Kassie, Mnale (PhD)Hagos, Tsega2018-12-072023-11-042018-12-072023-11-042008-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/14988Tourism is an important source of foreign exchange earnings, income and employment, which, can contribute to poverty alleviation of African countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of tourism sector on economic growth and the vise versa. To achieve this objective a dynamic panel estimated by the systems generalized method of moment’s estimator and pooled ordinary least squares are applied on forty two African countries for the period 1995-2005. This study will contribute to the limited empirical literature on the impact of tourism on economic growth and the vise versa in the region. We found a significant positive contribution of the tourism sector for economic growth of the countries from the economic growth model. Similarly, the econometric results from the tourists` arrival model indicated that economic growth is vital for the development of the tourism sector. Hence, African countries should create conducive environment (e.g. political stability) and commit their resources to increase the contribution of the tourism industry to national income. Key words: Tourism, Economic growth, Panel data, Africa.enTourismEconomic growthPanel data, AfricaThesis