The participation of tanzania citizens in domestic tourism

The Tanzanian government through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism has taken a lot of measures to implement the strategies through price discrimination (setting different entrance fees for domestic tourists and other tourists) a dynamic price set to encourage tourists; the entrance fees charged in museums and National Parks in Tanzania are reduced to encourage domestic tourists. This study evaluated the participation of Tanzania citizens in domestic tourism based on trust, power, knowledge and destination visit. The results of this study will provide strategic guidance on how to organise domestic tourism market and assist tour operators, tourist hotel and heritage sites on how best they can market tourism through encouraging participation of Tanzania citizens in domestic tourism.

Power in the social exchange relationship is defined as the ability of one actor to influence the outcome of another actor’s behavior or experience. According to Nunkoo (2016) other studies refer power in modern social science as subset relationship among social units such that the behaviour of one or more units depends in some circumstances the behaviour of another units, hence power can be conceptualized as the capacity to attain ends, usually produce intended effects to others. Wrong (1979) notes that a common approach to conceptualize power is to enumerate the resources that enable an actor to exercise power on another. Power in an exchange situation is determined by the actors’ level of control over resources that another actor needs and values.

A resource can be anything such as property, money, competence, knowledge, and skills owned by a person and that can be made available to others as instrumental to the satisfaction of their needs (Wolfe, 1959). Nunkoo (2016) also suggests that power is a function of resources. Thus, from a social exchange perspective the word ‘ resources’ is used very broadly and includes both materialistic and non-materialistic aspects unlike in economic exchanges where the focus is on wealth as a resource for the partners. A partner with power is someone who owns and controls different resources which are available for exchange with the other partner. The greater are these resources, the greater is the level of power of one actor over the other. In this context, power is vested in the number and availability of valued resources that may be used as concessions to influence another.

Power as capacity to attain ends can also influence someone’s behaviour. Many studies view tourism as male activities because of the responsibilities that women hold in the society (Anderson, 2010; Minde, 2016). The superiority of men is very common in most Tanzania societies and it has the effect on decisions to participate in domestic tourism as most women depend on supports from men, and in many situations the behavior of women are influenced by men. According to Jaafar et al. (2015), gender has significant effect on tourism related activities. Marketers have to take into consideration the exchange relationship that exist between men and women and consider that in designing marketing activities.

Resident’s knowledge of tourism is central to the sustainability and good governance of the sector. Knowledge refers to resident’s understanding of tourism development issues and the roles played by organizations, tourism industry and local government in the industry. Knowledge is an important resource in the tourism industry and determines its position in a social exchange network, making it an important construct of Social Exchange Theory. Some studies investigate the influence of residents’ knowledge of tourism on their attitudes to the perceived impacts of the industry.

Residents who are knowledgeable about tourism are most likely to recognize the benefits and costs of participating in tourism (Andereck et al., 2005). According to Davis et al. (1988) and Nunkoo and Fung So (2015) haters of tourism included residents who generally had poor knowledge of tourism. Andereck et al.’s (2005) study indicated that residents who were knowledgeable about tourism were more likely to report positive impacts while according to Nunkoo (2015) there is a significant relationship between knowledge and residents involvement in tourism.

Knowledge in this study is based on the measures which were taken to implement the policy, including development of the Tanzania tourism master plan for marketing and communication strategy in order to develop an image of Tanzania as a leading wildlife destination.