Tourism can contribute employment to traditionally disadvantaged groups

 

By Daniel Semberya

23rd February 2015

 

Offering tourists from all over the world the possibility to experience Tanzania's cultural diversity and providing local people in various rural areas.

The development of the full tourism value chain could have a significant positive impact on Tanzania’s effort to achieve an even higher level of rapid, sustained and equitable economic growth. As examples around the world show, tourism can contribute significantly to the creation of employment opportunities, particularly for traditionally disadvantaged groups such as women and youth. 

Examples of countries that have successfully implemented measures to achieve this goal include Mozambique, which transformed its tourism industry through the formulation and implementation of a well-formed strategic plan, regulatory reforms and the easing of visa restrictions; and Cape Verde, where one in five workers are now employed either directly or indirectly in the tourism industry. 

According to the World Bank latest sixth Tanzania Economic Update edition entitled ‘The Elephant in the Room, Unlocking the potential of the tourism industry for Tanzanians,’ tourism can enhance multiple-linked activities through its interactions with the transportation, agricultural and traditional handicrafts sectors, significantly benefiting a large range of local businesses. 

It further states that a well-developed tourism industry has some subtle benefits. By raising the global profile of a country, it can generate an increased awareness of that country’s natural, human and other assets, which could play a role in attracting foreign investors.

To derive maximum benefits from the exceptional opportunities that tourism offers, Tanzanian policy-makers should focus on three complementary pillars such as diversification; intensification and improvements to governance. 

Multidimensional diversification 

So far, in the development of Tanzania’s tourism industry, the emphasis has been on expansion through the development of new destinations. As stated earlier, most tourism activities are concentrated in two areas, with many other potentially attractive areas currently underdeveloped. In this context, the development of new destinations makes sense.

However, there are substantial costs and potentially negative impacts associated with such a strategy. One means of achieving this expansion could be through the use of public-private partnerships to develop a number of strategic locations, as has been achieved elsewhere. An example of a PPP which created an extremely positive impact involved a seemingly simple road infrastructure development project, involving a provincial government and a private hotelier in South Africa. 

Such partnerships can also be promoted through the establishment of linkages with large investments in other sectors, such as mining or agriculture, through the development of joint infrastructure that can also support tourism activities. However, as previously stated, competing interests will need to be managed if other sector partnerships are promoted.

The diversification of Tanzania’s tourism industry should also involve the development of attractions beyond the nature-based. Clearly, there are significant benefits for maintaining exclusivity in the management of natural assets that could be damaged through mass tourism activities, as this may serve to maintain revenue levels while controlling negative environmental impacts. 

As a result of its development of a high-value, low-volume market, Tanzania generates higher levels of revenue per visitor than do its regional competitors such as Botswana, Kenya, Namibia and Uganda. However, this strategy may not work for all forms of tourism, particularly for beach tourism where competition from around the world is high and tourists are less prepared to pay a high premium for their experiences.

Tanzania could diversify its tourism industry through the development of a range of new tourist activities. For example, it may be appropriate to develop mass tourism in beach areas along Tanzania’s vast coastline. In fact, such developments are already evident in Zanzibar, with relatively inexpensive beach resorts and frequent charter flights from Europe.

Cultural tourism could be further developed through the promotion of specific attractions such as the ruins of Kilwa in the south or the old Swahili trading towns of Mikindani, all of which have a rich history that make them potentially attractive to tourists. Tourism related to the influx of business visitors from recent discoveries of vast natural gas reserves in the south of the country could be further explored. 

Business tourism could also be developed in Dar es Salaam and in Arusha, two fast growing cities. In Dar es Salaam, the number of business hotels is limited, with most always fully occupied. Thus, there is clearly a demand. 

Kenya has managed to develop business tourism facilities very successfully, and now ranks only second behind South Africa as a venue for business meetings in a market worth approximately USD 24 million. 

Not only would the development of such facilities in Tanzania generate revenue directly, it clearly has the potential to create positive spillover effects, with the availability of business tourism facilities potentially making Tanzania a more attractive proposition for foreign investors.

Lastly, it is possible to combine these different kinds of tourism by offering packages and circuits. This is already happening to some extent in Arusha, where business visitors frequently take a few days to visit adjacent national parks. New circuits can be better developed in Dar es Salaam by linking the city with national parks (such as Mikumi, Selous); beaches (such as South Beach, Bagamoyo, Mafia Island); and cultural attractions (such as Kilwa, Zanzibar, Bagamoyo). These attractions are well known by local residents, but are currently not yet sufficiently developed to attract international visitors.

Integration: generating a higher level of benefit from tourism activities in existing locations.

This pillar should involve the development of a higher level of integration between the tourism industry and other local businesses. If well managed, tourism provides multiple opportunities for economic development and employment growth through the establishment of linkages within and between sectors. For example, tourism revenues are released into the local economy when hotels or lodge operators buy goods and services from local suppliers.

This impacts the agricultural and fisheries sectors, enabling them to serve as suppliers to the tourism industry. It also breeds an entrepreneurial market for goods such as traditional handicrafts. In addition, hotels use a portion of their revenues to pay wages to workers, who may come from local communities. 

Tourism industry workers, particularly if they come from local communities, will spend their wages to the benefit of the surrounding community. In many countries, local suppliers provide basic building materials to the tourism industry, spurring growth in construction services and light manufacturing.

Currently, in Tanzania, most hotel and lodging furniture is imported from China, showing that trade linkages between tourism and local industries have yet to be firmly established.

The challenge is to build the capacities of local communities so that their members are able to provide goods and services to different segments of the market, particularly the high-end segment that currently comprises the bulk of tourism in Tanzania. 

Two programmes need to be further developed in order to enable local communities to participate more fully in the tourism market. One component is to strengthen skills and training for workers, while the other is to build better linkages between the tourism industry and local business enterprises. The latter is perhaps more challenging for Tanzania. 

Tanzania has a great number of vocational tourism training programmes. However, many of these programmes suffer from underdeveloped linkages with the industry. The country has a multi-sector training institution that offers a two-year associate degree housed in the business school with courses in culinary and catering management, leisure and resort management, and hospitality and tourism management. 

Recently, a culinary academy was also established. The institution has campuses in a number of locations across the country, including Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza. However, these programmes have yet to achieve a sufficient level of integration with the industry to enable an agile response to the industry’s human resource needs. 

To ensure better matches between the skills developed by these institutions and those demanded by industry, it is important for the private sector to partner with tourism programmes and for training institutions to offer skills development aligned with competitive sector offerings. 

For example, service standards are identified as a critical constraint to operations in Tanzania. Specific weaknesses noted include business skills, understanding visitor needs and expectations, customer service, and online communications.

 Delivery of effective training should be the responsibility of both the private and public sectors. In this regard, Tanzania can emulate lessons learned from places such as the Gambia and South Africa, which have managed to successfully implement training programmes that meet the needs of the industry. 

Direct economic linkage programmes can also be developed through cooperation between tourism operators and local communities. While the ability of tourism sector operators to support the establishment of linkages with local business enterprises depends on the size and capacity of the domestic economy, it is important to take advantage of backward linkages that tourism typically has with sectors such as agriculture, construction and light manufacturing. 

For example, in Peru, the Orient Express Hotels group reached out directly to fishing communities to create a local supply chain. In more developed tourist economies, linkages can also be made from the supply side. 

For example, in Nepal, cultural tourism services such as home stay programmes are offered by citizen-funded organisations, with proceeds going directly to members of communities. Other partnerships, such as the community conservancy programme in Namibia, were established through a joint government and private sector-led initiative to strengthen partnerships with local communities.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN