Accumulation Tendency, Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality in Tanzania

Abstract

Sustainable tourism depends on, among others, culture and interaction between members of a given community, flow of tourists and political climate of the host country, and hospitality of the service providers. It assumes that nature of the economy and relation of production and tranquillity define the sustainability of tourism. This paper presents the case of Ngorongoro district where Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) and Loliondo Game Controlled Area (LGCA) are situated. Resources in these areas were sustained under the local community for centuries before the application of the modern approaches, which involved land alienation. The alienation of land led to the loss of pastures, eviction and relocation of Maasai pastoralists from NCAA. The situation made the pastoralists lose their livelihood options. Some development initiatives were prohibited. Community members started to fight with investors on access to resources. Moreover, search for alternative sources of living drove them into illegal practices of robbing travellers. Indeed, poaching and illegal transfers of wild animals by colluding with those in power made a few individuals benefit from the practices. As a result, the accumulation tendency made the hosting community lose their resources and the livelihood options as well. In this way, the only immediate option was trespassing to the existing resources and users; hence, malfunctioning of the sector. Thus, this paper argues that, in order to realise sustainable tourism and curb the emerging hostility between the resource hosts and the greedy individuals, community participation is paramount.