ABSTRACT
The unqualified enthusiasm of some for the development of tourism as a strategy for the development of low income countries is only matched by the equally unqualified scepticism of others. Few have felt neutral or considered the possibility that its effects might depend on the country concerned or the type of tourist development to be undertaken. This paper, based on a survey of employment in the hotel and tourist industries of Kenya and Tanzania, begins with an exposition of the general case for and against tourism as a way of promoting the development of low income countries, and then presents some of the findings of the East African survey. It pleads the case for less generalization and a more eclectic approach to an assessment of the costs and benefits of tourism and points out that, as is so often the case, the balance of advantage is greatly dependent upon the policies pursued with regard to the particular form of hotel and tourist development.
