Theses and Dissertations Collection

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations Collection by Author "Mwongoso, Alpha John"

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    Development of tourism destinations and its impacts on tourists’ satisfaction, residents’ livelihoods towards quality of life in Northern Tanzania
    (Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2023) Mwongoso, Alpha John
    Tourism in Tanzania is largely concentrated in wildlife protected areas (PAs) and in areas that border and serve as entry points to PAs, known as gateway communities (GCs). As part of PA ecosystem, the GCs have become tourism destinations attracting tourists for over two decades. Tourism in GCs have been considered an alternative and crucial source of livelihoods to pastoral and agro-pastoralists enduring low productivity due to semi-arid and typical Savannah grasslands of northern Tanzania. Despite the existence of tourism in GCs for over two decades, there is unclear understanding on the extent of tourism development and its impacts. Review of studies on nature-based tourism in Tanzanian GCs indicates two areas requiring research initiatives. Firstly, there is inadequate knowledge about the development of tourism destination (i.e. tourism development stages). Secondly, unclear understanding of tourism development-impacts on tourists’ satisfaction on one hand, and residents’ livelihoods (i.e. change in livelihood assets) and quality of life (i.e. life satisfaction on well-being conditions), on another hand. This study was set to address these knowledge gaps by evaluating the development of tourism destination and it’s impacts on tourists’ satisfactions, residents’ livelihoods towards quality of life. Specifically, this study sought to: i) identify development stages of the life-cycle that tourism destinations have passed over the years up to the on-going stage in year 2019, ii) examine to what extent tourism development has created impacts through shaping the tourist perceptions on relative importance and performance of destinations’ attributes influencing tourists satisfaction, iii) evaluate whether tourism development has established impacts to reduce vulnerability through access to livelihood assets between tourism beneficiaries and non-beneficiary households and iv) to evaluate impacts of tourism development on residents quality of life, using community capitals. The study involved 18 villages from three GCs: Burunge, Loliondo and lake Natron. Both primary and secondary data were required to meet the aforementioned research objectives. Primary data were collected using semi-structured key informant interviews (122 individuals), 18 focus group discussions, participants and field observations and survey to 422 randomly selected tourists as well as random selection of 418 tourism beneficiaries and 432 non-beneficiary households. Secondary data comprised the official reports of tourism revenues, spending pattern of tourism revenue, number of tourists visiting these destinations over the years, investment trends and review of relevant literature on tourism development. The main method of analyzing qualitative data was thematic analysis while quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (i.e. mean, variance and frequencies) and inferential statistics: paired sample t-test, independent samples t-test and Logistic Regression and Difference in Differences impact estimator using Stata15 software while Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling were analyzed using AMOSv.21 software. The study found that: i) in 36 years (1982-2018), all three destinations have experienced exploration, involvement and are currently at the development stage of the Tourism Area Life Cycle model, ii) tourists’ satisfaction is derived from performance of four factors namely, Amenities, Accessibility, Core attractions and Ancillary services. It was also found that, attributes reflecting on “core attraction factor” (i.e. game viewing and cultural products) are the most important in shaping tourists’ perceptions and also performed well. Although, the overall satisfaction of tourists was high, some attributes reflecting on accessibility, amenities and ancillary services factors were perceived to be underperforming, thus demanding immediate attention of destination managers to optimize tourists experience for the development of tourism destination, iii) within a period of ten years (2008/9-2018/19) tourism has significantly increased livelihood capital assets index by 8%, thus, enabled the tourism-beneficiaries to reduce vulnerability to drought, livestock diseases, rise in food prices and illness, by effective shock-coping activities, iv) residents’ actual and perceived quality of life is influenced by resident’s satisfaction with both materials and non-materials tourism benefits which in turn led to residents support for further tourism development. These results led to the general conclusion that development of tourism destinations in GCs consistently abides to the life cycle stages, while on one hand, the natural and cultural attractions underline tourists’ satisfaction. On the other hand, tourism development-impacts on increased livelihood assets among residents led to reduction in vulnerability to multiple shocks and in turn, affects positively the residents’ quality of life. For further development of tourism destination with greater capacity of improving residents’ quality of life while optimizing tourist satisfaction, the following are recommended: i) initiatives should be done to improve road conditions, possibly using Public Private Partnership (PPP) investment arrangements; build capacity (e.g. training and grant/loan) to local residents to co-own and manage tourism assets like camps and lodges, ii) destination managers should allocate more resources to recruit professional chef, improve interior décor, address unhygienic environment (i.e., ensure cleanliness of washrooms) and moderate the perceived unreasonable high prices for food and accommodation. These actions are expected to optimize tourists’ experience and increase duration of tourist staying beyond three days, iii) development stakeholders should disseminate knowledge to local residents on efficient farming and grazing. This entails technical know-how in micro catchment rain-water harvesting and the production of higher yield-drought resistant crops while encouraging pastoralists adaptation of their livestock breeding and grazing practices confined to fixed boundaries within land zoned for general-use while maintaining the hunting-use zone and wildlife corridor-use zones.