Why Sustainable Tourism is required?

Sustainable tourism becomes one of the application fields of sustainable development during the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit within the Diary 21 which include the respect of the balance between tourist needs and local aspirations, or preventive actions in order to preserve the environment and the “touristic product”. Consequently, “the objective of developing a sustainable tourism is to make compatible the improvement of the environmental and social conditions which result from the tourist development as well as the maintenance of capacities of development for the future generations”.

The principles of sustainable tourism were redefined and updated in August 2004 by the Sustainable Tourism Development Committee of the World Tourism Organization (WTO): "Sustainable tourism development guidelines and management practices are applicable to all forms of tourism in all types of destinations, including mass tourism and the various niche tourism segments. Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability".

Consequently, Sustainable Tourism should:

• Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity. Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities,

• Conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance.

• Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation.

More information:

- Sustainable Tourism by Wikipedia
- the Sustainable Tourism Gateway
- En español: mundo azul
- En français: Association pour le tourisme équitable et solidaire

Why the Kiwengwa-Pongwe community thinks that they did not benefit from the local tourism business?

Tourism plays a vital role in the economy of the United Republic of Tanzania (URT). It is the major source of foreign exchange; it accounts for about 16% of the GDP and nearly 25% of the total export earnings with an estimated 14,800 jobs in 1999 (Luhanho 2001).
Zanzibar experiences the same general trend occurring in the URT. Being a heaven for nature
tourism, Zanzibar has been influenced by a dramatic increase in number of visitors from 42,141 tourists in 1990 to 113,237 in year 2005, mostly enjoying the spice tour.

Since 1997, there has been a system of sharing the revenue from the tourism businesses with communities through the Forest Authority’s initiatives: The Forest Authority has developed a community-managed project (Pete-Jozani Mangrove Boardwalk) as an additional visitors’ attraction to the park, so as to enhance the revenue sharing system with partner communities.

Kiwengwa-Pongwe tourism zone (KPTZ) has a great potential to fully gain local economic benefits from tourism business in the area. But the fact is that there are very low benefits enjoyed by the community.

In their opinion, the main reasons why they did not enjoyed benefit is due to the lack of involvement of the local community in management, lack of education to the community and lack benefit-sharing mechanisms. Solving these issues is the only ways that can help to develop and sustain tourism and natural resources management on top of building community trust in conservation in the area.

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