to boost tourism. The qualitative approach is adopted. Critical document review is utilised using tourism companies’ Annual reports, national reports from tourism organisations and government Ministries, and Google Scholar with themes on COVID-19, recovery strategies, tourism, and East Africa. The findings of the study are that there is less utilisation of social media as one of the tourism recovery strategies, digitisation is limited as a recovery strategy, regional cooperation, collaboration, and stakeholder engagement are vital for tourism recovery in East Africa, easing or visa removal to promote mobility in the region while promotion of domestic tourism is highly encouraged and authenticity promotion and instilling confidence in tourists. The study implies that resources and promotion of culture and history provide a unique selling proposition for East Africa while embracing technology will boost tourism significantly. The study recommends extensive marketing, digitisation, tourism product diversification, improved market intelligence and scouting for different market suppliers, promotion of domestic tourism, and capacitating the tourism industry by the government through various initiatives including funding and women participation.