Dr. Roselyne Okech, Professor

Tourism professor Roselyne Okech is working on a collaboration with a new consultant enterprise, AgriLuxe Marketing, in Cape Town.

She said the director of Agriluxe approached her to collaborate on an applied research project, "Making Agri-Tourism Markets Work for Sustainable Food Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa." The project has as its context the United Nations objective of transforming the Global Food System - the theme of their 2021 Food Summit.

One set of targeted markets, she said, is in the agro-tourism sector. "Agro-tourism, including culinary tourism, has the potential to address multiple development challenges, including job creation (on- and off-farm), that are attractive to youth, local economic development, health and nutrition, and environmental sustainability," said Dr. Okech, adding there is very little data written on this topic.

The proposed research, which will be conducted in four countries, purports that co-ordination between the agriculture and tourism sectors (with inputs from other sectors) will contribute to transforming Africa's food systems on all three dimensions/measures of food systems sustainability: economic, social and environmental.

Other research

Prof. Okech is involved in editing a book titled "Climate change and sustainability in Africa: Implications on tourism." Tourism affects and is affected by climate in various ways. The impact could be economic in nature in many destinations throughout the world, especially ones that are tourism dependent. The book will be published by the African Studies Centre, Leiden.

Further, Prof. Okech has been involved in a book chapter on "Culinary Traditions and Heritage Foods."

"Heritage cuisines and culinary traditions have become an important part of the tourism product in many regions," she said. "Food, especially tradition fare and national dishes, are extremely important crucibles for heritage identity and knowledge. In addition to being markers of regional identity, traditional foods are an important part of the tourism experience and a salient element of a destination's hospitality services."

The chapter examines the role of food and culinary traditions as an important cultural tourism product in Sub-Saharan Africa. The book will be published by Routledge.