The Impact of Tourism Activities on Communities Adjacent to National Parks: A Case of Ruaha National Park, Tanzania.

Msilu, Peter (2021) The Impact of Tourism Activities on Communities Adjacent to National Parks: A Case of Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

As the number of tourism business increases steadily in RUNAPA, it is subject to an increase of several tourism activities and these activities brings both negative and positive impacts to host communities which needs to be assessed. Thus, the main objective of this study was to assess the impacts of tourism activities on local communities adjacent to Ruaha National Park. The sample of the population was 361respondents;constituting 300 local communities for structured and selfadministered questionnaires, 13 key informants from RUNAPA staff and 6 Focus Group Discussion (FGD) from 48 respondents. The study used self-administered questionnaire, interviews and documentary reviews for data collection. Both primary and secondary data were used to collect data for this study from a sample of selected respondents. Data was analyzed descriptively using frequency and percentage, while inferential statistical were analysis was done using the Chi-square test. The research found out that majority of respondents faced challenges from park related tourism activities such as environmental problems, traditional and cultural destruction, loss caused by wild animals through livestock and crops and habitats damages, and poor leakages within local economy. It has also been found that the main tourism activities undertaken adjacent to RUNAPA are walking, game viewing, Balloon Safaris and photographic safaris. The findings of the study indicate that expansion of tourism activities adjacent to RUNAPA has substantial impacts on the local economy and nation as shown by the increase in real GDP, social welfare and exports. Key words: Tourism industry, Economic Impact, Socio-Cultural Impacts, Local Community, Ruaha National Park

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