Description:
This paper aims to assess the stakeholders’ strategies towards
sustainable ecotourism, with specific focus on networks and
public private partnership strategies. A qualitative method through
exploratory research design was applied to gather in-depth
information about the existing networks and their roles towards
promoting sustainable ecotourism in Tanzania. Thereafter, 23
common strategies in promoting sustainable ecotourism through
collaborations were established from literature review, followed
by a survey involving tourism stakeholders (n=250) which was
conducted in the eastern and northern tourist circuits of Tanzania.
The influence of respondent’s attributes on their perception towards
sustainability of ecotourism was analyzed on each of the identified
23 collaboration strategies by specifying and estimating binary
logistic model to understand the attributes associated with the
identified strategies. The study results show that despite of the
number of the stakeholder’s networks available, the level of their
involvement in the management of ecotourism is still very low.
There is also statistical evidence supporting that, the extent of public
private partnerships in ecotourism activities is neither renowned nor
formalized. To a large extent, this leads to inadequate seriousness
and sense of ownership among stakeholders which jeopardizes
both the development and promotion of sustainable ecotourism in
the country. It is concluded therefore that, there is greater potential
of sustaining ecotourism at any destination if all stakeholders will be
represented via networks and public private partnerships within and
between sectors.