Youth poverty is a serious global problem which trap the large numbers of youth and children living in absolute poverty in developing countries [1]. It is said that there are nearly 1.8 billion youth aged between 15 to 24 years in the world and majority of them living in developing countries (UNFPA Report, 2018). Among those aged 15-24, some 500 million live on less than $2 a day, and over 73 million are unemployed (UNFPA Report, 2018). An extreme poverty to youth in Zanzibar is very high which is caused by high rate of unemployment. Data revealed that unemployment in Zanzibar remains a challenge, especially for youth. As in the case of many African countries, the youth of Zanzibar comprise a larger segment of the population whereby 35.3% of the population are aged 15-35 years. These youths face a high unemployment rate of 21.3%, (65% for young women and 43% for young men) [1]. Based on the Zanzibar poverty line, statistics shows that poverty fell from 34.9% in 2009 to 30.4% in 2015 and 25.6% in 2019 [2]. Zanzibar carried out radical economic reforms programs to liberalize trade and investment by offering tax breaks and other incentives for new investors to overcome a vicious cycle of poor economic performance and lift its population out of poverty [4]. As a logical follow up to this target of formulating economic policy, tourism is one of the sectors that were expected to bring new employment opportunities, to supplement income deficit and enhance socio-economic development to Zanzibar. Tourism contributes an estimated 27% to Zanzibar’s GDP, around 80 percent of its foreign exchange earnings, and an estimated 60,000 jobs creation [2]. Tourism sector has been growing fast and most of the businesses in Zanzibar now rely on tourism industry. These include spice farms, fish mongers, entrepreneurs, banks/ bureau de-change, grocery stores, restaurants, tour guides, entertainment venues, and transportation providers which mostly engage the youth. Overall, tourism provides about 3% direct employment and 4.5% indirect employment [3], and it is projected that about 50% of the Isle's population would be involved in tourism activities by the year 2025, forecasting a robust growth of the sector in few years to come [3]. The main originating countries over one-third of international visitors were from France, Poland, and United States. Around 3.6 thousand French tourists in 2019 visited the archipelago, followed by 3.1 thousand Polish visitors, and 2.4 thousand Americans [5]. Overall, Zanzibar recorded 25.8 thousand international arrivals in the same period. As of 2020, accommodation and food services added 491 billion Tanzanian shillings (around 211.8 million U.S. dollars) to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Zanzibar [5]. The records show that the number of tourists vary from a year to year, for example, Zanzibar received nearly 394,200 tourists in 2021, however it is still reported a shrunk volume of tourist arrivals as an impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic [5]. In 2020, a total of 260.6 thousand people visited the archipelago. Previously, the number of visitors was on the rise, reaching around 528.3thousand in 2019 [5]. Despite the increased number of tourism in Zanzibar and Nungwi in particular, large number of youth have limited access to employment and generating income resulting to fall into an extreme poverty [6].

Statement of the Problem

The first goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed upon by all member states of United Nations (UN), Tanzania inclusive, is to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty by the year 2030. The extreme poverty is more allusion in rural areas across the world rather than urban areas. Likewise, in Zanzibar most of local people in rural areas are lived in abject poverty due to the economic and socio- cultural barriers. Based on the Zanzibar poverty line for poverty, poverty fell from 34.9% in 2009 to 30.4% in 2015 and 25.7% in 2019 [2]. The difference in the poverty rate between rural and urban areas widened, with poverty seeing relatively more decline in urban areas, where poverty levels were already lower. The introduction of economic reform since the mid-1990s and in particular trade liberalization in Zanzibar has opened opportunities for local community to be involved in the tourism industry in order to endeavor the creation of more employments opportunities, income generation and alleviate poverty among the local community, to facilitate the growth of other economic sectors and improvement of infrastructure. Moreover, as a result, some of local people have changed their traditional economic activities like fishing, seaweed farming and small scale farming and shift on tourism related activities by work on hotels/restaurants, supply of tourism services and tourism supply chain business. Indeed, the rapid tourism growth in Zanzibar especially in North region of Zanzibar expected to transform the livelihoods of some local residents, notwithstanding the many activities aimed at reducing poverty, poverty remains a serious problem throughout communes located at Nungwi areas. Due to chronic poverty in Nungwi province, consideration of how tourism development can eradicate poverty has become the focal theme of many researchers. It is from this scenario, the researcher of this study is interesting to undertake the study on how tourism help to create employment opportunities, generate income and poverty reduction to youth in Nungwi village.

Objectives of the Study

The general objective of the study was to assess the contribution of coastal tourism to poverty eradication among the youth communities in Nungwi village in Zanzibar

The specific objectives were to:

1. To assess the contribution of coastal tourism employment in poverty eradication among the youth communities in Nungwi village.
2. To evaluate the contribution of coastal tourism income generation in poverty eradication among the youth communities in Nungwi village.
3. To determine the contribution of coastal tourism knowledge and skills in poverty eradication among the youth communities in Nungwi village.

Review Coastal Tourism

Tourism has been described in different meanings and contexts. The word tourism originated from Greek and Latin meaning ‘to turn or to cycle in the context of journey that end at the same place where it began’ [25]. This indicates that the process involves people and their movements so in other words tourism involve travelers and travelling. However, it is still ambiguous to understand tourism because not all travelers are tourists. Therefore, identifying what types of travel and what activities have been undertaken by a traveler may help us understand the term tourism. The United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) classifies definition of tourism into conceptual and technical categories. According to Lynn and Clare [25], conceptual definition explains the term tourism by providing theoretical framework that identifies all elements of tourism and reflecting it as a multi reflected and multi- disciplinary characteristics. Coastal tourism is the type of tourism which involves travelling to recreational activities at the coastal zones outside the usual environment [7]. Recreation activities are the combination of unique resources based on the land and sea border [7]. These resources include beaches, water, scenic view, sun bathing and biodiversity such as corals, fish, birds and small animals [7]. Coastal tourism includes tourism activities taking place on and around the beach which might be diving, snookering, boat safari, sun bathing, swimming and fishing [8].

Contribution of Coastal Tourism

Tourists originate from different part of the world and they have different ways of spending their money in their destinations. As tourists travel around the world spending their money, they may contribute significantly the economy and eradicate poverty to the host people in different ways. Although the contribution of coastal tourism may occur to both tourists and local people but in developing countries such as Zanzibar, local people tend to be influenced than the counterpart [9]. Therefore, the contribution of coastal tourism may fall under the following areas.

Employment

There are several different ways through which tourism creates employment opportunities for a good number of local people. This includes people employed in various service centers and accommodation facilities. Through tourism related activities and businesses, local people get direct benefits by being recruited to work in different positions [10]. Tour operators for instance, employ some villagers and provide on job trainings for them to work as tour guides [10]. In other areas, the employments in the tourism sector related activities and businesses has contributed significantly in reducing the number of unemployed people searching for job opportunities in other different sectors and industries [11]. The tourism sector also employs people with different education background ranging from low level of education such as gardeners to those requiring more technical trainings like tour guides, front office personnel, accountants, chefs and store keepers just to mention a few [12]. Generally, the tourism sector plays a significant role in the labor market employing a large number of local community members in various job opportunities. Claudia and Karla [13] carried out a study on the impact of tourism and the generation of employment in Mexico. The aim of this study was to study the relationship between employment and tourism activities as well as economic variables for the 32 states of Mexico for the period 1999-2014. The authors of this study use panel data and co-integration panel data and geographic information systems to observe changes over time between the variables, which is useful in the empirical evidence. The main results obtained by the models in this study is domestic tourism is the variable with the greatest impact on the generation of direct employment in the tourism sector. On the other hand, Lila [14] conducted a study to explore the contribution of tourism for employment generation in Nepal. Descriptive research design, quantitative research method and average sampling have been applied in this research for proper analysis because of its nature. Secondary data of a decade have been selected and analyzed during this research. This study has shown that the trend of employment in tourism sector has been increasing drastically during a decade. Analyzing secondary data which was collected during the period of 2008/09 to 2017/18, this study has concluded that inadequate infrastructure, inadequate promoting activities and regularity mechanism, political unrest, lack of skilled human resources and unhealthy competition among tourism establishments were some major barriers faced by the tourism sector for employment generation. This study suggested that the government should develop tourism infrastructure including road, electricity and communication, and tourism promoting activities in government and non-government organizations.

Income Generation

Tourism related activities are drivers of income generations to the communities contributing to the stimulation of poverty eradication. The revenues and income generation are through revenue and collecting tax, employment and tourism related businesses. In coastal zones, tourism activities have resulted into increased income to many local fishers along those areas. The fishers sell fishes to the hotels at relatively better prices than to the local community members [15]. Elizabeth [16] investigated factors in tourism that impact income generation and distribution in western gateway communities near national parks. Through an examination of the literature, the study identified seven unique variables with potential to effect income levels and income inequality in gateway communities; these variables include: park visitation, proximity to park visitor’s center, number of other gateway communities within 16.1 km (10 miles) of the park, the population size of the gateway community, it’s migration rate, it’s proportion of seasonal residential units, and it’s proportion of jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry. The study Used data from the American Community Survey as well as open-source GIS. The Results of the study suggest a negative trend in gateway community earnings from 2010 to 2019. In addition, gateway communities have had significantly lower mean earnings than comparable benchmark communities. The proportion of in-migration, the proportion of seasonal residential units, and the proportion of jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry, and the interaction between the latter two variables had a significant and negative impact on income in gateway communities. Godlove [17] conducted a study on the role of sustainable tourism in income generation in South Africa with a case study of Spier tourism initiative. The study employed both the qualitative and quantitative research designs. Data were collected through different qualitative and quantitative techniques (in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and questionnaire). Summary findings indicate that Spier has positively contributed to the socio-economic improvement in the living standards (contribution to livelihood – increased income, enhanced health and food status), through job creation, improved education/healthcare, empowerment through training and skill development, investment in the corporate social responsibility.

Knowledge and Skills

According to Guy [5] knowledge is information acquired through sensory input: Reading, watching, listening, touching, etc. The concept of knowledge refers to familiarity with factual information and theoretical concepts. Knowledge can be transferred from one person to another or it can be self-acquired through observation and study [5]. Skills, however, refer to the ability to apply knowledge to specific situations. Skills are developed through practice, through a combination of sensory input and output. As an example, social skills are developed through interaction with people by observing, listening, and speaking with them. Trial and error is probably the best way to achieve skills mastery [5].

Pouven [18] assessing the contribution of coastal tourism in poverty reduction: lessons from Mauritius as an ocean state. A survey based approach was developed in order to have in depth assessment of coastal tourism sector and its implications on the poverty reduction in Mauritius. A total of 385 questionnaires were administered for the study and response rate of 100% was recorded. The descriptive statistical methods revealed that 69.1% of the respondents were agreed that coastal tourism provide knowledge, skills and cultures which are shared from tourists including foreign languages and foreign cultures who came from different area and visit Mauritius.

Research Design

The study adopted a case study design. A case study design was chosen because the results are more easily understood by a wide audience including non-participants as they are frequently written in everyday and non-professional language [19].

Sample Size & Sampling Techniques

A sample 346 youths was selected from Nungwi villages. A simple random sampling technique was used to yield a total sample size.

Data Collection

Questionnaires were used to get required information. Likert Scale method was administered on the questionnaires to collect data from respondents. Permission was sought before conducting the study.

Reliability and Validity

The instrument’s reliability was determined using the Cronbach alpha coefficient at 0.96. A Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.70 or more implies a high degree of reliability of data was adopted. According to Kothari [19], Validity is a degree to which an instrument measures what it is supposed to measure. The study determined the accuracy, truthfulness and meaningfulness of inferences that are based on the data collected from the use of questionnaire. Content validity was adopted to measure the degree to which data collected using a particular tool represents a specific domain of indicators as a content of a particular concept. The academic experts at the department of Public Administration established the validity of the research instrument.

Preliminary analysis procedures of cleaning, frequencies, consistency checks, and debugging were done on the data obtained. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics to determine mean, mode and percentages of data collected. Inferential statistics was adopted to determine correlation and regression of the data collected. Questions testing were done using Pearson’s correlation and regression analysis; correlation was used to determine the relationship between the independent variable and dependent variable. Regression analysis was used to determine the contribution of each of the independent variable to the dependent variables. Data was analyzed with the aid of computer software (SPSS version 23).

Table 1: Profile of the Respondents.

Source: Field Survey, 2023

Table above shows that 160 (55.9%) of the respondents were males, whereas 126 (44.1%) of them were female respondents. As far as this study was concerned, of the respondents, the majority were youngsters under 21-25 years of age that accounting for 170 (59.4%) followed by ages between 26 and 29, which was about 80 (28.0%), and 15-20 years of age that account for 36 (12.6%), respectively. The majority of the respondents were having a secondary school education level, which accounts for 89 (31.1%), followed by a higher education level 71 (24.8%) and a who none attend formal education, which accounts for 66 (23.1%) respectively. The remaining portion of sample respondents was found with a primary level of elementary school with the metric value of 60 (21.0%). The survey indicates that the majority of subjects of this study were living in Nungwi long than 10 years with a total of 174 (60.8%) and those who stayed less than 10 years that account for 112 (39.2%). The findings have an implication that both male and female with different age group who lived in Nungwi long time and who are stayed within 10 years were involved in this study. Using these respondents helped the researcher to obtain information related to the study.

Table 2: Pearson Correlation Analysis.

Correlation is Significant at the 0.01Level (2-tailed).

The correlation coefficient between Employment (EM) and Poverty Eradication (PE) is 0.454, which indicates a moderate positive correlation. This suggests that as Employment (EM) increases also Poverty Eradication (PE) tends to increase. The correlation coefficient between Income generation (ING) and Poverty Eradication (PE) is 0.581, which indicates a strong positive correlation.This suggests that as Income generation (ING) increases, Poverty Eradication (PE) also tends to increase. The correlation coefficient between Knowledge and skills (KS) and Poverty Eradication (PE) is 0.379, which indicates a moderate positive correlation. This suggests that as Knowledge and skills (KS) increases, also Poverty Eradication (PE) tends to increase.

Multiple Regressions between Coastal Tourism and Poverty Eradication Variables

A multiple regression was run to determine the collective contribution of coastal tourism on poverty eradication. The multiple regression model used is given below.

Y=β0 +β1X1 + β2X2 + β3X3 + e

Where: - Β0= model constant β1, β2 and β3 are the model parameter estimates

 X1= employment

X2 = Income generation

 X3= Knowledge and Skills

 e = error factor

The regression summary result is shown in the Table below.

Table 3: Model Summary.

Source: Research data.

The computed R-square = 0.791, this implies that the independent variable considered in this model explain 76.8 percent of the dependent variable while 23.2.9 percent is explained by other variables.

The Table below displays the results of a multiple regression analysis that assesses the contribution of coastal tourism on poverty eradication among the youth communities in Zanzibar. The independent variables in this analysis are Income generation (ING), Knowledge and skills (KS), and Employment (EM) and dependent variable is Poverty Eradication (PE).

Table 4: Model B Summary.

The coefficient for Employment (EM) is 0.408, which means that for every one-unit increase in Employment creation (EM), Poverty Eradication (PE) is expected to increase by 0.408 units, holding other dependent variables constant. This coefficient is statistically significant (p < .001), which means that Employment creation (EM) is a significant predictor of Poverty Eradication (PE). The significant positive relationship between Employment creation (EM) and Poverty Eradication (PE) found in this study is consistent with previous research. For example, a study by Ahmed and Zaidi (2019) on the impact of employment on poverty reduction in Pakistan found that employment opportunities can improve individuals' economic conditions, leading to reduced poverty. Similarly, a study by Njuguna and Muturi [20] on the impact of employment creation on poverty reduction in Kenya found that employment creation initiatives can enhance individuals' income levels, leading to poverty reduction

The coefficient for Income generation (ING) is 0.502, which means that for every one-unit increase in Income generation (ING), Poverty Eradication is expected to increase by 0.502 units, holding other Dependent variables constant. This coefficient is statistically significant (p < .001), which means that Income generation (ING) is a significant predictor of Poverty Eradication (PE). The significant positive relationship between Income generation (ING) and Poverty Eradication (PE) found in this study is consistent with previous research. For example, a study by Ali and Asongu [21] on the impact of tourism on poverty reduction in Africa found that tourism has a positive and significant effect on reducing poverty, particularly through its contribution to income generation. Similarly, a study by Ndekugri and Adarkwa [22] on the impact of tourism on poverty alleviation in Ghana found that tourism generates income and employment opportunities, which in turn lead to poverty reduction. The coefficient for Knowledge and skills (KS) is 0.294, which means that for every one-unit increase in Knowledge and skills provision (KS), Poverty Eradication (PE) is expected to increase by 0.294 units, holding other dependent variables constant. This coefficient is also statistically significant (p < .001), which means that Knowledge and skills provision (KS) is a significant predictor of Poverty Eradication (PE). The significant positive relationship between Knowledge and skills provision (KS) and Poverty Eradication (PE) found in this study is consistent with previous research. For example, a study by Amankwah-Amoah and Zhang [23] on the impact of vocational education and training on poverty reduction in Ghana found that vocational education and training can enhance individuals' knowledge and skills, which can lead to increased employability, higher earnings, and ultimately poverty reduction. Similarly, a study by Malit and Miller [24] on the impact of education and training on poverty reduction in the Philippines found that education and training programs can improve individuals' knowledge and skills, which can lead to better job opportunities and higher incomes, thereby reducing poverty.

Tourism, among the largest industry in the world in terms of the creation of millions of new jobs and income, plays a significant role in the development of the economy rural communities so that it can contribute to poverty reduction in rural areas. This study aimed to analyze the contribution of coastal tourism on poverty eradication among youth communities in Zanzibar with specific focus of Nungwi area, which is believed to have better tourist flow. The findings revealed that tourism was found to significantly and positively affect poverty eradication. In conclusion, rural areas can employ coastal tourism as an invaluable tool to support their efforts in alleviating poverty. The nature of the tourism industry would bring direct, indirect, and induced effects to various individuals, groups or families, and communities through employment, obtaining knowledge and skills, and generating income.

This study suggested that the central and regional governments in Zanzibar shall take measures and set tourism among the priority development pillars to revitalize economic development and alleviate the rural poor. The Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar should develop and implement comprehensive policies that focus on sustainable coastal tourism development with a specific emphasis on poverty eradication among youth communities. Ensure that these policies incorporate social, economic, and environmental considerations.

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