The impact of tourism on the livelihood of communities in Zanzibar, Tanzania

This study examines the impacts of changes associated with tourism on the livelihood of communities in Zanzibar. The objectives of the study were to identify the drivers of tourism, examine community participation in tourism, determine costs and benefits of tourism to the local communities and establish cultural changes that are induced by tourism. The theoretical framework for this thesis is built on pro-poor tourism idea, post-structural critical theory, political ecology and a typology of tourism-host community relationships. Study sites and key informants for the in-depth interviews were purposively selected, while simple random sampling was employed for selecting household survey respondents. In data collection, the study employed structured interviews, in-depth interviews, field observations, focus group discussions (FGDs) and review of literature. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Ms Excel programmes were used to analyse quantitative data. Geographical Information System (GIS) was applied to examine tourism induced land use change. Discourse and narrative analysis was employed to interpret qualitative data. The findings revealed that the increase of tourist accommodation facilities and investments are not viable strategies for improving the livelihoods of communities in Zanzibar because of increasing pressure on land and marine resources environment from rapid in-migration with conflicting actors’ interests and power relations. Tourist hotels, arrivals, receipts and land area leased for tourism investments have increased rapidly since 1986. Zanzibar history and neoliberalism influence investment and land tenure changes and reforms for economic growth by prioritising tourism sector. Government prime interest on tourism is collection of land lease rents, tax revenue and infrastructure improvement for viable investments, whilst investors focus on profits. Foreigners owned 95.7% of investment projects in Zanzibar and tourism dominated 77.2% of foreign investment stock from 2000 to 2008. From 1998-2010 tourism had contributed over 63 billion to government