Zanzibar tourism under the spotlight: Authorities, hoteliers deny racism and vices

THISDAY REPORTER Dar es Salaam

AS reports of incidents related to alcohol, commercial sex and drugs continue to haunt the tourism industry in Zanzibar, there are new additional allegations of racial segregation whereby the locals (blacks) are said to be barred from accessing luxury hotels along Unguja’s eastern and northern coastline.

And a weeklong investigation by THISDAY amongst the cited coastline hotels, resorts and beach camps has verified much truth in the increasingly rampant allegations of overt segregation practices.

Sources further claimed that much of the earnings from the otherwise flourishing tourism industry were not reaching Isles government coffers, but instead ending up in the hands of the hotels’ foreign owners and a few ’influential’ Zanzibaris.

The sources told THISDAY that the hoteliers appear to discourage the presence of locals in their premises for fear that various vices and dubious activities said to be going on within may become known to the Isles’ largely conservative and homogenous Moslem population.

’’For sure if this were to happen, it could very well cause riots amongst the local populace,’’ said a domestic worker at one of the hotels, who preferred anonymity.

However, a senior official with the Zanzibar Commission for Tourism, Ali Marze, was quick to dismiss the allegations of racism and criminal activities in the hotels when approached by THISDAY for comment.

Speaking over the telephone from Zanzibar, Marze said all the commission is aware of are certain restrictions instituted by the hotel proprietors and local authorities against what he described as ’beach boys’ threatening the security of both the investors and hotel guests.

’’There have been numerous reports of tourists and hotel owners being mugged by the beach boys�in order to stop this malpractice, we beefed up security for all hotels while the respective managements introduced admission restrictions,’’ he said.

But despite the commission official’s protective statements, our survey made it clear that the local populace continues to be thoroughly unhappy to the point of outright anger at the alleged conduct of the hotels.

’’You may think that the eastern coastline is not even a part of Zanzibar, since the government appears to have very little - if any - control there. The area has become like a bastion for foreign investors who operate their hotel projects like fiefdoms,’’ said another of our well-placed sources.

It is understood that many of the employees at these hotels are foreigners brought in from South Africa, Kenya and various countries in the West, while chartered flights regularly bring holidaymakers of dubious character from Mombasa, Arusha and South Africa.

’’The super-rich of the world come here often, and they include even gays. It has even been reported that George Michael (a popular British-based pop singer) wanted to come and hold a birthday bash here last year,’’ said the source.

He said Michael attracted much attention in Zanzibar at the time because of his celebrity status, but denied that the singer’s being gay had anything to do with the Isles authorities’ rejection of his application to hold the party there.
But despite clear signs of a booming tourism industry in Zanzibar, with regular visits by some of the world’s richest celebrities, Isles government earnings from foreign arrivals remain dismal. For instance, tourism earned $140m from over 130,000 tourists who visited the Isles last year alone.

Further investigations by THISDAY also verified that items such as food, water and even commercial sex workers are being �imported� into Zanzibar, mainly from Kenya and South Africa, two countries which many of the hotel proprietors are closely linked to.

’’Most of the foreign currency ends up not in the Isles government coffers, but abroad, because most tourists arrive in Mombasa or Durban as their main destination and only come over here as part of their overall package, in which case most payments are done abroad,’’ another local hotel worker disclosed.
But again, tourism commission official Marze categorically dismissed these assertions and insisted that private hotel managers ’’have a right as to who they hire and who to allow within their compounds, provided they don’t violate the laws of the Isles.’’

’’The hotel managements have the right to employ anyone on the basis of competence and qualifications�we don’t interfere with that right,’’ he added.
In 2003, the British charity organization ActionAid published a report which criticized the World Tourism Organization (WTO)’s push for liberalization of the tourism service market to allow for as much expatriate exchanges as possible.

ActionAid’s argument was that such a move was likely to damage hopes of countries like Tanzania to use the industry for the purpose of creating more jobs, increasing local household incomes and fighting poverty amongst the wananchi.

Source: http://www.thisday.co.tz/News/1686.html