Looking into the overlooked: incoming tour operators and early tourism development in Gabon

Abstract

For a few years, Gabon has demonstrated increasing signs of its willingness to develop tourism. This has led a growing number of individuals and/or companies to seek opportunities and invest in the inbound tourism sector. Yet Gabon still presents high barriers to tourism development, resulting in major constraints upon tourism firms. This paper focuses on the particular example of incoming tour operators (ITOs); ITOs play a role in tourism distribution but have received little attention in the literature. This study seeks to better understand their profiles as well as their marketing and channel behaviours in the Gabonese fledgling tourism industry. Based on semi-structured interviews held in 2011–2012 with 11 ITOs in Gabon, the study outcomes show that ITO marketing and channel behaviours were rational and growth-oriented and were influenced by company profiles, demand requirements and the position of power of ITOs in the distribution channel. The accessibility, comfort and reliability of products/suppliers stood out as key factors in the upstream or downstream channel behaviours of ITOs (selection of suppliers vs. selection of customers). Most respondents considered vertical integration as an appropriate strategy to improve the supply channel.

Keywords:

• incoming tour operators
• profile
• distribution channel behaviour
• inter-firm relationships
• developing countries

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges CENAREST, ANPN, all ITOs and key informants who participated in this study as well as GEODE for its advice and the sharing of data from the tourism satellite account.

Notes

The expression ‘Central Africa’ is used in this paper to refer to the member states of the Economic Community of the Central African States, which encompass Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, DR Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Sao Tome Y Principe.

A content analysis of the websites of 44 outbound TOs in 2009 showed that the prices of trips for eight to nine days to Gabon ranged between 2,500 and 3,500 euros, international flight not included (Cloquet, 2010). Given the level of comfort, the quality of service and the chances for quality wildlife viewing that Gabon can currently offer, Gabon cannot directly – and does not intend to – compete with destinations such as Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana or South Africa (French, 2009; White, Gwynne, Chesnel, & Mferri Bongo Ondimba, 2007).

The other main travel motives of Gabon inbound tourists include: business travel (59%), meetings (8.4%) and visiting friends and relatives (9.4%). Of the 96,000 international tourist arrivals, 93% were non-residents visitors and 7% were visitors from the Gabonese diaspora.

The key informants will remain anonymous as was guaranteed by the research project. Key informants included a professional working for a consultant agency (K1); two civil servants from the Ministry of tourism (K2; K3); two civil servants from the National agency in charge of the national parks (K4; K5); a director and a civil servant from the national tourist office (K6; K7); two project managers of NGOs (K8; K9) and a nationaly renowned tourist guide (K10).

The projects involve the setting up of upmarket lodges and glamping facilities in six national parks, a beach resort on the coast (www.legabon.org, 2011, 2012), and a school of tourism and hospitality, as well as the classification of hotels and restaurants according to international standards (Key informant 1, personal communication, June 16, 2012). Most of the projects involve private and public investment as well as foreign partners or investors.

Due to the presence in Gabon of a majority of formal and informal tourism micro-enterprises, the author prefers to use the South African term ‘SMME’ rather than the internationally preferred term of ‘SME’. Indeed, as argued by Rogerson (2005), the term ‘SME’ in some countries does not include informal or micro-enterprises.

The minimum wage in Gabon is XAF150,000 (Central African CFA franc), which is roughly equivalent to 230 euros.