Dar es Salaam, 25, April, 2012: The Newly launched ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN IN
TOURISM TANZANIA (AWOTTA) has been urged to promote gender equality,
women’s empowerment and take proactive steps to mainstream gender in
tourism policies, planning and operations.
Director of Tourism in the Ministry of Natural resources and Tourism, Mr
Ibrahim A. Mussa, who was the guest of honour at the launch of the
association at the weekend in Dar es Salaam, commended women in tourism for
the initiative to come up with the association.
He said empowerment of women through tourism was possible and promised
AWOTTA his office would be willing to work on recommendations made by the
association to the government.
Quoting Global Report on Women in Tourism 2010, the director said tourism
offers the potential for women’s leadership. “However, women still only
represent one fifth of all tourism ministers and tourism board chairs.
While tourism often contributes to Community development and provides
opportunities for women’s self-employment, the report finds that women are
contributing a large amount of unpaid work in tourism family businesses,
especially when compared to other sectors,” he said.
The director also officially launched the associations website-
www.awotta.org at the emotionally charged meeting, which was attend by over
100 women and a few men, in tourism sector from across the country.
Mama Mary Kalikawe, the founder and first chairperson of AWOTTA said the
association will work with stakeholders to identify tourist activities that
it can support and it will be active around land issues for women tourism
activities.
“AWOTTA will work with planners and owners of land to assist women in
tourism business,” she said adding that placing women tourist activities at
strategic places, will help boost local economy.
“More women will be able to control their own income,” she said.
Mama Kalikawe said AWOTTA will be supporting women in tourism businesses
and other tourism engagements, economically, legally and socially among
other things.
Kenya Association of Women in Tourism (KAWT) chairperson Faith Kithu said
the launching of AWOTTA was a big milestone for Tanzanians women in tourism
industry. She told the director of tourism, that any time Tanzania
government needs to work with women in tourism, AWOTTA members are
available.
Ms Hafsa Mbamba, Managing Director, Grassroots Traveller in Zanzibar said
one of the core agenda of AWOTTA was promoting and further developing
“sustainable tourism” in Tanzania.
AWOTTA has come into being with a list of 25 committed members from
diverse locations- Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Mwanza, Tanga, Moshi and
Bunda. Its launch was sponsored by Hotel Association of Tanzania (HAT) and
Tanzania Private sector Foundation- Cluster Competitiveness program (CCP).
End