Tourist Hotel and Local Community Livelihood Development

This study focuses on assessing the contribution of tourist hotels in socio-economic development. Three villages in Mto wa Mbu ward in Monduli district namely, Barabarani, Majengo and Migombani were involved. Survey data were collected using household questionnaire survey, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), Semi-structured Interviews, and by observation. The study found that about 9.3% of the local communities could see benefits out of tourism hotels/lodges available in the area. The benefits included social projects on construction of schools, dispensary and provision of clean water. About 33.3% of the local communities could see direct benefits, where the benefits included employment opportunities. The study revealed major limiting factors on achieving win-win situations among stakeholders which include; poverty, poor education, lack of community initiatives, personal-interest, poor policy implementations, lack of transparency, poor, technology and bureaucracy. The study concludes that these investments have the potential of improving local communities' livelihood.