A tour inviting holidaymakers to ‘See Tanzania Through the Eyes
of its Women’ is just one of several projects aiming to get female voices heard
in tourism
On the slopes of Mount Meru in
northern Tanzania, Fatima Faraji welcomes guests to her 20-acre coffee
plantation, where she harvests only the fullest cherry-red arabica berries.
Hand-picked by a team of experienced women, the coffee is pulped and processed
on site the same day. Fatima tells visitors the story of her 40-year management
of the farm, and of the long hours of hard graft. Running a business as a
woman, she says, takes a strong will, a tough skin and a deep belief in
yourself.
Fatima is
one of several female workers I meet on a new tour from local operatorKiroyera
Tours. Its 14-day trip, See Tanzania Through the Eyes of its Women, is offered
as an alternative to traditional tours, giving visitors the chance to see what
life is like for women in Tanzania.
Mary
Kalikawe, owner of Kiroyera Tours and chair of the Association of Women in Tanzania, says: “Women have been
invisible and unheard for too long, yet they are the backbone, strength and
wisdom of our country. We’ve made them our focus.”
The tour was inspired by a new
series of travelogues sponsored by Brighton-based operator Rickshaw Travel. The
first, The World of Women:
Tanzania, was written by Carin Salerno and Elisabeth Thorens, who have lived
and worked in many developing countries. Frustrated that women are frequently
overlooked in travel books, they aim to redress the balance and interview
female entrepreneurs, artists, craftswomen and lawyers, as well as
businesswomen working in tourism. The books – on countries as diverse as
Myanmar and Switzerland – are intended as a companion to traditional guides,
providing a female voice from each area.
Kiroyera
Tours’ itinerary visits more women featured in the Tanzania edition, including
Asia Kimaryo, who runs the Aroma Coffee House in the safari town of Moshi, near
Kilimanjaro, which employs disadvantaged girls and boys; craftswomen in the
capital Dar es Salaam; and seaweed farmers on the eastern shores of Zanzibar’s
dazzling coast.
It’s just
one example of a growing number of initiatives by companies and individuals
looking to redress gender inequality in tourism by showcasing women’s work or
helping female tourism workers, often in very male-dominated societies.
Zainab Ansell, the first woman director of a
tour operator in Tanzania, has been running Zara
Tours for 30 years, and set up
a charity supporting the local community with the profits. In Botswana, the Chobe Angels at the
Chobe Game Lodge recently became the first all-female safari guiding team in Africa
while, in Delhi, G Adventures uses Women on Wheels as drivers for all
transfers. In Tunisia, Découvrire Tataouine offers tours
organised by women and uses female-run hotels. This summer, Italian NGO Gender
Responsible Tourism (GRT)
launched an interactive global map of tours
and places to stay that
benefit local women.
GRT founder Iaia Pedemonte says: “There are
some amazing projects out there that empower women, from India to Sicily; we’re
trying to highlight what women are doing and help them sell what they offer.”
But Equality in Tourism, a consultancy working
to ensure women have an equal voice in tourism and an equal share of its
profits, says it’s an uphill struggle. “Gender equality is the forgotten
ingredient in sustainable tourism,” said director Tricia Barnett. ‘Whether it’s
getting more women into the boardrooms or improving lives for vendors, tour
guides or chambermaids at the grassroots level, there’s much more to be done.”
