Inclusive Tourism Asymmetries: Location and Gender Aspects

Abstract

The capacity of tourism to include marginalized groups and alleviate poverty has been widely researched with diverging results. This  study aims at appraising the economic contribution of tourism comparatively using location and gender. Using a structured  questionnaire conveniently distributed to households nearby national parks and historical sites in Tanzania, a dataset of 507 participants  was used to perform descriptive and non-parametric mean comparison analyses. Overall, local residents in and/or around tourism areas perceive tourism to contribute to poverty alleviation. However, the contribution of tourism in poverty alleviation differs with location, with  remote locations receiving lesser economic benefits compared to centrally located areas. Furthermore, the results show tourism  economic benefits not to depend on the gender of residents. Inclusive tourism initiatives need to consider locality in designing and  implementation of tourism projects in ensuring equitable benefits. The comparative approach using location and gender in assessing the  tourism potential to alleviate poverty is the unique approach of the study.