Tanzania: Mt Kilimanjaro Sets World Record in Enriching the Poor

18 June 2011

Local communities around Mount Kilimanjaro earn over 20 billion/- per year from the Africa’s highest peak, money which goes straight into their pockets.

A recent study by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), which is Britain’s leading Independent ‘Think tank,’ and whose results were presented in Arusha over the weekend, has indicated that local residents earn 28 percent of the total revenue raised at Kilimanjaro from foreign visitors.

Funded by the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), the ODI study concluded that it was the world’s highest and most successful transfer of resources from international tourists to poor people in the locality.

“This is the most successful transfer of resources from international tourists to poor people living around the destination that ever seen anywhere in Africa or Asia,” stated Mr Elibariki Heriel-Mtui the SNV Adviser in Private Sector Development, when tabling the report before local tour operators in Arusha.

Apparently of all the tourists destinations in Tanzania, it is only Mount Kilimanjaro which channels the largest share of its earnings (28 percent) straight into local residents’ pockets, thus enriching the local community like no other tourist feature anywhere in the world.

The study titled ‘ Making success work for the poor: Package tourism in Northern Tanzania!’ was conducted around Mt Kilimanjaro in Moshi and Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority in Arusha, by Jonathan Mitchell, Jodie Keane and Jenny Laidlaw.

Mount Kilimanjaro which is Africa’s highest peak attracts more than 35,000 annual climbers and the earnings from the total in-country tourists expenditure is averaged at around US$ 50 million (80 billion/-) per year.

According to the SNV-ODI study, the around 80 billion/- generated by Mt Kilimanjaro per year, is also a significant economic input in a rural context.

The study found that 28 percent of the tourism earnings from Mt Kilimanjaro which is equivalent to over US$ 13 million or 20.8 billion/- is considered pro-poor expenditure, on that it goes straight into the pockets of local people there.

The basis for this estimate of pro-poor expenditure, according to the ODI includes all the wages and tips received by climbing staff that are termed to be 100 percent pro-poor.

All guides and porters interviewed at Kilimanjaro were all from poor backgrounds. Also 90 percent of food and beverage expenditure by tourists at Kili was found to be to be both pro-poor and locally-sourced, because almost all food consumed on Mount Kilimanjaro is sourced from the local market in Moshi, and the suppliers to this market are overwhelmingly local small-holder farmers.

The study indicates that 50 percent of expenditure on cultural goods and services was pro-poor on that craft shop, retail outlets and curio stalls suggest that poor producers receive approximately 50 percent of the retail price – a typical retail mark-up for the craft sector.

Around 16 percent of all accommodation costs were found to be paid in non-managerial wages and are therefore also considered pro-poor.

“We estimate that 5 percent of National Park fees expenditure is pro-poor because although TANAPA staff is well-paid, the Authority employs local casual labor for cleaning operations and significant funds are also distributed,” said Mr Mtui.

Kilimanjaro National Park fees include a US$60 daily entrance fee, a US$ 40 daily camping fee (or US$ 50 daily hut accommodation fee if ascending via the Marangu route) and a US$ 20 rescue fee.

The Mount Kilimanjaro climbing value chain has the highest proportions of pro-poor expenditure as a percentage of total in-country tourist expenditure of any tourist destination studied to date by ODI.

More than 400 guides, 10,000 porters and 500 cooks get permanent employment in the climbing expeditions at Kilimanjaro and these benefit from 60 percent of the pro-poor earnings. There are also 28,000 people who benefit indirectly from handicraft business and sales of other tourist targeting artifacts not to mention thousands of local farmers, peasants and traders who supply food and services to visitors.

The total pro-poor impact of Kilimanjaro (US$13 million) is however a drop in the sea when reflected in the total tourism earnings from the annual number of tourists (about 700,000) who visit the Northern Tanzania Circuit and who reportedly spend a total of US$ 103 million (165 billion/-) per year, touring mostly Mt Kilimanjaro, Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater.

Ngorongoro Crater itself attracts close to 400,000 visitors per year, more than ten-times the number of tourists visiting Kilimanjaro.

Other Northern Zone attractions contribute just 18 percent to the local communities surrounding them. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority contributes US$ 1.2 Million every year to the local Pastoral Pastoral Community.

“The implications of this are that, if the aim is to use tourism to help lift people out of poverty at scale, then mainstream tourism should be the primary target for pro-poor interventions,” stated the SNV official.

A small, incremental change in the distribution of benefits in a large tourist flow can have a larger pro-poor impact than a large change in a niche tourist product.

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