NEWS HOOK: World Tourism Day – 27 September 2003
ActionAid Contact: Jane Moyo, ActionAid UK Media Department
+ 44 (0)20 7561 7614 – [email protected]
Islands of
development
What do poor women in
Zanzibar get out of tourism
liberalisation?
Summary
Trade and investment liberalisation is often argued to
be good for women and liberalisation of the tourism
sector especially, since it creates service jobs that are
often considered “female”. ActionAid’s study of
Zanzibar’s tourist industry shows that this is not always
the case – tourism development in Zanzibar has
created an “enclave economy” or “islands of
development” dependent on foreign capital and nonlocal labour. In particular, liberalisation of the tourism
sector is bypassing local women and having a negative
impact on their livelihoods.
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Tourism liberalisation – what do poor
women get out of it? 1
Summary
Since the mid 1980s Zanzibar has carried out a
radical economic reform programme. A central
feature of these reforms has been the
liberalisation of trade and investment. By
liberalising trade and investment and offering
tax breaks and other incentives to new investors
the Zanzibari Government intended to break a
vicious cycle of poor economic performance
and lift its population out of poverty.
Tourism is one of the sectors that the Zanzibari
Government has been particularly keen on
promoting to private investors. Private
investment in this sector was expected to bring
new employment opportunities, additional
income and much needed foreign exchange to
Zanzibar. The strategy seems to have worked.
The growth of the industry has been impressive
over the last ten years. The tourism industry
now accounts for one fifth of government
revenues and according to unofficial estimates a
large number of new employment opportunities
have been created.
However, ActionAid’s research of poor
people’s experience of tourism development in
Zanzibar shows that the growth of the tourism
industry has brought very few benefits to local
Zanzibaris. In fact, it seems that tourism
development in Zanzibar has resulted in the
1
The research on which this paper is based was
carried out in Zanzibar (Unguja and Pemba islands)
in July 2003. It included five focus group
discussions with local men and women in Zanzibar,
a series of in depth key informant interviews with
local men and women; government officials, NGO
representatives and hotel managers, as well as desk
based research of primary and secondary written
material.
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creation of an “enclave economy” or “islands of
development” dependant on foreign capital and
non-local labour, rather than broad based
development to the benefit of the local
population. Of the small number of Zanzibaris
that do manage to establish fruitful links with
the tourist industry, either as employees or
suppliers of services and goods, most are men.
A variety of cultural and structural barriers
explain why this is the case.
Why did Zanzibar liberalise its investment
regime?
Zanzibar is part of the United Republic of
Tanzania, which post independence from
British colonial rule, pursued a socialist
development agenda with a strong focus on
self-reliance. In the late 1970s, early 1980s, the
Union found itself in a deep economic crisis
and despite initial political opposition to the
idea Tanzania embarked on the first of a series
of structural adjustment programmes in 1986.
The World Bank, the IMF and a series of
bilateral donors have supported these
programmes, which have played a crucial role
in transforming the Tanzanian and the Zanzibari
economies from socialist plan economies to free
markets.
Why did the Zanzibar government choose to
make tourism a priority sector?
The 1986 Investment Protection Act, which
marked the liberalisation of Zanzibar’s
investment regime, opened up all sectors of the
Zanzibari economy to foreign and local private
investment. Because of the islands’ unique
natural environment, architecture and
archaeological sites and the alleged
development potential of the tourism industry
the government of Zanzibar has, however,
placed the greatest emphasis on attracting
private investment into this sector.
Most of the tourists that arrive in Zanzibar are
Europeans (70% of total arrivals in 2001), with
the rest arriving from North America (8.3%),
Africa (9.8%) and the rest of the world (11.9%).
Among the Europeans most come from Italy
and Britain. These two countries accounted for
36% of total arrivals in 2001 (The United Rep.
of Tanzania, 2003:14).
The relative rapid growth of the tourist industry
in Zanzibar means that it now makes a
significant contribution to the Zanzibari
economy and Government revenues. Official
data of tourism's contribution to Zanzibar's
GDP does not exist but it is provisionally
estimated that the sector accounted for about 14
percent of GDP and 20 percent of Government
revenues in 2001. In addition, with an estimated
visitor expenditure of US$55 million in 2001,
the tourist industry is by now the most
important source of foreign exchange in
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Figure 1: Tourist Arrivals in Zanzibar 19912001
120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
01
00
20
20
99
97
98
19
19
96
19
95
19
19
91
0
19
The industry has experienced a steady rate of
growth of around 5 percent per annum. That is
both above the industry's international growth
rate and that of the African continent (Zanzibar
Government, 2002: 60). Whereas 50,827
tourists visited Zanzibar in 1991, 97,165 did so
in 2000 (see figure 1). However, due to civil
unrest on the islands in January 2001 and the
events of September 11th 2001 the number of
tourist arrivals decreased quite dramatically
between 2000 and 2001.
Zanzibar (The United Rep. of Tanzania, 2003:
10-11).
Number of Tourists
How has investment liberalisation impacted
upon Zanzibar’s tourism industry?
The invitation of private investors into the
Zanzibari economy has led to a substantial
expansion of tourism on the islands. Since 1986
a total of some US$63 million has been
invested in hotel and tourism projects in
Zanzibar. Between 60 and 70 percent of this has
come from investors in Italy, England, Spain
and Eastern Europe.
Year
Source: The United Rep. of Tanzania, 2003:14
The developmental impact of tourism
liberalisation – the official story
According to the Zanzibar Commission for
Tourism the growth of the tourist industry has
brought tremendous benefits to the people of
Zanzibar. Not only in terms of direct
employment opportunities but also indirectly
through the people's supply of agricultural
produce to hotels and restaurants and the sale of
locally produced handicrafts.
No official data exists on the number of
employment opportunities that have been
created as a consequence of tourism
development but as table 1 shows, unofficial
estimates predict that some 5,800 people are
currently directly employed by the industry. Of
these, approximately 4,400 or 76 percent are
employed in hotels or guesthouses. The
remainder works in restaurants, souvenir shops,
tour companies etc.
If the people who are not directly employed in
the industry but who nevertheless depend on it
for their livelihood is also included, the number
is estimated to be much higher. It is estimated
that the total number of tourism generated
employment opportunities could be in the order
of 37,000.
Table 2: Estimated Direct Employment in
Tourism (Zanzibar - 2002)
Sub-Sector
Total
Percent
Staff
Hotels / Guest Houses
4,400
76,2
Tourist Restaurants /
300
5,2
Shops
Tour Guides
325
5,6
Ground Tour
500
8,7
Operators
Airlines, Dive
100
1,7
Operators etc.
Tourism
150
2,6
Ministry/Commission
Total
5,775
100
Source: The United Rep. of Tanzania, 2003: 30
The developmental impact of tourism
liberalisation – the unofficial story
ActionAid’s research of poor people’s
experience of tourism development in Zanzibar
shows that the growth of the tourism industry
has brought very few benefits to local
Zanzibaris.
Foreigners or Tanzania mainlanders have taken
up most direct employment opportunities. Some
are brought to Zanzibar by foreign investors
whilst others are illegal immigrants.
Government officials recognise that this is the
case but find it difficult to do anything about it.
A senior official in the Ministry of Youth,
Employment and Development of Women and
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Children put it this way: “If they [foreign
workers] were removed a lot of vacancies
would emerge but when they are first here it is
difficult to find them.”
Local people have also found it difficult to link
up with the tourist industry as suppliers of
goods and services. Despite the fact that most
Zanzibaris are engaged in agriculture in one
way or another, hotels are importing the food
they need rather than sourcing it from local
producers. The only exception to this rule is
fresh fish. However, the increase in demand for
fresh fish means that prices have soared and
local people are now forced to buy frozen fish
in the local market (see box below).
Mod’d Rajab Mzale is from Paje on the East coast
of Unguja island where tourism development
started more than 15 years ago. He told
ActionAid that: “to a large percentage of the
villagers in Paje tourism is nothing. It is only
good for those who can find some employment or
have the equipment to catch fish that can be sold
here. Some people sell fish to the hotels but most
of the villagers do not get the fish that they need.
People come from town and fish and the hotels
pay a good price, but the people from the villages
here get nothing. Now local people need to buy
frozen fish because the price of fish has gone up
so much. Fresh fish is no longer available to us.
Before we were eating bluefish, ball fish and
octopus but now we have to eat sardines. We also
used to observe the breeding season but because
of the hotels' demand for fish we no longer do
that. This decreases the stock of fish in the sea”.
Zanzibar’s decision to open up its tourist
industry to foreign investors has also had a
large impact on people’s life through its impact
on other natural resources. “Land grabbing” in
coastal areas has for example been a large
problem, especially in Unguja (see box below).
Ali Haji is from Paje on the East coast of Unguja
island. When asked about the relationship between
tourism development and land ownership in the
area he had the following to say: “A lot of land has
been sold here. Although the family owns land,
land was initially sold off to investors by only a
few people from each family, with everyone else
knowing nothing about it. When people find out
what has happened they make protest and there are
a lot of problems. Especially if the land was sold
10 years ago and people see that the price has now
risen a lot. People want to get more but what do
you do? The owner has the papers. Some villagers
try and go to the high court but what can you do
when the land has already been sold?
“The people from the tourist commission came
here and told the villagers that if they did not sell
their land to the investors the Government would
take it away from them. They did not tell people
that they could lease the land and make money or
even become shareholders in the project. No one
told the village about this opportunity. Only later
people learned not to sell their land but to lease it
out. We were the first and we didn't know about
this.
“The people who sold land, before they had
coconut threes, but now they have nothing. They
went away with their money and lived a luxurious
life, but now they have no more money and they
are back in the village where they have to fish and
use the forest. They have nothing. They are in fact
poorer than before. They could have been
shareholders in the hotels but now they live a
miserable life.”
As Ali Haji points out, Paje was the first place
in Zanzibar to experience increased demand for
land as a consequence of tourism development
and local people are now more aware of the
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consequences of selling off their property.
However, ActionAid’s discussions with local
communities in Paje and other tourist areas in
Unguja show that the problem has not gone
away. Although villages may be aware of the
consequences of selling off land many still
prefer this option to potential lease
arrangements. Little understanding of how lease
agreements actually work and lack of trust in
investors and middlemen seem to partly explain
this phenomenon.
Moreover, the trade in land, which has already
taken place, means that most villagers along the
coast of Unguja now have to deal with the
unforeseen consequences of allowing hotels to
establish themselves in their neighborhood. As
one manager of a hotel at Nungwi beach,
Northern Unguja, told ActionAid: “for a lot of
villages it has been out of the village and into
the city overnight.”
Tourism has also brought alcohol, drugs and
commercial sex workers to the doorstep of
ordinary Zanzibaris. One man expressed the
changes that have happened this way: “now
there are plenty of cigarette smokers and
drunkards here. Before we did not have many
of them. Before these people were countable,
now they are uncountable.” Another said: “our
kids don’t go to school. They go to the beach
and look for someone who can take them to
Europe. If they see a foreign woman wearing a
miniskirt, then they think that it is the
appropriate way to dress.”
The developmental impact of tourism
liberalisation – women’s point of view
According to the World Tourism Organisation
(WTO) tourism liberalisation has the potential
to deliver a series of benefits directly to poor
communities in developing countries and
especially to women (WTO, 2002). However,
this does not appear to be the case in Zanzibar.
Few women have managed to find employment
in hotels and restaurants: “we have not
benefited at all, no women are employed at the
hotel” (women in Kiwengwa village2).
The Zanzibari government told ActionAid that
local women have lost out to men in the
competition for new employment opportunities,
mainly because of the Islamic cultural and
religious traditions of the islands. These do
undoubtedly play a role but as the experience of
Bangladesh shows there is not necessarily
anything predetermined about the relationship
between Muslim societies and women’s
participation in formal labour markets.3 In this
context it is important to note that in Zanzibar it
seems to be men, rather than women, who
subscribe to the view that Zanzibari culture
somehow makes tourism related work
unsuitable for Zanzibari women.
According to a group of women in Nungwi
village, which is part of the Northern tourist
zone in Zanzibar, women in their area want to
work in the hotels but: “the problem is with our
husbands and brothers. Our husbands will not
allow us to go to work in the hotels. They could
have some influence over these things but they
don't use it because they don't want us to go.”
The experience of the women from Nungwi
village is interesting because it suggests that
Zanzibari men are the guardians of traditional
cultural practices, whereas women themselves
feel comfortable challenging the sexual division
2
Kiwengwa village is situated in one of Unguja’s
Northern tourist zones.
3
Since the beginning of the 1980s Bangladesh has
developed a multi-billion garment industry, which
has created more than 1.4 million new jobs. Despite
the fact that Bangladesh is a Muslim country,
women have taken up 90 percent of these jobs.
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of labor, which has defined their society for
centuries, in an attempt to improve their
livelihoods. It also indicates that targeted efforts
to bring women into the tourist industry would
be welcomed by women themselves.
The experience of Riziki Makana Mwadini
from Makangala Village, Pemba (see page 7),
reinforces the idea that men’s perception of
women’s labour is an important barrier to
women’s labor market participation and it
shows just how much can be gained if these
perceptions are changed.
ActionAid's research also suggests that local
women are more disadvantaged then men in the
contest for indirect employment opportunities.
While men typically own the means of
production, e.g. land, capital, cars, boats and
fishing equipment, needed to engage in the
tourist industry, women do not. Often women
do not even own their own time, because of
domestic responsibilities and demands and any
additional income earning activities will have to
be fitted into an already crowded work
schedule.
Several of the women ActionAid spoke to
engaged in petty trading with tourists, but for
most this was an unreliable business that rarely
was seen as providing a sustainable livelihood.
The prime reason for this seemed to be
seasonality.
The difference in men and women's ownership
of the means of production and consequently
their ability to engage in income earning
activities within the tourism industry reflects
prevailing gender relations in Zanzibar.
However, the situation is maintained by the
gendered nature of credit markets. When you
can legally claim ownership of very little then
access to credit, for which collateral is needed,
becomes a real problem.
Riziki Makana Mwadini is one of only five women
working at Manta Reef Lodge in Pemba. According
to her: “the hotel manager wants women to work
here but women do not come because people in the
villages think that working in a hotel means that you
will become a prostitute or a cheap lady. When I
started work here seven years ago I agreed it with
my husband. He trusts me. But as soon as I went
people started coming to our house asking him what
he was doing letting his women work in such a
place. They don't bother us anymore. Now, because
of me, I think, other ladies are starting to come
looking for work here. They see that it is good. I
started out working in the kitchen cutting vegetables
and preparing meals for local staff. Now I am the
chef and manage two people. My pay has increased
from 20.000 shillings in the beginning to 50.000
shillings now. There is no incremental pay rise but
sometimes I tell my boss that I need more money
because I work more. I am here from six in the
morning to ten at night. I am here all the time. I
don't have time to plant cassava and other things so
I need more money. The people here are good
people. When I say this to them they give me more
money. My work in the hotel has had a big impact
on my life. When I was first married my husband
and I lived in a small mud hut in the village. My
husband was a fisherman and we were very poor.
We never had any money. Now, because of the
money I make we have been able to build a
permanent brick house in the village. My children
are all healthy. They get what they need and they
get to go to school. I can dress the way I want, I can
dress my children the way I want and my husband
has been able to buy nets for fishing.”
The way the tourism industry has developed in
Zanzibar also means that women increasingly
are seeing some of their traditional income
earning activities become unsustainable. The
large surge in food imports, which has followed
the development of the tourism industry in
Zanzibar, means that women find it
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increasingly difficult to find a market for some
of their agricultural produce.
Tanzania Gender Network Program’s Head of
Advocay told ActionAid: “women are
especially affected by food imports. They are
the ones who used to have small poultry farms
and dairy farms. Now chicken and milk is
imported and there is no longer a market for
women's products.”
The increased demand for fresh fish, which has
followed the development of the tourist
industry, has also had an adverse affect on
women's income earning potential. A senior
representative from UNDP Tanzania told
ActionAid that women were previously
involved in the fishing trade as middlemen:
“insofar that they would buy fish at the landing
stations and prepare them right there and sell
them. Now this function seems to have been cut
out because fishermen sell directly to the hotels.
Women are left without both fish and income.”
Tourism: a driving force for poverty
alleviation – what will it take?
The case of Zanzibar clearly shows that tourism
development through liberalisation can lead to
economic growth and the creation of new job
opportunities in developing countries.
However, it also shows that this does not
automatically translate into poverty alleviation.
Most of the benefits from tourism liberalisation
have by-passed the local population, especially
women and in many instances left them more
vulnerable than before.
This ‘enclave’ nature of the tourism sector in
Zanzibar challenges the World Tourism
Organisation’s argument that tourism
development is a natural driving force for
poverty alleviation, job creation and social
harmony.4 To the majority of local Zanzibaris,
who despite rapid growth of the tourism sector
still struggle to get by on less than a dollar a
day, tourism development is more closely
related to poverty, unemployment and social
disruption.
As a key element of the services sector in many
developing countries tourism could contribute
positively to poverty reduction. Blanket
liberalisation without any attention to the
impact on the livelihoods of local men and
women is however not a magic button that
automatically releases this potential.
Multilateral donors, like the World Bank, as
well as bilateral ones, such as the UK
government, need to recognise this and support
policies that promote the establishment of
positive links between local people and the
tourism industry. Crucially they also need to
support efforts to ensure that nothing in the
World Trade Organisation’s General
Agreement on Trade in Services circumscribes
governments’ ability to implement such
policies.5
Realising the development potential of the
tourism sector will require both national
governments and donors to endorse regulations
on foreign investments in the tourism sector,
which spread the benefits of tourism
development more widely. This could include
4
Poverty alleviation, job creation and social
harmony are the World Tourism Organisation's
(WTO) priorities for 2003 and constitute the main
theme of this year's World Tourism Day, 27
September 2003.
5
The GATS is a multilateral framework for services
liberalisation. Several of its articles have the
potential to severely constrain and undermine
governments’ ability to regulate the service sectors
they liberalise under the agreement.
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requiring hotel and restaurant owners to source
part of their goods and services locally, employ
more local people and actively protect local
resources and livelihoods.
Efforts to increase local people’s capacity to
supply high quality labor, produce and services
are also needed and it is crucial to ensure that
women have access to opportunities on the
same terms as men. Without a clear strategy to
break down the barriers that keep women from
engaging with the tourist sector, tourism
development is unlikely to make any significant
contribution to broad based development.
This paper was written by Birgit La Cour
Madsen with the support and input of
ActionAid Tanzania and in particular
Maimuna Ali in its Zanzibar office.
ActionAid UK
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