before rising again to US$ 64 million in 2005 (or 5 percent of GDP). In 2005, tourism comprised 24 percent of total exports. (UN/WTO Stat.) Whereas Sierra Leone had approximately 75,000 tourists in 1986, 25 percent of them business travelers, today there are approximately 44,000 tourists, 90 percent of them business travelers. There are approximately 3,500 resident expatriates in Sierra Leone today who account for much of business travels. (World Bank, 2009) According to the World Bank Diagnostic Trade and Integration Study (2006), the tourism industry in Sierra Leone has the potential of growing up to US$ 150-200 million by 2015 provided that the beach subsector – once uprooted by the conflict – is re-established. This will necessitate the opening of large-scale beach resorts and the building of hard and soft infrastructure necessary for sustaining them. It is noted that large-scale tourism runs the risk of degradation of the local environment; furthermore, such tourism is often engineered by overseas tour operators and hence does not help develop forward and backward linkages within Sierra Leone. This may result in a high ‘import leakage’ ratio out of the country because of the high import, foreign investment and foreign transaction contents of such tourism. However, research shows that local labor and capital benefits are reasonably high in Sierra Leone and it is estimated that approximately 60 percent of the revenue generated by tourism in Sierra Leone can be retained within the country even if Sierra Leone is to employ this model (WB, 2006: 71).

Growth effects aside, the tourism industry may serve as an income equalizer. Sierra Leone has long suffered from lopsided growth heavily concentrated in the mining sector, which can be attributed a substantial portion of the blame for the violent insurgency that engrossed the country between 1991 and 2001. Tourism can have a direct impact on the poor through direct employment and indirect linkages with the tourism supply chain. In fact, Sierra Leone will need to reduce its dependence on minerals and develop one or more labor-intensive sectors including agriculture, tourism and light manufacturing to be able to rebuild its social fabric and a sustainably equitable economy after recovering from the conflict.

The impact of the civil war on tourism sector is not to be underestimated. A cluster of beach resorts which accounted for over 80 percent of the tourist arrivals from outside West Africa region was literally torn down in the late 1990s. The decade of ruthless war was responsible for the destruction of the basic infrastructure, disintegration of institutions, and human and capital flight away from the country. During reconstruction, the country has had to start with the most basic needs – re-establishing food supply, ensuring peace and security, rebuilding essential infrastructure and government services, etc.

After the finalization of the two major peace accords – the first in Lome in July 1999 and the second in Abuja in May 2001, progress has been rapid and steady in Sierra Leone, assisted by the donor community and by a significant inflow of cash from the artisanal diamond sector. Owing to the massive destruction of infrastructure as well as the human and social capital during the civil war, however, it is important to remember that nothing can be taken for granted in analyzing the current state of tourism and developing any strategy for tourism development in Sierra Leone.

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