Africa Development

If you were to think of two places in the world that were totally distinct from one another, you may very well think of Africa and Berlin.  The rich cultural and industrial capital of Germany is the second most populous city in the European Union, and could not seem more different on the surface from the wilds of Africa.  While the continent of Africa may have a number of natural assets and a lot of cultural diversity within it, these are very different from the cultural assets and riches available to Berlin. Berlin enjoys a great all round infrastructure;  with fantastic transportation, public utilities, health care, and accommodation services available to residents and guests.  Finding a good hotel in Berlin is never a difficult task, with options that cater for all tastes and budgets.  The tourism and hotel industry in Africa is a very different story, although it does differ dramatically depending on where in the continent you are talking about.  Most of the wealth in Africa is concentrated around the north and south of the land mass, with the Islamic nations of north Africa and the nation of South Africa having the most wealth and the largest tourism industries. There are many underdeveloped nations within Africa, and as a whole their economies generate a lot less wealth than those of Europe.  Poverty levels in some countries are very high, and political corruption is rife in some governments.  Even though it has an abundance of natural resources, Africa is the world’s poorest and most undeveloped continent, in contrast to the highly developed and economically rich continent of Europe.  Poverty, illiteracy, general malnutrition, and poor water and sanitation quality affect a large percentage of the African people.

The difference between Africa and Berlin could not be more striking when seen in relation to education and health care.  Berlin has one of the highest education and health care standards in the entire world, while a lot of Africa suffers from the AIDS virus along with a general lack of medical and education infrastructure.  All of these differences mean that Berlin and Europe in general have a lot more resources available to them to create and maintain a tourism industry and an infrastructure to support it.

There are hotels going up all around Berlin on a regular basis, with wellness Berlin hotels and other specialised establishments able to thrive in such a large and wealthy population.  In some parts of Africa however, the tourism sector is almost completely undeveloped, with the exception of the richer northern nations and South Africa, who do manage to have a strong industry.  The robust tourism and hotel sector in Berlin is almost completely unrelated to the poverty existing simultaneously in the African continent, and gives a modern example of how the mechanisms of globalisation seem to have left a large proportion of the world behind.