Engendering Rural Tourism as a Viable Strategy for Poverty Alleviation and Rural Development in the Southern Tourist Circuit of Tanzania

Abstract

This article employs a systematic literature review to present the need to innovate and engender rural tourism as a viable strategy for poverty alleviation in the Southern Tourism Circuit of Tanzania—one of the regions with many rural tourist opportunities that are unexplored and yet to be utilized to transform local peoples’ livelihoods. The study explores why the circuit is underdeveloped in terms of rural tourism as compared to other tourist circuits and maps the existing rural tourism opportunities in the region. The impacts of colonial legacy, limited financial capability, policy issues and poor infrastructure are the main factors for the under-exploitation of tourist resources in the southern circuit. Rural tourism assets such as natural, cultural, agritourism/farm-based, and culinary assets in this circuit still need to be utilized. Innovation and utilization of these rural tourism opportunities could be one of the appropriate strategies to improve residents’ livelihoods. Rural tourism could help to boost individual economies and government revenues and enhance community development. The study highlights the importance of effective collaboration among stakeholders and multisector linkage while putting the local community at the core of rural tourism.

Plain language summary

Rural development practitioners accredit rural tourism as one of the viable strategies for rural poverty alleviation due to its ability to offer new livelihood options for rural people. This article employs a systematic literature review to present the need to innovate and engender rural tourism as a viable strategy for poverty alleviation in the Southern Tourism Circuit of Tanzania—one of the regions with many rural tourist opportunities that are unexplored and yet to be utilized to transform local peoples’ livelihoods. The impacts of colonial legacy, limited financial capability, policy issues and poor infrastructure are the main factors for the under-exploitation of tourist resources in the southern circuit. Rural tourism assets such as natural, cultural, agritourism/farm-based tourism, and culinary assets available in this circuit still need to be utilized. Innovation and utilization of these rural tourism opportunities could be one of the appropriate strategies to improve residents’ livelihoods. Rural tourism could help to boost individual economies and government revenues and enhance community development. The study highlights the importance of effective collaboration among stakeholders and multisector linkage while putting the local community at the core of rural tourism.

Keywords

poverty alleviation rural development rural tourism southern tourist circuit Tanzania

Introduction

Poverty alleviation is one of the few endless development debates in the 21st century that has been incorporated into the 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development, continental efforts like Africa Development Vision of 2063 with the central theme of achieving “Africa We Want,” and regional and national plans for poverty alleviation. The debate on poverty alleviation raises the question of how different sub-sectors, like tourism as one of the largest, fastest growing and most important economic sectors, can contribute to poverty alleviation and improve the livelihoods of rural communities, which are highly prone to poverty as compared to their urban counterparts (Jaafar et al., 2015; World Bank, 2019b). The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) realizes the importance of tourism as an essential and valuable tool in “addressing issues of poverty reduction as well as ensuring environmental sustainability, developing a global partnership for development, and the empowerment of previously neglected communities and disadvantaged groups” (Rogerson, 2012).

In many sub-Saharan African countries like Tanzania, tourism is the second largest sector, employing many people and contributing to economic growth after agriculture, which is the mainstay of the economy of developing countries (EDAR, 2017). The sector has experienced rapid growth since the 1990s, contributing to the rise of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The number of tourist arrivals in Africa has rapidly increased for over two decades. As a share of the GDP of the African continent, the tourism industry contributed 6.8% to Africa’s GDP in 1995–1998, 9.6% in 2005–2008 and 8.5% in 2011–2014 (EDAR, 2017). The 2008 world economic crisis is one of the main factors for the fall in tourism contribution to GDP in 2011–2014. However, in Tanzania, the number of tourist arrivals has doubled since 2006, raising the question of whether this significantly impacts poverty reduction in areas near tourist attractions (World Bank, 2019a). The growth of the tourism sector fills the gap of the high unemployment rate due to its ability to create both professional and non-professional employment opportunities and hence contribute to alleviating poverty (Yang et al., 2021).

Nevertheless, tourism has long been treated as a non-rural activity, and the research on tourism mainly focused on mass tourism in major cities and resorts. The misconception was due to the belief that rural areas are less attractive for tourism than their urban counterparts (Ćurčić et al., 2021). Recently, many countries across the globe have paid great attention to rural tourism as a strategy to alleviate poverty, promote sustainable rural development and reduce development disparity between rural and urban areas (Fang, 2020). In countries like China, for example, rural tourism is currently linked with the rural revitalization plan that, among other things, aims to make rural areas attractive for living, similar to urban (Yang et al., 2021). Rural tourism is used as an aspect that can bring together people from urban and rural areas and build a close bond between the two groups. Nevertheless, in many other developing countries, rural tourism is not the main priority and “quite a few rural areas are the ones that currently in developing rural tourism products, utilizing local natural scenery and cultural resources to develop heritage tourism, cultural tourism, eco-tourism and holiday tourism” (Chi & Han, 2021).

In Tanzania, the current operation of the tourism industry puts more emphasis on mass tourism in areas of strategic national interest, such as National Parks and Game Reserves, particularly in the Northern Tourist Circuit. The Southern Tourist Circuit of Tanzania is highly underexploited despite having many tourist attractions, and rural tourism in this circuit has unexplored potential for development (Tonya & Lameck, 2019). The current study explores the possibility of innovating and engendering rural tourism as a viable strategy for poverty alleviation and rural development in the Southern Tourism Circuit of Tanzania. However, it is essential to note that not all rural areas are suitable for rural tourism. Booming rural tourism requires many factors, including (i) the availability of different tourist attractions, such as natural and cultural features, both within and adjacent to the local community; (ii) infrastructures, such as access to facilities (roads, airports, trains, and buses), water and power services, parking, signs, and recreation facilities; and (iii) tourism services, such as lodging, restaurants, and various retail businesses needed to take care of visitors (Wilson et al., 2001). The emphasis of this paper is on rural areas rich in tourist attractions, both natural and cultural resources, as a prerequisite for rural tourism.

Research Questions

As stated earlier, this study explores the possibility of innovating and engendering rural tourism as a viable strategy for poverty alleviation and rural development in the Southern Tourism Circuit of Tanzania. To achieve its broad objective, this study aims to answer the following research questions:

Why is the southern tourist circuit of Tanzania underexploited in terms of tourism, mainly rural tourism?

What rural tourism opportunities are available in the southern tourist circuit of Tanzania that, if well utilized, can help transform the rural tourism sector and improve rural livelihoods?

What strategies should be taken to ensure the sustainable development of rural tourism in the southern tourist circuit of Tanzania?

Contribution of the Study

The study contributes to achieving the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which, among other things, seeks to alleviate poverty in all its forms. Although the incidence of poverty remains high in the developing countries as compared the developing countries (Sachs et al., 2021), the fact is that, across the developing countries, poverty remains mainly a rural-based problem than their urban counterparts due to limited diversified livelihood strategies in rural areas (World Bank, 2019a). In many rural areas of developing countries, the majority of the population relies on small-scale agriculture for food and income and the ability of agriculture to address rural poverty is constrained by many challenges ranging from limited access to information, climate-related risks, poor agricultural productivity and limited access to stable markets (Minot & Sawyer, 2016; Ndimbo et al., 2021, 2023).

Rural tourism, therefore, allows the rural economy to diversify away from agriculture, improving livelihood strategies, reducing poverty and promoting rural development. The study highlights that rural tourism gives power and authority to the local people on how to use and protect tourist resources available in their surroundings. It is one of the powerful tools for lifting local people out of poverty and promoting sustainable rural development because rural tourism offers new livelihood opportunities and allows the rural economy to diversify away from agriculture, diversifying rural livelihoods and enhancing sustainable rural development. Academics, policymakers and other development practitioners can enormously benefit from the findings and recommendations of this study.

Literature Review

The Concept of Rural Tourism

From the 1970s up to the 1990s, there was a rising need to define the phrase “rural tourism” due to increasing practices of tourism activities in the countryside and its contribution to the development of the rural population whose primary activity was, and indeed still is agriculture. Despite its practices for many decades, especially before the 1990s, rural tourism had no clear definition (Rosalina et al., 2021). This situation called for academics and rural tourism practitioners to find a proper definition that could help to reduce confusion. One of the early definitions of rural tourism considered rural tourism to be tourism taking place in rural areas or the countryside (Barbu, 1990). This definition lacks comprehensiveness since defining the phrase “rural” itself is still confusing as the concept differs from one place to another and more diversely from developed countries to developing countries. Most rural definitions show a wide variance in socio-economic traits and population well-being based on administrative, land-use, or economic principles. Nonetheless, the word “rural” conjures up ideas of farms, ranches, villages, small towns, and vast areas for many people (Cromartie & Bucholtz, 2008). Darău et al. (2010) argue that rural tourism, a tourism activity taking place in a rural environment, is incomplete as it fails to include the complexity of this activity and the different forms and acceptations developed in various countries.

Lane (1994) argues that geographers define rural areas based on three main characteristics: (i) population densities and settlement size, where rural areas have low population densities and dispersed small settlements. In this sense, natural/farmed/forested areas occupy a larger space than the built environment; (ii) land use and economy where agriculture, which is a mainstay of the rural population, is the dominant land use; and (iii) traditional social structures, where rural areas have a tradition of conserving old ways of life and thinking. Rural areas are naturally isolated from urban areas in periphery areas. Nevertheless, rural areas are not homogenous and differentiate themselves from each other, while their traditional distinctions from urban areas have highly disappeared. By the continuum concept, rural areas can be grouped into periphery or remote regions, intermediate regions where the majority live and economically integrated rural areas closer to urban areas.

Based on the above-stated characteristics of rural areas, Lane (1994) came up with five essential criteria for defining rural tourism. He argues that rural tourism should be: “(1). Located in rural areas, (2). Functionally rural, it is built upon the rural world’s special features of small-scale enterprise, open space, contact with nature and the natural world, heritage, ‘traditional’ societies, and ‘traditional’ practices (3). Rural in scale in terms of buildings and settlements and, therefore, usually small-scale (4). Traditional in character, growing slowly and organically and connected with local families. It will often be largely controlled locally and developed for the long-term good of the area, and (5). Of many different kinds, representing the complex pattern of the rural environment, economy, history and location.”

For some scholars, rural tourism is highly associated with agritourism/farm tourism (Ohe, 2020), but in fact, agritourism is only one of the components of rural tourism. Rural tourism is therefore defined as any form of tourism “that showcases the rural life, art, culture and heritage at rural locations, thereby benefiting the local community economically and socially as well as enabling interaction between the tourists and the locals for a more enriching tourism experience” (Nagaraju & Chandrashekara, 2014). The main feature of this kind of tourism is to be organized in rural settings by rural dwellers. The main aim of rural tourism is to give rural dwellers the power to organize and control tourism activities which directly impact their livelihoods (Kayat, 2014). Rural tourism can take different forms, such as agritourism/green tourism, ethnic/cultural heritage tourism, eco-tourism, creative tourism and culinary tourism (Ohe, 2020). It further comprises special-interest nature holidays, educational travels, adventure, hunting and angling, climbing and riding holidays, walking, sport and health tourism, and arts and heritage tourism.

Fleischer (2004), as cited in De Ferranti et al. (2005), provides some characteristics of rural tourism as follows: permits participation in the activities, traditions, and lifestyles of local people; offers an individualized contact; and proves that a sizable portion of tourism earnings goes to the advantage of the rural dwellers. The location, scope, size, tradition, and integration of rural tourist firms into the rural way of life are stressed in this list of features of rural tourism. Furthermore, stress is given to the local community to be the core and primary beneficiaries of the overall process of rural tourism (Ohe, 2020; Ryu et al., 2020; Tang et al., 2023; Zielinski et al., 2020). Besides, one of the most recent comprehensive reviews on rural tourism emphasizes four aspects in defining rural tourism, namely the “location, sustainable development, community-based features, and experiences” (Rosalina et al., 2021). The study further emphasizes that “While rural tourism in both developed and developing contexts emphasized location as a main defining characteristic, sustainable development and community-based aspects appear prominently in the literature related to developing countries, and the experience dimension appears more frequently in the literature related to developed countries” (Rosalina et al., 2021). In many developing countries, the concept of pro-environmental behavior in rural tourist sites has been established to ensure that tourists adhere to environmental conservation, hence creating a more conducive environment to attract more tourists and promote sustainable rural development (Tang et al., 2023; Ullah et al., 2024). Therefore, this paper will discuss the concept of rural tourism in its broader sense by considering all its forms as prescribed in the studies mentioned earlier.

Historical Development of Rural Tourism

In recent decades, rural tourism practices have been increasingly adopted as one of the strategies for poverty reduction across the world due to the significant role it plays in transforming rural areas that are still socially and economically deprived (Ma et al., 2021; Ohe, 2020; Rosalina et al., 2021). Rural tourism in the developed world gained momentum in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. It attracted the attention of rural development practitioners as it was considered a new and most advanced alternative rural livelihood approach. Nevertheless, some literature suggests that the concept and practice of rural tourism are familiar, especially in the developed world, where rural tourism has been practised for many years, though in a traditional way (Lane & Kastenholz, 2015). The Industrial Revolution in Europe paved the way for traditional rural tourism, whereby industrial workers who originated from rural zones used to go to their hometowns for vacations. People moved with their families from urban areas to their original places (rural areas) to visit their family members and send remittances from towns. Due to its seasonality, this homecoming category of rural tourism contributes less to rural poverty reduction and sustainable rural development (Yagüe Perales, 2002). Post-Second World War rural tourism is considered a remarkable point of rural tourism with significant social and economic impacts on rural areas and their populations (Butler, 2014).

Modern rural tourism began as a picnic involving urban people choosing rural zones for their holiday destinations (Yagüe Perales, 2002). This kind of rural tourism was not rural-based tourism as we know it today; instead, it was a rurally based holiday with characteristics of urban tourism. The level of income and educational level of urban dwellers, rapid improvement of transport and communication systems in rural areas, notably railways and later on increased ownership of private cars, longer paid holidays, and shorter working hours are among the early factors that influenced urban dwellers to go and explore rural natural and cultural landscapes. This new kind of rural tourism evoked in the 1970s and 80s has spread in many rural areas of developed and developing countries like China and has received significant attention from local communities, local and central governments and other rural development practitioners (Cheng et al., 2020). In Europe and other parts of the world, the decline in agricultural earnings also made it possible for rural tourism to occur as an alternative rural livelihood strategy (De Ferranti et al., 2005). Many farmers shifted their focus from only growing and selling agricultural products to off-farm economic activities to diversify income and increase annual earnings (Wilson et al., 2001). While some invested in agritourism, others invested in rural tourism.

In rural settings, modern rural tourism takes “advantage of existing rural supplies like small ‘charming’ hotels and small living rooms and bedrooms on farms,” and tourists spend more than traditional ones to enjoy cultural and natural resources (Cheng et al., 2020; Chi & Han, 2021). Many domestic and international tourists opt for rural tourism due to the calmness of rural areas. Many tourists perceive rural areas as more natural than urban areas. In some cases, modern rural tourism takes a form of rural stay where “urban dwellers [are] staying in rural areas temporarily, with tourism activities as a supplement” (Cheng et al., 2020). Urban dwellers view rural settings as safer, healthier, and less stressful places for living and leisure than urban areas (Butler, 2014). Furthermore, experiences show that urban people consider the countryside “as a space opposed to the negative aspects of the urban space, ideal for resting, recovering forces and living as a family, often associated with the possibility of getting to know the ancient and traditions” (Kastenholz & Lima, 2011). This increases the likelihood of many urban residents opting for rural tourism instead of urban tourism. Nowadays, rural tourism has spread almost all over the world, in both developed and less developed countries and contributes significantly to the development of the countryside (Rosalina et al., 2021).

Rural Tourism, Rural Poverty Alleviation and Rural Development Nexus

For many years, rural development practitioners have recommended rural livelihood diversification as an essential tool for poverty alleviation (Bires & Raj, 2020; Huang et al., 2022; Su et al., 2019; Woyesa & Kumar, 2021). Rural livelihood diversification includes on-farm and off-farm economic activities to improve rural people’s livelihoods. Livelihood diversification in rural areas serves as a tool for sustainable rural livelihoods and poverty alleviation (Lun et al., 2021; Su et al., 2019). Rural tourism is one of the most recently highly recommended rural livelihood diversification strategies, which has proved to have better results in ensuring rural poverty alleviation in many rural areas. Rural tourism provides new livelihood opportunities for rural people, diversifying rural economies away from agriculture, which is the basis of rural economy and livelihoods (Bires & Raj, 2020; Liu et al., 2020; Woyesa & Kumar, 2021). Rural tourism, as one of the most popular non-agricultural rural development strategies, brings entrepreneurship opportunities and hence brings in money, creates job opportunities, supports retail growth, and improves rural livelihoods (Ohe, 2020).

Ashley et al. (2007) provide two main categories of tourism impacts on poverty alleviation, arguing that tourism activities provide direct or indirect effects that lead to the country’s development in terms of increase in GDP and contribute to poverty alleviation, especially in host rural communities. Based on direct effects, tourism is believed to be the second largest labor-intensive sector than other non-agricultural sectors, employing more skilled, unskilled and semi-skilled personnel, stimulating employment opportunities for the rural population. In many rural areas, tourism is considered to be the only formal job that acts as an essential employment source for poor people, hence helping to lift them out of poverty through extra wages obtained from tourism-related activities, which add value to the earnings obtained from selling livestock or seasonal crops (Anderson, 2015; Bires & Raj, 2020; Huang et al., 2022).

Rural tourism can benefit the rural population directly as tourists interact directly with the indigenous population (Su et al., 2019). Rural tourism creates development synergies by creating employment opportunities for the local people regardless of their skills. Most popular employments include tour operators, employment opportunities through accommodation, restaurants and transport industries, increased levels of self-employment, and, in some cases, solving the problem of rural-urban migration due to the availability of diversified economies. In some circumstances, rural tourism allows a tourist to stay in a host community and share different experiences with the rural population while enjoying the natural environment and local products, including local food and rural cultural assets (Cheng et al., 2020). This system of staying in a rural community increases tourists’ day-to-day expenditures by paying for goods and services in the host rural community, increasing circulation (Mthembu & Mutambara, 2018). These direct social and economic opportunities created by rural tourism in rural areas can quickly alleviate poverty, particularly for the vulnerable poor groups of women and youth.

Rural tourism can also influence development by generating spillover effects in other economic sectors and communities where tourist-related activities occur (Bires & Raj, 2020; Lun et al., 2021; Ohe, 2020; Woyesa & Kumar, 2021). Such tourism-related effects are frequently referred to as indirect or secondary effects. Lejárraga and Walkenhorst (2010) explain tourism’s indirect effects as those produced when tourist expenditures spread from the tourism economy to the general economy through purchases and use of goods and services from non-tourism sectors. They do this using the Keynesian multiplier and the ratio multiplier effects. In actuality, the inputs that the tourism sector receives from the food and beverage industry, the building and furniture industries, and many other industries indirectly contribute to the expansion of those other sectors. Indirectly, people in the tourism industry who earn a living off their jobs—such as waiters, tour guides, and construction workers—help the economy thrive by purchasing goods and services from other businesses. In many developing countries, these secondary impacts add 60% to 70% on top of tourism’s direct effects (Ashley et al., 2007), contributing to the rapid growth in GDP, sustainable tourism development and poverty alleviation (Eslami et al., 2019).

Research Methodology

The Research Settings

To answer the research question effectively and efficiently, the study systematically reviews the existing literature on rural tourism in the Southern Tourist Circuit of Tanzania. Besides, the study offers examples of rural tourism opportunities in the Southern Tourist Circuit. Since the southern circuit is broad, the examples of rural tourism opportunities will be drawn from a small geographical area (Nyasa district) rich in rural tourist resources (Figure 1). The district is situated in the Ruvuma region, Southern highlands of Tanzania. The district was officially established in 2013, between latitudes 10°15′ to 11°34”′ South and Longitudes 34°24′ to 35°28”′ East. It is bordered to the south by Mozambique, the west by Malawi, the East by Mbinga and Songea Districts, and the north by Ludewa District (URT, 2015). In this area, rural people live in extreme poverty despite being rich in natural and cultural resources suitable for tourist attractions, which can be transformed into development opportunities.

Figure 1.

The map of Tanzania showing the study site.

Methods

This study uses secondary data to identify the possibility of innovating and engendering rural tourism as an approach to poverty alleviation and rural development in the southern tourist circuit of Tanzania. The study employs a systematic review guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to screen the literature. The PRISMA “was designed to help systematic reviewers transparently report why the review was done, what the authors did, and what they found” (Rethlefsen et al., 2021). The PRISMA method follows five (5) steps to systematically select and review information-rich literature necessary to answer the research question under study. These steps include (i) defining the research questions, (ii) formulating the review protocol, (iii) searching the literature, (iv) extracting literature and (v) synthesizing findings (Janjua et al., 2021; Pickering & Byrne, 2014) (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Systematic literature review process.

The review protocol was developed after identifying the central research question (refer to the research questions in the introduction section). In this aspect, we identified several keywords that enabled the researchers to quickly obtain articles online by developing different search strategies based on the search engines. These keywords include: “Rural Tourism,” OR “Community-Based Tourism,” OR “Cultural Tourism,” OR “Agri-tourism,” AND “Poverty Alleviation,” OR “Poverty Reduction,” OR “Poverty Eradication,” AND “Rural Development,” OR “Community Development,” OR “Rural Livelihoods,” AND “Southern Tourist Circuit,” OR “Tanzania.” Our reviewed articles were obtained through different search engines, including “Google Scholar,”“ScienceDirect” and “Web of Science.” Articles were assessed based on their relevance to the question under study by evaluating the titles, abstracts, and keywords and, later, reading the whole article.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

The researchers set out inclusion and exclusion criteria to address the research question effectively. The review only focused on peer-reviewed articles published in reputable journals. The articles reviewed were those published using the English language from the year 2010 to 2022. Overall, some articles were excluded due to irrelevance to the subject under study. While searching on the different search engines, 682 search results were obtained. The next step was to exclude the results based on the type of document, where conference papers, theses and dissertations, reports, books, and book chapters were excluded, whereas, after the exclusion, we remained with 313 results. The next step was to sort the articles by reading titles, abstracts and keywords, where 198 articles were retained before we selected papers based on the overall review criteria, where we obtained 126 articles. After that, we scrutinized articles based on the quality assessment tools, where we obtained 39 articles. Finally, we decided to read the full articles carefully and reviewed 21 articles that met the inclusion criteria (Figure 3).

Figure 3.

Literature search process.

Data Analysis

Data were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis. Hsieh and Shannon (2005) define content analysis as “a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes and patterns.” The central aim of content analysis is to extract and interpret the content of text. As a research method, content analysis helps the researcher provide new insights and increase the understanding of a particular phenomenon through the description of a phenomenon (Moldavska & Welo, 2017). Besides, content analysis allows for a more comprehensive and concise description of the phenomenon. In this systematic review, content analysis was employed to extract meaning from the literature review to answer the research question successfully and effectively.

Results

Why Is the Southern Circuit Underexploited in Terms of Rural Tourism?

Tanzania’s southern tourism circuit is blessed with many tourist resources. However, tourism in the southern circuit is underexploited compared to other circuits, particularly the northern circuit, making Tanzania’s southern highlands most vulnerable to poverty due to limited livelihood strategies. The diversity of tourism is limited in circuits other than the southern circuit, and the tourism products offered in Tanzania are too limited compared to other countries. This sub-section presents some explicit challenges for the under-exploitation of rural tourism resources in Tanzania, particularly the southern circuit.

It is stated that although tourism in Tanzania has a long history, tourism operations during the colonial period have enormously shaped the country’s modern tourism (Lwoga, 2013). Although colonialists made deliberate efforts to improve tourism in Tanzania, almost all of these efforts were concentrated in the northern circuit (Tonya & Lameck, 2019). This kind of colonial legacy still dominates post-independence tourism activities. According to Lwoga (2013), “the oldest hotel facility to be built in Tanzania was the Brown and Barratt Hotel at the site of the New Arusha Hotel in Arusha,” northern tourism circuit. This hotel was built by German colonial power to accommodate famous people such as the Prince of Wales. Other tourist-related infrastructures like hotels, bars and airports were built in Dar es Salaam as it was the main center of colonial powers. Lwoga adds that, in 1921, during British colonial rule, the colonial rule made a provision for the preservation of games where “Kilimanjaro Reserve, Mount Meru Reserve, including Engurdoto Crater, Lake Natron Reserve, Northern Railway Reserve, Selous Game Reserve, Wami River Reserve and Mbulu Reserve” were classified as game reserves. Based on this classification, it can be observed that only Selous Game Reserve is situated in the southern circuit, while the rest are located in the northern circuit. After independence, the country adopted a socialist system, which allowed the government to control and operate all economic sources. Due to this, the Tanzania Tourism Corporation (TTC) was formed and was responsible for all tourism-related matters, including building infrastructures like lodges and hotels. However, based on socialism and self-reliance ideology, the government did not invest much funds in the tourism sector compared to other sectors, especially agriculture, due to the fear of depending on foreign nations. This situation caused Tanzania to receive few tourists, mainly those who crossed the border from Kenya (Wade et al., 2001), a situation that continued to promote northern circuit tourism and undermined southern circuit tourism.

Inadequate funding is another problem that has made tourism in the southern highlands of Tanzania less exploited (Melubo, 2020). As we have observed above, soon after independence, the government allocated little funds to the tourism sector, and those fewer funds allocated were primarily used in areas already established, especially in the northern circuit. Even after trade liberalization, tourism in the Western Circuit and Southern Circuit was poorly known and less frequently traveled than in the Northern Circuit (Wade et al., 2001). To prove this, even nowadays, the northern circuit seems to be most favored, as evidenced by the resounding tourism infrastructures, including roads, airports and airstrips and improved accommodations within and adjacent to tourist attractions. Even though in recent years, the government has established a campaign promoting tourism in the southern circuit of the country, especially the southern highlands of Tanzania, the campaign is still centered in some famous tourist areas, including national parks and historical sites mainly situated in the Iringa region. During the launching of the World Bank-funded project in 2018, the then Vice President of Tanzania, Hon. Samia Suluhu Hassan, admitted that the southern highlands of Tanzania are rich in tourist resources. However, many are underexploited, while some still need to be documented or recognized. The main factor for under-exploitation was inadequate funding to improve infrastructures like roads and airports, which is one of the preconditions for successful tourism development (Gondwe, 2018). Inadequate funding implies that the central government still needs to allocate funds to improve infrastructures in tourist attractions of the southern circuit. The project launched in 2018 was therefore made to improve tourism infrastructures like roads and airstrips around tourist attractions in the southern circuit.

Besides, incoherent tourism policies and regulations are another factor for the underutilization of tourist resources in the southern circuit (Snyder & Sulle, 2011). While the Local Government Act of 1982 and the Regional Authorities Act of 1997 stipulated that local government authorities have the authority and power to make by-laws to enhance [rural] tourism in their areas, local governments face serious financial difficulties and power over the tourism sector. In many parts of the world where tourism, mainly rural tourism, is most successful, local government authorities have played a significant role (Tonya & Lameck, 2019). Liu et al. (2020) emphasize that the effective engagement of local governments is essential in determining the prosperity and sustainability of rural tourism. Giving power to the local governments over control of tourism activities in their areas held them responsible and accountable for effectively implementing the central government’s policies and immediately reacting to solve tourism-related problems that arose in their locality. Based on existing tourism policies where the central government mainly controls tourism-related activities, priority is mainly set on the most famous tourist attractions, which are well known and visited by many tourists, especially those of the northern circuit. In areas where rural tourism is practiced, local government authorities have no idea how to operate the tourist sites or to share the revenues from activities associated with rural tourism (Mgonja et al., 2015).

Inadequate infrastructure also makes rural tourism a less encouraged potential strategy for rural development and poverty alleviation in the southern tourism circuit of Tanzania. The quality of infrastructure influences people’s decision to travel to tourist destination areas (Wamboye et al., 2020). Nevertheless, rural roads in the Southern Circuit are still poor (Haulle & Kisiri, 2016), with many villages having seasonal roads that are only passable during the dry season. Inadequate infrastructure limits tourists from quickly getting into the tourist sites to explore the tourist resources and contribute to local socio-economic development. Besides that, in the Southern Circuit, some tourist sites are completely inaccessible due to the lack of roads, and some are not yet known (Anderson, 2011). Furthermore, a few airstrips in this circuit cannot support the high number of tourists who would love to explore tourist areas in this region. Communication infrastructure also remains one of the pressing rural challenges where access to mobile phone services, especially internet services, is still deficient in many rural areas of Tanzania and the Southern Circuit in particular (Anderson, 2011; Ndimbo et al., 2023; TCRA, 2022). Furthermore, the shortage of affordable accommodation facilities also contributes mainly to the underdevelopment of rural tourism in Tanzania (Melubo, 2020).

Anderson (2011) describes the shortage of appropriate and specialized core and skilled personnel in the tourism sector as another obstacle to tourism development, mainly rural tourism in Tanzania. Most rural tourist sites need more customer care. Shortage of skilled personnel is evidenced by the challenge of proper customer care to visitors and proper handling and provision of quality service to tourists. The challenge is linked to the residents’ limited professional knowledge and skills and a negative attitude toward the rural tourism industry (Bayno & Jani, 2018; Ngowi & Jani, 2018). The challenge has reduced the time tourists spend in their stay in the tourist destination and caused others to decline visitation for the next time. Besides, poor marketing strategies and poor linkage of the tourism sector with other sectors, including the agriculture sector and the broader local economy, are also associated with the poor performance of the rural tourism sector in this region as compared to other areas, especially the Northern Circuit (Anderson, 2018; Sanches-Pereira et al., 2017).

Rural Tourism Opportunities in the Southern Circuit: Examples From Nyasa District, Southwest Tanzania

The Southern Tourist Circuit of Tanzania has many natural and cultural resources suitable for tourist attraction and promoting rural poverty reduction (Muganda et al., 2010). Most of these resources are located in rural areas and are not yet utilized to lift local people out of poverty. Tourism in Tanzania is highly emphasized in most famous areas, including Northern Circuit, which consists of the country’s leading tourist destinations of Kilimanjaro Mountain, which is the highest mountain in Africa, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Serengeti, Manyara, Arusha, Tarangire and Mkomazi National Parks (Haulle, 2019). Although tourism contributes to the country’s development, its contribution to poverty alleviation in tourist resource areas is still questionable as most rural areas around tourist attractions still live under extreme poverty (World Bank, 2019a). This section presents some examples of rural tourist resources in the Southern Circuit. Since the region has plenty of rural tourism resources, this section only draws a few examples from one geographical location (Nyasa district), which is rich in rural tourism resources (Table 1) but yet to be utilized to transform the indigenous rural peoples’ livelihoods.

Table 1.

Rural Tourist Opportunities in Nyasa District, Southwest Tanzania.

Tourism asset	Specific asset	Rural tourist opportunities
Natural assets	Lake Nyasa with features like bays, beaches, etc.	Building beach hotels for visitors and beach holidays, swimming, beach walking, beach sports, educational tourism, fishing tourism, etc.
	David Livingstone mountain ranges and forests	Hiking and observing various resources like stones, caves, flora and fauna.
	Liparamba Game-Controlled Area	Wildlife safaris like observing lions, elephants and other animals and birds, observing different plant species and other features, including waterfalls.
	Ornamental fishes	Observing about 600 species of ornamental fish in Lake Nyasa. This can be used for leisure and educational purposes.
	Pomonda stone and caves	Found in Lake Nyasa with the ability to accommodate more than 100 people at once
	Lundo, Zambia and Puulu Islands	These small islands are found in Nyasa Lake. Touristic opportunities include building hotels and zoos to attract visitors, boat camping trips, etc.
Cultural assets	Traditional dances like Chiyoda, Mganda and Lindeku as well as folktales. The hospitality of indigenous people is another tourism asset	These are common during the harvest season when people get to gather for these kinds of traditional dances. Chiyoda is for women while Mganda is for men. Lindeku is usually for both men and women.
Agritourism/farm-based touristy	Local farming technologies especially ngoro (pit) farming and terraces in coffee farms in the Matengo highlands, cassava	Educational tourism on indigenous agricultural knowledge, engaging in harvesting, etc.
Culinary	Varieties of local foods including ugali made of cassava or maize, fish, etc	Enjoying local meals by eating and learning how to make them.

Source. The authors.

Located in the Ruvuma region, southwest Tanzania, the Nyasa district is one of the areas with much tourist potential that still needs to be utilized. According to the 2019 Ruvuma Region Investment Guide, the region is well known as a land of wonders, with a great diversity of fauna, flora, and physical and cultural features that have yet to be transformed into development opportunities, including tourism. Some of these wonders include the hospitality of the local people, rocks, water bodies like lakes and rivers, good sceneries, topography, bays, beaches, undeveloped cultural tourism, games, infrastructure ventures, “historical and archeological ventures and certainly the best wildlife photographic safaris of the continent” (URT, 2019). Table 1 indicates tourist resources in the Nyasa district and suggested tourist opportunities.

Discussion

This section presents the discussion. The discussion is divided into two major parts. The first part presents a discussion on the contribution of rural tourism to rural livelihoods. In contrast, the second part discusses the need for multi-stakeholder involvement in rural tourism as a prerequisite for sustainable rural tourism and poverty alleviation.

Contribution of Rural Tourism to Rural Livelihoods

One of the overarching questions pondering rural development practitioners is how to alleviate rural poverty and achieve sustainable rural livelihoods (Natarajan et al., 2022), particularly in developing countries where agriculture is the primary source of food and income for most rural dwellers (Ndimbo et al., 2023). Innovating and promoting the diversification of rural livelihood strategies has been a highly recommended strategy to improve rural livelihoods, reduce poverty and promote sustainable rural livelihoods for the past three decades (Natarajan et al., 2022; Scoones, 2015). Livelihood diversification means allowing the rural economy to diversify away from agriculture, which is the mainstay of the rural economy. Livelihood diversification enables the rural population to utilize a bundle of livelihood resources, such as natural and physical resources, to sustainably earn a living.

Rural tourism is one of the sustainable rural livelihood strategies that help to empower the rural population through the sustainable utilization of physical and cultural resources available in rural areas (Bires & Raj, 2020; Woyesa & Kumar, 2021). Many rural areas are rich in tourist resources that still need to be used to transform rural livelihoods. Several developing countries are increasingly using rural tourism to alleviate rural poverty. In Tanzania, for example, rural tourism has been employed in the Northern Tourism Circuit since the mid-1990s to empower the local communities. In the northern circuit, cultural tourism was promoted by the SNV Netherlands Development Organization in collaboration with the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) by building the capacity of the local people to build cultural tourism. The first pilot was started in Ng’iresi Village on the slopes of Mount Meru, Longido, the Usambara Mountains, and Mto wa Mbu. Today, the country is estimated to receive more than 3,000 cultural tourists, allowing the locals “to generate some extra income while at the same time offering tourists a unique and interesting cultural experience in the country” (Fang, 2020). While residents are happy to use cultural resources to generate extra income, the tourists are excited to enrich themselves with cultural experiences from the locals. In some geographical locations, rural tourists opt to stay in the local communities (homestay rural tourism), engaging with everyday villagers’ activities while enjoying rich rural resources and recipes (Cheng et al., 2020; Janjua et al., 2021). This kind of rural tourist activity is also increasingly carried out by urban dwellers who wish to experience rural life and build a close bond with the villagers.

Despite its contribution to rural and national economic development, rural tourism is still less practiced in many developing countries despite the availability of rich rural tourism resources. One of the reasons for this is that governments put less emphasis on rural tourism in favor of other kinds of tourism (Fang, 2020). Deliberate efforts by the governments to improve rural infrastructures and promote rural tourism could serve as an essential strategy to motivate people, particularly urban dwellers, to visit rural areas (Liu et al., 2020). In China, for example, the rural revitalization strategy that aims to transform the rural landscape to be more or less similar to the urban landscape has resulted in the influx of rural tourists in the past 5 years. Besides, the adverse effects of rapid urbanization in the past few decades have stimulated the interest of urban dwellers to visit and stay in the countryside, especially during the holidays and weekends (Gao & Wu, 2017; Yang et al., 2021). The next sub-section discusses the need for multi-stakeholder involvement as a prerequisite for sustainable rural tourism. The central question addressed in the subsequent sub-section is who, in rural tourism, should do what?

The Need for Multistakeholders' Involvement in Rural Tourism

Booming rural tourism can only be achieved with support from various rural development stakeholders and practitioners, including local communities, local governments, central governments, NGOs, the private sector, and tourists (Table 2). We argue that all stakeholders’ roles matter a lot in achieving sustainable rural tourism. Nevertheless, the local community should be at the center of this process to ensure that tourist amenities available in their areas contribute to socio-economic development, lifting the rural poor out of poverty and, at the same time, protecting natural environments as well as unique and rich natural and cultural tourist resources. The involvement of fundamental groups of stakeholders with clear and mutual understanding is essential in ensuring that harvests gained from rural tourism benefit both sides. Discussion on the role of each stakeholder in ensuring practical rural tourism follows.

Table 2.

Rural Tourism Stakeholders and Their Responsibilities.

Rural tourism stakeholder	Main duties and responsibilities in rural tourism
Local community	The core to rural tourism. Should control the general routine activities by preparing attractive hosting tourist environments and motivating, organizing and managing tourist resources. Provides areas for recreation in the village land use plan (Ezeuduji, 2017; Gao & Wu, 2017; Mthethwa, et al., 2020; Mthembu & Mutambara, 2018).
Central government	Formulation of favorable rural tourism policies and funding rural tourism through public funding, assisting in marketing and Environmental Impact Assessments (Ezeuduji, 2015; 2017).
Local governments	Monetary support to rural people through credits or micro-loan systems, promotion of tourism, creation and maintenance of tourist-related infrastructures, zoning and maintenance of the community, education and occupational support for those engaging in rural tourism, monitoring and evaluation of touristic operations. Reduce a series of charges and levies on hotels, which burden tourists (Ezeuduji, 2017; Liu et al., 2020; Wilson et al., 2001).
Non-governmental organizations	Research and empowering the local community to realize tourism potentials in their areas, initial funding to the local people and funding for infrastructures like roads and airstrips and negotiating with other stakeholders, including local and central government and for-profit organizations on sustainable rural tourism and poverty alleviation. Train experts in the field of hospitality like tour guides, hotelia and front office operators. (Ezeuduji, 2017; Fang, 2020).
Private sector	Funding rural tourism through micro and macro loans, investing in rural tourism facilities like lodges, creating financial literacy for the locals and marketing rural tourist resources mainly through ICTs. (Ezeuduji, 2015, 2017).

For rural tourism to be successful and sustainable, the local community should be the core and most beneficiary of the process (Mthembu & Mutambara, 2018). Many rural communities become interested in programs aimed at lifting them out of poverty since they are the ones who are most vulnerable to poverty. The decision of a few community members who “no longer want to live in an ‘underdeveloped’ and slowly dying local community with the high unemployment rate, low-income generation opportunities, lack of appropriate housing and nothing to keep the younger generation at home” (Verbole, 2000), may be impacted to the general community to realize tourism potentials available in their locality. Community participation in rural tourism development can take several forms, including “individual farmstead/household, household-run small business, individual household plus individual household, corporation plus household, corporation plus community plus farmers and government plus corporation plus farmers” (Su, 2011). These rural tourism forms apply in agritourism, where farm-based tourism is practised.

Local communities should be fully involved in rural tourism by giving them employment opportunities and opportunities to plan and implement the mission and vision of tourism activities carried out in their surroundings (Mthethwa et al., 2020; Ryu et al., 2020). In the case of Tanzania, the expansion and facilitation of Public Private Partnership (PPP) may help the rural community to be effectively involved in investment, ownership, and operation of tourist amenities. PPP takes on board the limited ability of rural people to raise capital and sometimes managerial skills required for the operations of the same business. The importance of bringing the local community to the center of rural tourism is based on the assumption that active involvement of local communities can lessen conflicts between visitors and local interests and hence result in sustainable rural tourism. In this case, rural communities where rural tourism is practised should be the first and primary beneficiaries of rural tourism.

Besides, the support and participation of the local government are significant for booming rural tourism. Local governments are considered immediate supervisors and supporters of local communities in all tourism-related matters. Local governments in areas with tourist resources necessary for rural tourism should actively engage in several aspects like: “(1) funding for tourism development and promotion, (2) the creation and maintenance of infrastructures necessary for tourism (e.g., roads, airports, railways, boat launches, reliable water and power services), (3) zoning and maintenance of the community so that it looks clean and appealing to tourists, and (4) education and occupational support for tourism employees and businesspersons and other persons working in tourist industries” (Wilson et al., 2001). Local governments serve to implement rural tourism-related policies planned or approved by the central government.

Local government has three major roles in rural tourism: (1) planning and managing (coordination of resources, creation of development plans and building of destination brand), (2) supervising and regulating (examine and regulate prices, safety and infrastructures, protect local culture and heritage and ecological environments, and other general supervision) and (3) investing and coordinating (capital, land and roads, ecological environment improvements, attract businesses and investments, personnel and skill training and other needs and problems perceived by businesses and residents; Liu et al., 2020). By so doing, rural tourists get attracted to those areas where tourist resources are well-equipped compared to other areas where local governments have nothing to contribute to the overall process of rural tourism. The growth of rural tourism benefits local governments in different ways, including direct and indirect revenue collection. In some areas where rural tourism has highly succeeded, local governments help tourism development by “giving funds for a brochure, organizing and improving traffic systems, keeping the streets clean and free of potholes, making sure tourists have the impression that the town is clean, and beautifying downtown areas (e.g., putting out flowers around town)” (Wilson et al., 2001).

Furthermore, the central government should go far beyond formulating favorable rural tourism policies (Ezeuduji, 2017) to providing public funding, which will catalyze booming rural tourism. In reality, most local governments need more financial capacity to fully support rural tourism, as most of the revenues collected at the local government level must be submitted to the central government. For instance, the Chinese central government primarily promotes best practices, resource-related stimulation, and creative marketing to promote rural tourism. The federal government implements numerous policies on rural tourism based on creative campaigns, which are goal-driven initiatives that are creatively branded to mobilize resources and stimulate actions. The creation of the “New Socialist Countryside and Beautiful Countryside, and the promotion of Smart Tourism and Holistic Tourism” are the most significant ones (Liu et al., 2020). The central government has also loosened land lease policies to allow local people to change land use to rural tourism, promote public-private partnerships in rural tourism, and allow urban people to invest in rural tourism. Furthermore, the central government has ensured that the welfare of rural areas is similar to that of urban areas in terms of infrastructure, health services, and other critical social services. The government has also promoted outstanding villages surpassing other villages in rural tourism achievement and encouraged different local government authorities and rural areas to learn from each other’s experiences and reflect on their practices (Liu et al., 2020).

Moreover, NGO involvement is considered a criterion for booming rural tourism. In recent years, NGOs have been credited as powerful catalysts for grassroots development due to their ability to work directly with the grassroots population to find development solutions. In the context of rural tourism, NGOs can serve in different forms, including capacity building to the grassroots population on how to realize rural tourism potentials available in their surroundings, provision of initial funding for investment in rural tourism (Ezeuduji, 2015) and negotiation with other development stakeholders including local governments, central government and for-profit institutions on how to achieve sustainable rural tourism and poverty alleviation. In Tanzania, for instance, the SNV Netherlands Development Organization collaborated with the Tanzania Tourism Board to establish cultural tourism in the Northern Tourism Circuit. The SNV mission helped to create local people’s awareness of the role of cultural tourism in improving locals’ livelihoods. The program mainly focuses on creating awareness and building the capacity of women among society’s economically vulnerable groups (Fang, 2020).

Lastly, for-profit organizations can facilitate rural tourism by providing micro and macro loans with little interest and creating financial literacy for the locals. These institutions may also invest in rural tourism aspects like building accommodation facilities like lodges and hotels and building zoos, which will create employment opportunities mainly for locals. Besides, the private sector can help promote rural tourism through information and communication technologies, which is an essential aspect of development in the current world.

Conclusions

Rural tourism is considered a social and economic development tool, particularly for local people. It is highly promoted in many parts of the world as one of the effective sources of employment and income in rural areas, especially in areas where traditional agriculture is declining. This article has highlighted the necessity to innovate and promote rural tourism as a strategy to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable rural development in the Southern Tourism Circuit of Tanzania. The study shows that Tanzania’s southern tourism circuit is rich in tourist resources, including natural and cultural heritage; some still need to be converted into opportunities for improving rural livelihoods. Given that most rural dwellers in Tanzania rely on small-scale subsistence agriculture for food and income, the study stresses that rural tourism could be used as one of the powerful tools to stimulate rural livelihood diversification and hence improve the lives of the rural residents.

The study highlights the importance of active stakeholder collaboration as a panacea for enhancing rural tourism, reducing poverty and promoting sustainable rural development. These stakeholders include the local community, local government authorities and central government, NGOs, development agencies and private sectors. Although all these stakeholders are supposed to work shoulder to shoulder to achieve sustainable rural tourism and poverty alleviation, the local community should be the core and most beneficiaries of rural tourism to reduce conflicts and ensure sustainable rural tourism. Nevertheless, capacity building for the local community by actively engaging in rural tourism, financial assistance and other moral and material supports should be given priority. Besides, special packages should be developed to have specific routes concerning financial packages and to increase the tourists’ stay time in the tourist amenities.

Finally, multisector linkages are paramount as tourism benefits can easily be multiplied to other economic sectors and thus contribute to rural poverty alleviation. The study, for instance, highlights the importance of linking agriculture and the rural tourism sector to share the multiplier effects of tourism with the agricultural sector, reducing rural poverty and promoting rural development. Other important sectors or ministries like the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation, the ministry related to cultural heritage and so forth, should also work closely with other ministries to ensure that every single aspect of rural tourism is running smoothly, and this linkage is what would bring sustainable rural tourism.

Implications of the Study

Theoretical Implications

Despite the increased importance of research on rural tourism across the globe and developing countries in particular, this research area needs to be addressed in Tanzania and, more specifically, in the Southern Tourist Circuit of Tanzania. This study attempts to build a foundation on research on rural tourism in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania by exposing the abundant tourist assets in the region and suggesting possible ways to improve rural tourism as a viable strategy to alleviate poverty in Tanzania. The findings could be helpful to the students, researchers, and academic community that seeks to understand how people in different areas live, the challenges they face and ways to address them.

Practical Implications

The study’s findings stressed the importance of engendering and innovating rural tourism as a viable strategy to alleviate poverty and promote rural development in the Southern Tourism Circuit. Policymakers and rural development practitioners can use the findings to transform rural livelihoods, promote sustainable rural development and achieve the 2030 UN agenda for sustainable development. To successfully achieve this broad objective, the need for multisector and multi-stakeholder involvement is paramount. Rural tourism can be used as a panacea to allow the rural economy to diversify away from agriculture, which remains the cornerstone of most rural populations in developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. Rural tourism can help supplement employment and income from agriculture and hence assist in building resilient rural livelihoods that can overcome shocks and stresses. Therefore, the study’s recommendations can be used in other developing countries with social, economic, political, cultural, and technological levels of development similar to those in Tanzania.

Limitations and Future Research Directions

The study has three main limitations. First, the study is limited to exploring the possibilities to engender and innovate rural tourism in the Southern Tourist Circuit of Tanzania. In this case, generalizing the findings to other geographical locations and cultural settings might be difficult, particularly in the context of developed countries. Second, the study relied on secondary data sources to obtain the information necessary to answer the research, so there might be some crucial aspects that could only be captured through primary data that are still missing in this study. Third, while using PRISMA to conduct a systematic review is highly recommended, the inclusion and exclusion criteria employed in this study may exclude some critical literature. For instance, the studies published before 2010 were excluded even if they had important information to contribute to the study. Besides, the review did not include other literature beyond peer-reviewed articles, such as conference papers, theses, dissertations, and other sources.

Since the study mainly relied on secondary data sources, future research should focus on exploring the empirical evidence on the subject under study, preferably using a quantitative approach to generalize the results. Future studies should also focus on addressing community challenges and tourist behaviors constraining the innovation and engendering of rural tourism as a viable strategy for poverty alleviation and rural development. Finally, further research should focus on how digital technologies could help promote rural tourism in developing countries due to the rapid penetration of virtual technologies into the countryside since the beginning of the 21st century.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical Approval

Not applicable.

Human Participants

The study did not involve human participants.

ORCID iDs

Credo Simbert Nchimbi

Gabriel Kanuti Ndimbo

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

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