ABSTRACT
Despite the significance attached to local participation for African tourism development in terms of encouraging social, environmental and economic sustainability, development efforts remain largely centred on international tourism. Tourism in protected areas throughout Africa exemplify this contradiction. Statistics show that across Africa, the number of local citizens visiting national parks and reserves is notably fewer than international arrivals and community involvement in decision-making processes is limited. Drawing insights from tourism development in the protected areas of Tanzania’s Northern Circuit, we examine local community constraints to actively participating in the tourism industry as tourists. Local understandings of protected areas and tourism, high prices of services and a culture of prioritising socialising with friends and relatives over small group travel to pristine natural environments are identified as some of the key constraints to local participation as tourists. We argue that rethinking the structure and ideologies of Tanzanian tourism in protected areas to place greater emphasis on local community’s recreational needs, social practices and world views, is a seemingly obvious yet frequently overlooked means to increase community involvement and autonomy over what is considered by as a hegemonic Western tourism industry. Socialising tourism is a call for inclusive tourism, and in this chapter we discuss how greater local resident involvement in tourism as tourists – and not only as hosts or stakeholders of industry – can help reimagine and reconstruct Tanzanian tourism in a more culturally embedded and inclusive way.
