Industrial Heritage Tourism in Africa: Prospects and Challenges

Industrial heritage, also known as industrial archaeology, has long been a focus of much tourism development in the developed parts of the world. It is now also becoming a focus of much heritage tourism in the less-developed parts of the world, especially now that UNESCO is also recognizing it as an important part of the heritage of humankind. Mines, factories, railways, shipyards, and other complexes of heavy industry have recently come to the fore as a tourism asset in many parts of Africa. The region has a well-established mining and resource extraction history (e.g., oil, timber, gold, and diamonds), which has been the focus of many movies, television shows, and historical accounts. The continent also has a history of large-scale shipping. The growing visibility of Africa’s industrial past and the increasing relevance of industrial archaeology within tourism will be the focus of this chapter. It will examine disused industrial heritage and currently functioning industry as tourism assets for the region.