Women in tourism celebrate World Tourism Day in Zanzibar

(eTN) – Members of the Tanzanian women’s tourism group celebrated the annual World Tourism Day on tourist island of Zanzibar.

The event, which took place last Saturday, saw members of the Association of Women in Tourism Tanzania (AWOTTA) and about 100 other travel and tourism stakeholders gathering in the archipelago to celebrate the global tourism day.

“We are holding this year’s celebrations in Zanzibar, the island with a reputation as one of Africa’s top tourism destinations”, the women’s tourism association leader, Mary Kalikawe, said earlier.

She told eTN that, while Tanzania as a nation celebrated this Day in Mwanza city on the shores of Lake Victoria, her members opted for Zanzibar, to express their affection to the beauty of the island that is among the most beautiful tourist islands in the world and a heritage site.

With a theme “Tourism and Sustainable Energy” set for this year’s World Tourism Day, organization members emphasized the concept of environmental quality, she said.

“Clean energy is not an option, but a mean for survival. Think of the impact of use of firewood for cooking, the discomfort that was caused by shortage of electricity supplies from Tanzania not far in the past”, Mary noted.

“We celebrated this day to encourage this support for quality and sustainability of our environment. Tanzania as a whole ought to invest in renewable energy and its consumption of renewable energy ought to increase”, Mary told eTN.

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) report, women make up an important percentage of the tourism workforce, but with lower incomes than the men employed in tourism.

The new UNWTO and United Nations (UN) Women report launched at the ITB Tourism Fair in Berlin last year indicated that greater gender equality will contribute to the overall quality of the tourist experience, with a considerable impact on profitability and quality across all aspects of the industry.

“This report highlights the crucial role tourism plays in empowering women politically, socially and economically,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Dr Taleb Rifai.

The report shows relevant data in five main areas: employment, entrepreneurship, leadership, education and community, comparable by regions.

Looking at the need for tourism development in Africa, the First Pan African Conference on Sustainable Tourism Management in National Parks and Protected Areas, organized by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) will be held in Tanzania’s northern tourist city of Arusha in mid-October.

According to UNWTO, nature-based tourism or eco-tourism is a large and growing global industry, partially dependent upon the attributes of the natural environment and biodiversity wildlife and scenery which represent one of Africa’s strategic competitive advantages as a destination.

The conference aims to encourage professional approach to better position “park tourism” as one of the core components of overall national park management in Africa and to acquire an overview of the current challenges in terms of demand and supply chain.