The purpose of this paper is to analyse the contribution of competitiveness of the tourism industry on the global competitiveness of 31 sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries. The aim is to identify the correlation between the achieved travel & tourism competitiveness level measured by the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) and global competitiveness level measured by the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) in SSA countries. The research is made by applying descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, cluster, and comparative analysis. Research results indicate that there is a strong positive correlation between the GCI and the TTCI, as well as the positive impact of TTCI on GCI in the observed group of countries. The conclusions of this paper provide recommendations to tourism policy-makers in SSA countries.