A Culture-Based Local Economic Development Strategy for São Tomé and Príncipe (STP)

2012

In 2010, STP was the second-poorest country in Africa, with GDP per capita of US$1,190. Its narrow export base relied solely on cocoa and tourism. Eparque created an economic development strategy that leveraged untapped natural and cultural endowments of the island state using an integrated set of interventions, including private-sector linkages and community involvement, improved tourism-sector policies, rehabilitation and promotion of cultural landscapes, tourism product and market development, and development of the local community’s skills and capacity. Our research showed that in 2011, 11,000 international tourists visited STP and were responsible for the creation of 8,500 new jobs (direct and indirect), which accounted for 10.7 percent of total employment. We saw an opportunity for the tourism industry to use the islands’ untapped cultural and natural assets to increase the average expenditure per tourist and their length of stay. To this end, we recommended an integrated strategy to conserve and promote STP’s cultural and natural heritage that involved:

• raising communities’ awareness of their history and heritage

• changing policies to facilitate private-sector participation

• rehabilitating roças (plantations) and the historic railroad system

• improving the coffee and cocoa production process

• moving toward a World Heritage nomination

• destination and market development