Travel services (% of commercial service imports) - Country Ranking - Africa

Definition: Travel services (% of commercial service imports) covers goods and services acquired from an economy by travelers in that economy for their own use during visits of less than one year for business or personal purposes. Travel services include the goods and services consumed by travelers, such as lodging, meals, and transport (within the economy visited).

Source: International Monetary Fund, Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files.

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Lesotho 74.11 2021
2 Eritrea 49.29 2000
3 Libya 48.50 2019
4 Guinea-Bissau 40.20 2020
5 Central African Republic 37.97 1994
6 Comoros 30.07 2020
7 Nigeria 28.31 2020
8 Cameroon 26.69 2020
9 Cabo Verde 25.26 2020
10 Malawi 24.69 2020
11 São Tomé and Principe 23.31 2020
12 Zambia 23.14 2020
13 Rwanda 22.38 2020
14 Eswatini 21.13 2020
15 Tunisia 18.25 2020
16 Zimbabwe 18.24 2020
17 Morocco 18.15 2020
18 Tanzania 17.31 2020
19 Namibia 17.09 2020
20 Mauritius 15.62 2020
21 Chad 14.90 1994
22 Egypt 14.65 2020
23 Gabon 12.49 2015
24 Congo 11.39 2016
25 Angola 11.31 2020
26 Madagascar 11.11 2020
27 Burundi 10.55 2018
28 Senegal 10.38 2018
29 The Gambia 10.29 2021
30 Benin 9.76 2020
31 Mali 9.35 2020
32 South Africa 8.40 2020
33 Botswana 8.23 2020
34 Dem. Rep. Congo 8.16 2020
35 Niger 7.62 2020
36 Côte d'Ivoire 6.89 2020
37 Sierra Leone 6.39 2020
38 Ethiopia 6.00 2020
39 Burkina Faso 5.88 2020
40 Seychelles 5.34 2020
41 Togo 5.24 2020
42 Mozambique 3.80 2020
43 Uganda 3.54 2020
44 Kenya 3.31 2020
45 Algeria 3.25 2020
46 Djibouti 3.08 2020
47 Liberia 2.63 2019
48 Mauritania 2.50 2020
49 Ghana 1.02 2020
50 Sudan 0.52 2020
51 Guinea 0.16 2020

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Development Relevance: Trade in services differs from trade in goods because services are produced and consumed at the same time. Thus services to a traveler may be consumed in the producing country (for example, use of a hotel room) but are classified as imports of the traveler's country. In other cases services may be supplied from a remote location; for example, insurance services may be supplied from one location and consumed in another.

Limitations and Exceptions: Balance of payments statistics, the main source of information on international trade in services, have many weaknesses. Disaggregation of important components may be limited and varies considerably across countries. There are inconsistencies in the methods used to report items. And the recording of major flows as net items is common (for example, insurance transactions are often recorded as premiums less claims). These factors contribute to a downward bias in the value of the service trade reported in the balance of payments. Efforts are being made to improve the coverage, quality, and consistency of these data. Eurostat and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, for example, are working together to improve the collection of statistics on trade in services in member countries. Still, difficulties in capturing all the dimensions of international trade in services mean that the record is likely to remain incomplete. Cross-border intrafirm service transactions, which are usually not captured in the balance of payments, have increased in recent years. An example is transnational corporations' use of mainframe computers around the clock for data processing, exploiting time zone differences between their home country and the host countries of their affiliates. Another important dimension of service trade not captured by conventional balance of payments statistics is establishment trade - sales in the host country by foreign affiliates. By contrast, cross-border intrafirm transactions in merchandise may be reported as exports or imports in the balance of payments.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The balance of payments (BoP) is a double-entry accounting system that shows all flows of goods and services into and out of an economy; all transfers that are the counterpart of real resources or financial claims provided to or by the rest of the world without a quid pro quo, such as donations and grants; and all changes in residents' claims on and liabilities to nonresidents that arise from economic transactions. All transactions are recorded twice - once as a credit and once as a debit. In principle the net balance should be zero, but in practice the accounts often do not balance, requiring inclusion of a balancing item, net errors and omissions. The concepts and definitions underlying the data are based on the sixth edition of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6). Balance of payments data for 2005 onward will be presented in accord with the BPM6. The historical BPM5 data series will end with data for 2008, which can be accessed through the World Development Indicators archives. The complete balance of payments methodology can be accessed through the International Monetary Fund website (www.imf.org/external/np/sta/bop/bop.htm).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual