Tourism and Community Development
I have experienced the effects of tourism on development beyond my fascination towards cultures and their absorbing environments. I’m now at the point of saying ‘Thank you” to tourism, because I’m one of its many beneficiaries. Being born and raised in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, I firstly benefited from tourism through the exposure I had with tourists who came to visit our village and climb the mighty mountain. At the age of fifteen years, due to poor social economy, I started work climbing Mount Kilimanjaro as porter (or a Sherpa); assisting tourists to climb the highest point of Africa in order to earn the money that I needed to pay for my school fees. This opportunity (apart from providing keyfinancial means) also inspired me to become a traveler of the world. The value I learned, both from my community and from visitors who appreciated the beauties of Tanzania, played a great part in influencing my career path within conservation and sustainable development.
Through five years of working in tourism, learning and self training within the field of conservation and sustainable development, I have experienced the effects of tourism within Social, Economic and Development issues. From my beginnings as a young boy living in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro; from my time as a traveler in East Africa; from my work as tour leader across Africa and from my experience as solo-cyclist across fifty seven countries around the world, I have learned a great deal. Although my experience of climates and cultures are varied; from the peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro to the highlands of the Andes; from the Amazon basin to the deserts of the Kalahari; the effects of tourism have been the same. On the whole, tourism aims to help sustainable development and conservation, whilst working to empower communities (especially vulnerable and marginalized groups, such as woman, children and the disabled).
As a traveler, I have enjoyed the warmth and welcoming spirit of communities across the world, such as the Maasai people from the savannahs of East Africa; the native Indians of Bolivia’s highlands; the Berbers of North Africa and many, many more communities and cultures. Having a keen interest in their culture and arts seem to change their perspective. As a guide, I have seen a great sense of harmony and appreciation between tourists and visited communities. Visited communities appreciate when their culture, art and traditions (which are expressions of their daily life) are recognized. This relationship of learning not only brings relief to communities whose cultures have been made to seem inferior or backwardness over history, but it also helps to preserve these aspects of human expression from extinction. Tourists, on the other hand, not only feel fascination when exploring these exotic cultures and arts; they also learn about our human diversity, individuality and eclectic sophistication.
As a tourist in the highlands of Bolivia, I learned about the amazing characters and abilities of so many people; especially the youth who have so few opportunities to realize their potential. This understanding made me begin to advocate the need to invest and support education within developing countries. This was one of the primary goals of my two-year-long fundraising journey around the world on my bicycle.
When leading tours across Africa, my experience has always been that, by visiting communities, you have the direct opportunity to interact with tourists; to share and exchange information. It is this information which has been the empowerment for local communities. An example of this situation allowed me to support the exchange of skills during my cultural tour guiding of tourists staying in Maasai villages across Tanzania. Tourists get to practice English language with Maasai women who are learning English, whilst engaging in the small business of selling artisan crafts to the tourists. In exchange, the Maasai women will often teach the tourists how to make simple crafts such as necklaces, with beads and wire.
My own community, nestled in the foothills of Kilimanjaro, benefits economically from tourism, which in turn helps the process of conservation and sustainable development. Tourism creates jobs for the youth who otherwise would have to work within agriculture and other such activities, which tend to accelerate levels of environment degradation. The money earned through tourism is mostly invested in education and personal development, due to the awareness that we, as the youth of these communities, gain from exposure to tourists. Likewise, authorities invest money in infrastructure to promote tourism, bringing more people to the communities. This has been my experience in most of the developing countries that I have visited on my journeys.
Through the complexity of development and social change, I have seen how tourism has a big role to play. Tourism provides opportunities for the individual to learn and get first-hand information about development and the needs of particular communities across the world. I learned about the need for education and for increased efforts within sustainable development from my own experience with tourists. On several occasions, my clients had opportunities to learn about how life works on the other side of the picture; how the slave-trade affected particular areas; or how farmers in many developing countries often gain little benefit from what they produce on their land; items which at the same time are sold for high prices to those in more developed countries. In some cases, these situations have resulted in connections of person-to-person, or small organization to small organization, with an aim to personally support those within the community, through focus on areas such as education. This direct understanding has made more people participate within development and drive critical social change across the world.
Personally, I have many reasons to say “Thank you” to tourism. Although I still work toward my personal goal, to achieve higher quality education within Environment Conservation and Sustainable Development in my own country, I believe there are many more successful stories related to tourism happening across the world. Growing up and being directly impacted by the tourist industry has had a tremendous impact both on me personally and on my own country, Tanzania. The ripple effects of tourism help in so many ways. Asante for tourism!
