African Journal of Economic Review, Volume VIII, Issue II, July 2020 239

African Journal of Economic Review, Volume VIII, Issue II, July 2020 Socioeconomic Impact of Tourism: The Case of Tanzania Abel Kinyondo† and Riccardo Pelizzo‡ Abstract The paper shows that while tourism has grown over the past few decades and has made a significant contribution to Tanzania’s exports, Tanzania’s economy and Tanzania’s labour market, Tanzania’s tourism sector could have been more successful. This claim is supported by the fact that Tanzania has a greater number of natural wonders than its competitors, greater potential market and it features more prominently than other destinations in the packages offered by tour operators around the world. The paper further argues that while the tourism sector could be more successful and attract more tourists, there is a trade-off between the economic dividends and the environmental problems that a thriving tourism sector could generate. The key policy implication of the present paper is that Tanzania’s tourism sector should be developed in a sustainable way. By failing to do so and by damaging the environment, the tourism sector could undermine its own sustainability. Keywords: Socio-economic; Tourism; Tanzania; development; environment and wildlife JEL classification: O1, O2, O5, Z0, Z1, Z3 † Senior Lecturer, University of Dar Es Salaam Box 62048,Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, [email protected] ‡ Associate Professor, Vice Dean for Research, Graduate School of Public Policy, Nazarbayev University, [email protected] 239 AJER, Volume VIII, Issue II, July 2020, A. Kinyondo and R. Pelizzo 1. Introduction The first issue of volume 33 of Africa Insight, in 2003, was entirely devoted to Tourism and Development in Africa. In the introduction to the special issue, Rogerson (2003) noted that few studies had thus far explored the relationship between tourism and development. The situation has, obviously, changed significantly in the following years. Several studies have explored tourism impact on employment (Pelizzo and Kinyondo, 2017), inequality (Kinyondo and Pelizzo, 2015), poverty reduction, economic growth and socio-economic development in Africa (Rogerson, 2005: 2012) and elsewhere. In reviewing a rapidly growing body of research Rogerson (2007) advanced a series of claims namely that data on tourism are poor, that the tourism sector is rapidly growing and represents a large share of total exports in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, that the Big Four (Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco) dominate African tourism, that Tanzania belongs to a second tier (which also includes Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mauritius and Swaziland/Eswatini), that 60 per cent of tourists come for leisure, that the largest number of international travellers comes from the region, and that several studies have explored the factors constraining the tourism sector such as the lack of proper regulatory frameworks, lack of air transport, lack of skilled labour, the presence of weak institutions and terrorism/political instability. Some of these claims are still valid. The quality of data on tourism is still poor (Kinyondo and Pelizzo, 2018), the Big Four still dominate African tourism, and Tanzania still belongs to the second tier. According to World Bank Tunisia has 7 million international tourism arrivals, Egypt has 8.1 million international tourism arrivals, South Africa has almost 10.3 million tourist arrivals and Morocco is the single most successful tourism destination in Africa with 11.3 million international tourism arrivals, while Tanzania and the rest of the second tier have between 1 and 2.5 million international tourist arrivals. Furthermore, with regard to the constraining factors, terrorism and political instability do deter tourists as Kenya learned all too well in 2015. Some of the other claims that Rogerson (2007) advanced are partially valid or need to be somehow qualified. The tourism sector has grown globally and it has grown in (Sub-Saharan) Africa as well. Yet, while, in the aggregate, one detects a clear upward trend one also detects considerable variation cross-nationally and over time. As we will show in greater detail later on, the number of international tourist arrivals has grown steadily in Tanzania, but not so in Angola, Botswana, Burundi Chad, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. Tourism’s contribution to total exports has not grown steadily and does not always represent a terribly large share of a country’s total exports. The data made available by the World Bank Development Indicators database reveal that tourism’s receipts represented 8.5 per cent of total exports in 1995, but only 6.6 per cent in 2017 at the global level. Tourism’s contribution to total exports followed a similar pattern in Sub-Saharan Africa. Tourism’s receipts represented 11 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s total exports in 1998 and just 9.2 per cent in 2017 –which as such better than the 5.7 per cent recorded in 2011, but clearly not as good as it had been in previous years (1998, 1999, 2003). Furthermore, the data make clear that tourism’s contribution to total exports and, subordinately to GDP, has fluctuated over the years and displayed some variation across countries. Tourism’s contribution to total exports has grown steadily in Angola, Ivory 240 African Journal of Economic Review, Volume VIII, Issue II, July 2020 Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and Togo but not so in the rest of the continent, including Tanzania. The fact that Tanzania’s tourism sector has grown consistently over time (in terms of number of tourist arrivals) but has failed to make a larger contribution to Tanzania’s total exports raises some questions as to what is and has been tourism’s contribution to Tanzania’s economy and society. The purpose of the present paper is to address this question by analyzing how the tourism industry contributes, not only to Tanzanian exports, but also to Tanzania’s GDP and employment. Our analysis reveals that while tourism is rather important for the Tanzanian economy, the economic and developmental dividends that tourism yields in Tanzania are not as large or as significant as in other countries in the East African region-which are Tanzania’s most obvious competitors. Upon reviewing some of the reasons why Tanzanian tourism could be doing better, we discuss whether Tanzanian tourism should be doing better. The paper is organized in a fairly straightforward manner. In the next section, we review the literature on tourism and development and by doing so we identify three groups of scholars: those who believe that tourism can be a driver of economic growth and development, those who believe that the economic and developmental dividends of tourism are conditional, and those who think that tourism does not yield economic and developmental dividends but is a source of social problems—from the distortion of cultural practices to environmental degradation. In the third section we will discuss the data, the data sources and the methodological approach employed in this article. Building on this discussion, in the fourth section, we analyze some data to see whether and to what extent tourism contributes to Tanzania’s economy. Specifically, by analyzing tourism’s contribution to Tanzania’s total exports, GDP and employment, we show that tourism is not as important as it had been in previous years. In the fifth section, we review some of the reasons – number of natural wonders available, tour operators’ offer, size of the potential market- why Tanzania’s tourism sector could be more successful than it is, while in the sixth we discuss whether a faster growth of the tourism sector is actually beneficial for Tanzania. In the seventh and final section, as is customary, we will draw some conclusions. 2. Literature: Tourism and development Writing in 2003 Rogerson noted that the relationship between tourism and socio-economic development had received up to that point in time little attention. What Rogerson (2003) neglected to note, however, was the fact that the few studies written on the subject went on to shape the terms of scholarly inquiry for many years to come and continue to do so in many ways. The literature on tourism and development received a seminal contribution by Peters (1969). The study, that had a profound influence on the work that Bryden (1973) would publish a few years later (recast this statement), claimed that tourism can yield five different dividends for a developing nation. Tourism can be beneficial because it can improve the balance of payments, it can contribute to the development of non-industrial areas, it generates employment opportunities, it can impact the economy through a multiplier effect and produce social benefits such as widening one’s horizons. The notion that tourism yields developmental dividends gained wider currency, it was debated, discussed, discredited and resurrected. In a matter of few years, in reviewing a rapidly growing 241 AJER, Volume VIII, Issue II, July 2020, A. Kinyondo and R. Pelizzo body of work, Bryden (1973) could already note that the literature on tourism and development was split into three different camps. One group of studies, pioneered by the work of Peters (1969), underlines the economic benefits of tourism. In this line of inquiry tourism is identified as a source of income (Kruja and Hasj, 2010), income distribution (Blake, 2008; Macoullier and Xia, 2008), foreign exchange (Smith and Jenner, 1992), government revenue (Sharpley, 2009), employment (Choy,

Load more