African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure | 2026
Authors: Yusuff M.A.; Adelowokan O.A.; Maku O.E.
DOI: 10.46222/ajhtl.19770720.724
Journal: African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure
Year: 2026
Publisher: Africa Journals
Document Type: Article
Open Access: All Open Access; Gold Open Access
Cited by: 0
To achieve inclusive and sustainable growth, it is necessary to examine the impact of growth strategies on income distribution. The present paper aims to investigate the distributional effect of tourism on income inequality under the Kuznets hypothesis using a panel of 28 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 2005 to 2023. The study employs the Driscoll-Kraay Standard Error and Feasible Generalised Least Squares (FGLS) estimation techniques for analysis and finds a U-shaped relationship between tourism and income inequality, indicating that, in the industry's earlier stages, inequality is lower but increases in its later stages. With respect to the control variables, human capital consistently reduces inequality, whereas trade openness and economic growth worsen it. The study concludes that carefully managed tourism can effectively reduce income inequality in SSA and calls for tourism strategies that maximise tourism benefits while preventing a reversal as it progresses. Thus, possible suggestions include stage-specific tourism policy interventions that incorporate human capital development and financial support for local tourism operators to avoid distributional imbalances as tourism development proceeds. The study is novel in applying the Kuznets proposition to the dynamics of tourism-income inequality linkage in SSA. © 2026 AJHTL. This work is published by African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Income inequality; Kuznets hypothesis; Sub-Saharan Africa; sustainable development; tourism