The socio-economic impacts of tourism on the street children in urban Tanzania; A case study of Arusha Municipality.

ABSTRACT 

This study examines the socio-economic impacts of tourism on street children in urban Tanzania, taking a case study of Arusha Municipality. The specific objectives of the study, to provide an overview on growth of tourism and the increase of street children. The study sought to identify socio-economic impacts of tourism on the growth of the problem of street and finally to examine the effort being made by tourism, government and other stakeholder in helping or reduce the number and problem of street children To gain a rich understanding of the context of this study, a case study approach was employed in Arusha municipality to bring together perspectives from the grass-root level, where little research on this topic has been done; involvement of multiple stakeholders that explores perspectives from a range of stakeholders. The use of multiple methods (questionnaire, interviews, field observations, document analysis, and informal discussions) was used to collect data. Both quantitative and qualitative data generated from these techniques are analyzed, integrated and compared, and are used to complement each other. The study has briefly highlight that, children centers alone can barely work a miracle in reducing the increase of children on the streets of Tanzania particularly Arusha Municipal. They need government and public support to be able to tackle this situation effectively. In most cases the government and the public have left this situation to be mostly handled by only NGOs. Key findings from the study included that tourism precipitate the problem of street children, the socio-economic impacts on street children and the effort done by government NGOs, and Tourism industry. The study recommends that the government should open more centers for street children and support NGOs and CBOs to address the problem of street children being negatively impacted by tourism industry. Tourism industry cooperates with government, NGOs and Civil Societies to curb the problem of Street Children in Arusha Municipality