Development of tourism destinations and its impacts on tourists’ satisfaction, residents’ livelihoods towards quality of life in Northern Tanzania
Loading...
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
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.
Description
PhD-Thesis
Keywords
Tourism destinations, Tourists satisfaction, Livelihoods towards quality, Northern Tanzania