Fostering local sustainable development in Tanzania by enhancing linkages between tourism and small-scale agriculture

Abstract

Tourism and agriculture are important contributors to the development of local economies. Many developing nations that are now experiencing rapid tourism growth have agrarian societies and tourism is the first or second source of export earnings. In this context, the main objective of this study is to identify what are the main challenges for horticultural value chains to effectively benefit from tourism and foster sustainable development in the United Republic of Tanzania. Our results are based on pro-poor tourism, which is an approach that aims at generating net benefits for the poor, including unlocking opportunities by building a more supportive policy and planning framework. The study concludes that tourism and agriculture have an important contribution to make to local development in Tanzania. However, horticultural supply chains face a number of constraints that hold back growth and competitiveness in reaching the local tourism industry. These constraints can be divided into two main categories: lack of direct communication channels; and bottlenecks or inefficiencies in the supply chain.