CHAPTER 6 - TOURISM

6.1 Introduction
6.2 Tanzania
6.3 Zimbabwe

6.1 Introduction

Tourism is of vital importance for both the Tanzanian and Zimbabwean economies. In Tanzania, the tourism industry as a whole accounted for 7.5 per cent of GDP and more than 30 per cent of total export earnings in the mid 1990s. Direct employment in tourist enterprises (most notably, hotels/lodges and tour operators) stood at nearly 26,000 in 1995 (7 per cent of formal sector employment). However, since the late 1980s, the number of tourists visiting Tanzania has grown only very slowly - from 303,000 in 1990 to 326,000 in 1996. The 1997 Tourism Policy Document has set an ambitious target of 900,000 tourist arrivals by 2012 with income from tourism totalling US$400 million. It is clear, therefore, that the successful development of the tourist industry is an essential part of the overall process of economic restructuring in Tanzania.

In order to compete effectively in increasingly global markets, tourist enterprises must be able to offer competitive, high quality products for carefully targeted clienteles. As a skill-intensive, service industry, training has therefore a key role to play in ensuring that the requisite skills are continuously developed in a cost-effective manner. The centrality of human resource development has been consistently highlighted in the most recent tourist policy statements and plans which were published in 1991, 1994 and 1997. As the 1997 Tourism Policy states "tourism education and training is one of the fundamental pillars of the development of a responsible tourism in Tanzania" (GOT, 1997:11).

In Zimbabwe, the tourism industry accounted for 5 per cent of GDP in 1996 and more than 25 per cent of total export earnings (only surpassed by tobacco exports) in 1997. Direct employment in tourist enterprises (most notably, hotels/lodges and tour operators) stood at around 100,000 in 1996 (8 per cent of formal sector employment). Since the early 1990s, the number of foreign tourists has grown extremely rapidly. By 2001, tourism's share of GDP is projected to double to 10 per cent.

6.2 Tanzania

6.2.1 Survey Design and Methodology

Out of a total of 224 registered hotels and 212 tour operators in Tanzania, 73 per cent and 90 per cent are located in the Dar Es Salaam and Arusha Regions. Given this high geographical concentration, the tourism enterprise survey was confined to these two regions. A total of 23 enterprises - 14 hotels and 9 tour operators - were randomly selected (see Table 6.1). The senior manager in each enterprise who was responsible for training was interviewed using a slightly modified version of the questionnaire used for the manufacturing industry survey.

A mini survey was also undertaken of training institutions that specialise in providing long and/or short courses for the tourism personnel. In addition to the one government tourism training centre, four (out of a total of around 25) private sector training centres were randomly surveyed. Finally, senior officials responsible for human resource development in the Ministry of Tourism, the Tanzanian Tourist Board, and the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO) were also interviewed.

As can be observed in Table 6.1, most of the tour operators in the sample only started their businesses during the 1990s and employ fewer than 25 employees. These respondents were clearly unable, therefore, to discuss how their training policies and practices had changed since the late 1980s.

Table 6.1: Key characteristics of the survey hotels and tour operators

Code	Location (region)	Date established	Number rooms	Ownership and management status	Employees
					1990	1997	per cent change
Hotels
1	Arusha	1988	20	Private	70	110	57
2	Arusha	1979	408	Public	303	247	-18
3	Arusha	1968	192	JV (foreign)	256	250	-2
4	Arusha	1968	100	JV (foreign)	116	105	-9
5	Arusha	1972	75	JV (foreign)	80	100	25
6	Arusha	1967	-	JV (foreign)	50	54	8
7	Arusha	1968	-	JV (foreign)	34	34	0
8	Arusha	1968	-	JV (foreign)	46	54	17
9	DSM	1997	-	Private	-	320	-
10	DSM	1995	-	Private	-	374	-
11	DSM	1983	144	Private	270	216	-20
12	DSM	1964	198	Public	629	457	-27
13	Tanga	1978	25	Private	95	58	-39
14	Mwanza	1976	55	Private	156	104	-33
Tour operators
1	Arusha	1986	-	Private	85	115	35
2	Arusha	1993	-	Private	-	15	-
3	Arusha	1993	-	Private	-	8	-
4	Arusha	1992	-	Private	10	160	1500
5	Arusha	1985	-	Private	7	15	114
6	Arusha	1969	-	Private	17	20	18
7	Arusha	1986	-	Private	12	22	83
8	Dar Es Salaam	1982	-	Private	20	20	0
9	Dar Es Salaam	1962	-	Private	250	276	10

Notes:

All tour operators are privately owned
JV = joint venture

6.2.2 Pre-Adjustment Training Provision

Prior to economic liberalisation, the government exercised strong centralised control over the tourism industry in Tanzania. By the early 1980s, nearly one-half of all tourist hotels were government-owned. The Tanzanian Tourist Corporation (which was established soon after the Arusha Declaration in 1969) owned and managed 19 of the largest hotels and lodges and had overall responsibility for tourism promotion and marketing. The State Travel Services controlled up to 70 per cent of the tour operator market.

Multiple constraints (most notably, poor planning and management, chronic shortages of foreign exchanges, and very poor infrastructure) stifled the development of the tourism industry during this period and the overall quality of service provided by most hotels and tour operators was well below accepted international standards. Given these highly adverse operating conditions, the scope for improving product quality through training was limited. While government did recognise the need for systematic training activities as a whole not only lacked strategic direction, but were limited both in their scope and overall intensity.

Training for senior and middle managers had to be undertaken overseas but, for much of this period, sufficient donor funds were available to support this type of training (although many of the most senior management positions in the largest hotels were still occupied by expatriates) But, for most workers, once initial pre-employment training had been completed, virtually all other training was on-the-job.

6.2.3 Training Provision During Economic Liberalisation

Labour Productivity: As elsewhere, one of the key objectives of the economic liberalisation programme in Tanzania is to create new, powerful incentives that will provide the impetus for enterprises (particularly in the tradable goods and service sectors) to increase significantly their productivity and thereby become internationally competitive. Over 90 per cent of the hotel and tour operator who were surveyed stated that they have taken steps to improve labour productivity during the 1990s. Among the hotel group, over 70 per cent of these initiatives related directly to the provision of training whereas tour operators have focused more on improving pay and service conditions, particularly for more experienced personnel (see Table 6.2). However, despite these efforts, over one-third of hotel respondents did not know how productivity had changed since 1990, half indicated there had been no change, and 14 per cent stated that productivity had declined. None of the tour operators were able to say whether productivity had increased or not.

Training Policies and Practices: While hotels look mainly to improved staff training as a key modality for increasing service quality and overall productivity, only a small minority of the survey hotels have actually made major changes to their training policies and practices during the 1990s. In particular, only one hotel stated that a 'major change' had occurred in the amount of time it devoted to staff training since 1990 (see Table 6.3). The training response among tour operators has been even more muted - with only one firm indicating that more time is now devoted to training activities.

Table 6.2: Main actions taken to improve worker productivity among survey tourism enterprises (percentages)

Action	Hotels	Tour operators
Formal in-house and on-the-job training	44	14
Off job training	29	11
Reimbursement of fees for private training undertaken by employees	4	0
Information sharing meetings	4	0
Investment in new technology	4	16
Improved supervision for better services	7	6
Improvement in remuneration	0	30
More participatory management	0	6
Re-employment and/or retention of experienced workers	4	7
Others	0	6

Table 6.3: Degree of change in training policies and practices among surveyed tourist enterprises, 1990-1996 (percentages)

Levels of change	Hotels				Tour operators
	Policy	Planning	Financing	Time allocation	Policy	Planning	Financing	Time allocation
No change	71	43	64	84	78	78	100	100
Limited change	14	36	29	8	22	22	22	0
Major change	15	21	7	8	0	0	0	0

Complacency is a major reason for the failure of most of the survey tourist enterprises to intensify their training efforts. Most believe that the services they provide are adequate and, as a consequence, little systematic efforts have been made to survey the responses of clients to services provided. In other words, the generally low consciousness of the need to train intensively stems from a failure to be strongly client-driven.

Table 6.4: Real expenditure on training in 1996 as a percentage of 1990 expenditure

	1-25	26-50	51-75	76-100	100-125	126-150
Hotels	3	2	1	1	0	2

It proved to be especially difficult to obtain comprehensive information on financial outlays on training among survey respondents. Among the tour operators, this is mainly because most do not have separate budgets for training activities nor do they spend anything on formal, off-the-job training. Among the nine hotels for which financial data was forthcoming, funding of training declined very significantly in real terms between 1990 and 1996/97 at six of them (see Table 6.4). Most hotels refused to divulge any information on their total turnover, but it is clear that the absolute and relative size of training expenditures has remained fairly derisory. In 1996-97, total training costs at the survey hotels ranged from T.Sh. 50,000 to T.Sh. 6,000,000 and from T.Sh 40,000 to T.Sh 100,000 among the tour operators. However, the number of formal trainers did increase in four out of the eight hotels that did have dedicated trainers in 1996-97, remained unchanged at two hotels, and fell very appreciably at one hotel (which is about to be privatised).

Increased competition with lower margins has also negatively impacted on the level of training activities, particularly for mainly government hotels that have failed to modernise and are awaiting privatisation.

Training Intensity by Staff Category: The type and incidence of pre-employment and job-related training received by the four main categories of personnel employed by hotels and tour operators is summarised in Table 6.5. Among hotel managers, the paucity of university graduates is a particularly striking feature which, in part, is a reflection of the low status of jobs in the tourist sector among university graduates. Over 80 per cent of hotel managers have, however, undertaken diploma or certificate courses in hotel management prior to taking up employment in the industry. But, once in employment, it is very noticeable just how few (no more than 15 per cent) of hotel managers have attended either long or short formal training courses. Among tour operators, not one manager had benefited from courses of these kind. The lack of relevant occupational pre-employment training as well as formal job-related training once in employment among supervisors and skilled workers employed by both hotels and tour operators is also very apparent. Nearly three-quarters of all respondents stated that the government's formal apprenticeship scheme (managed by VETA) was almost totally irrelevant to their training needs.

Overseas Training and Foreign Trainers: Despite the continued lack of training capacity for senior and middle level managers in the tourism industry, only 42.8 per cent of the survey hotels sent their managers on training courses overseas in 1996. However, nearly two thirds of the hotels did indicate that overseas training had 'increased' or 'increased significantly' in importance since 1990 (see Table 6.6). Overseas training among tour operator managers remains virtually non-existent mainly because of the very small size of most companies coupled with their general reliance on recruiting appropriately qualified and experienced personnel as and when they are needed.

Table 6.5: Education and training profiles by staff category

Table 6.6: Change in importance of overseas training and reliance on public and private (percentages)

	Decreased significantly		Decreased		No change		Increased		Increased significantly
	H	TO	H	TO	H	TO	H	TO	H	TO
Importance of overseas training	7.1	0.0	21.4	0.0	7.1	100.0	35.7	0.0	28.6	0.0
Reliance on public sector training institutions	0.0	0.0	28.6	44.4	71.4	66.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Reliance on private sector training institutions	0.0	0.0	7.1	33.3	78.6	55.6	14.3	11.1	0.0	0.0

Note: H = hotels; TO = tour operators

Nearly 60 per cent of the survey hotels relied on overseas personnel for training activities. During 1996/97, seven out of these eight hotels had one long term expatriate whose training efforts were supplemented by one other short term (i.e. less than three months) trainer from overseas. The Sheraton Hotel in Dar Es Salaam is very much the exception since it relies very heavily on short-term foreign trainers. In 1996, for example, 13 of these trainers conducted training courses for local staff. While over 80 per cent of the hotel respondents rated overseas trainers as either 'effective' or 'very effective', only two hotels said they would rely more on overseas expertise if immigration controls were significantly relaxed. Very high employment costs were cited as the major reason for this.

Reliance on public and private training institutions: None of the survey enterprises had increased their reliance on public sector training institutions since 1990 and, for a significant minority (28.6 per cent hotels and 44.4 per cent tour operators), their level of reliance decreased (see Table 6.6). Most expressed little confidence in the capacity of VETA to deliver relevant, high quality training.

A few hotels and tour operators have increased their reliance on private training institutions, but 78.6 per cent of hotels and 55.6 per cent of tour operators indicated that there had been no change. One-third of tour operators stated that they had, in fact, reduced their reliance on private sector trainers. It is clear, therefore, that economic liberalisation has not resulted in any significant shift in enterprise demand for public and private sector training in the tourism industry.

6.2.4 Training Provision

The Hotel and Tourism Training Institute, Forodhani: The HTTI at Forodhani is the only public sector training institution for the tourist industry in Tanzania. The training offered is mainly for skilled hotel workers. The four core courses (food production, food and beverage, front office, and housekeeping) are nine months in duration. Three month refresher courses are also offered. The involvement of industry stakeholders in the planning and management of HTTI has declined since 1990 and there have been very few changes in the curriculum of HTTI's core courses during the 1990s. Links with local tourist enterprises have been adversely affected because of lack of resources for students to undertake work attachments. To a large extent, therefore, training remains largely supply-driven and does not adequately cater for the training needs of the industry.

Enrolments are relatively small (only 157 in 1996), although they have doubled since 1990. Whereas female students comprised 47 per cent of total enrolments in 1990, by 1997 this had increased to 72 per cent. This is mainly because enrolment growth has been most rapid in food and catering courses which traditionally have always been female dominated. With ten full-time instructors, the staff-student ratio of 1:16 is relatively high. Staff turnover is minimal.

Like other public sector training institutions, HTTI has had to increase student fees during the 1990s in order to make up for rapidly declining government funding. By 1996, 60 per cent of HTTI's total income came from student fees which were T.Sh. 300,000 and T.Sh. 500,000 per course for day and boarding students respectively.

Course completion rates are over 95 per cent. The one exception is food production which, in 1996, had a completion rate of 83 per cent. Drop-outs are low because the majority of students are already in employment and are likely to lose their jobs if they fail to complete their training. However, HTTI management and instructors are increasingly concerned about the decline in the overall quality of student intakes as a result of lower educational standards in primary and secondary schools.

Private Sector Training Institutions: Four centres were randomly selected from 25 known hotel and tourism PSTIs. Two are fully registered with VETA, one has preliminary registration and one is unregistered. All four were established between 1994 and 1997. With the exception of Centre A, courses are between 6-24 months in duration and enrolments are very small (see Table 6.7). Apart from the tour guide and driver courses at Centre C, female students once again predominate.

Table 6.7: Courses, enrolments and fees at the survey tourism training centres in the private sector

Centre	Courses	Duration (months)	Enrolments			Fees/year (T.Sh.)
			Male	Female	Total
A	Hotel management and ticketing	12	12	20	32	220,000
B	Cookery, bakery, service reception	24	20	69	79	180,000
C	Tour guides and drivers	1.5	3.8	2	40	50,000
D	Food production, beverages	12	6	19	25	220,000

Except for Centre B, staff are poorly qualified and have little relevant employment experience. Only Centre A has any significant enterprise sponsorship of students attending its tour driver and guide short courses. There are no formal entry qualifications for most courses. Ability to pay is the sole entry criterion. Consequently, the quality of the student intake is relatively poor. In particular, students are not fluent in English which is essential in the tourist industry. Most are unemployed school leavers. Given the relatively high fees charged by these centres, most students are from relatively well off families, living mainly in urban areas.

With all the centres awarding their own certificates, completion rates are very high. However, inadequate staffing and facilities coupled with low quality of student intakes means that the overall quality of graduates from these centres is generally poor. Respondents claimed however that over 75 per cent of their students find training-related employment in the tourism industry.

The survey PSTIs all stated that government was very unsupportive and that much more should be done to create a more enabling environment that encourages private sector training provision for the fast growing tourism industry. None had been inspected by VETA inspectors in the last two years. Two centres believe that they should benefit from the VETA training levy while the other two centres felt that government should ensure that hotel and tourism courses are properly certified and that trade testing should be improved significantly.

6.2.5 Strengths and Weaknesses of Government Policies and Practices

Enterprise respondents were asked to identify changes in government policies and/or actions since 1990 that had supported and undermined their efforts to improve the training of their staff. Their responses are summarised in Table 6.8. Over 40 per cent stated that they were unable to identify any changes in government policies/actions since 1990 that had supported their training efforts. While around a quarter of respondents did mention the positive impact of economic liberalisation, only 15.7 per cent of responses related to specific interventions to improve training provision (viz. a more enabling environment for PSTIs (10.5 per cent) and the availability of government scholarships (5.2 per cent)).

Table 6.8: Summary of responses to the question 'What changes in government policies and/or actions since 1990 have supported and/or undermined your efforts to train staff?'

Supportive	per cent	Undermining	per cent
· None identified	42	· None identified	16
· General economic liberalisation/pro-private sector	26	· Lack of training strategy/poor training provision	47
· Allowing PSTIs to operate	11	· General government neglect of industry	6
· Improved labour mobility	5	· Uncontrolled private sector expansion	9
· Provision of scholarships	5	· Excessive licensing and other fees	9
· Others	11	· Others	13

In contrast, most respondents were able to cite government policies/actions that had undermined their training efforts during the 1990s. Nearly a half of all responses related to the lack of a clear government training strategy for the tourism industry as a whole. A major reason for the poor training response of tourism enterprises since the start of economic liberalisation is because of the paucity of good quality training opportunities in-country. Tackling this supply constraint is likely to lead, therefore, to a major increase in training activity. More generally, many respondents felt that there was not a sufficiently enabling environment that encourages them to train their staff in order to meet accepted international standards of service. While economic liberalisation has created a more conducive environment for private sector tourist development, there is a pervasive concern that, with respect to human resources development, government has become too laissez-faire with a corresponding lack of government control and strategic direction.

Table 6.9: Percentage of respondents rating of possible government actions to improve training by tourism enterprises as "very important"

Suggested area of improvement/change	Hotels	Tour operators
Change in ministerial responsibility	14.3	11.1
Creation of an autonomous agency	28.6	22.2
Change tourism levy	7.1	22.2
Better staffing at training colleges	50.0	22.2
Better facilities at training colleges	35.7	22.2
Reform apprenticeship system	35.7	22.2
More encouragement PSTIs	44.3	11.1
Steps to promote in-house training	42.9	22.2
More expatriates	7.1	11.1
Increased overseas training	7.1	11.1

The importance attached by employers to improved training provision is reflected in their assessments of what changes in government policies and actions are needed in order to improve both the quality and quantity of training. As can be observed in Table 6.9, half of all hotel respondents identified the need to improve staffing at training colleges as "very important". Two other areas stand out, namely more encouragement of PSTIs and steps to promote in-house training. Interestingly, there is relatively little interest in organisational reform (in particular the creation of an autonomous training agency) or in employing more expatriates and sending staff overseas for training. Among tour operators, only 10-20 per cent of respondents identified any of these possible actions as being "very important". This is symptomatic of a pervasive lack of awareness of the importance of training among tour operators in Tanzania.

6.3 Zimbabwe

6.3.1 Survey Design

Random samples of 15 hotels and 15 tour operators in Harare and Victoria Falls were selected. All 30 agreed to be interviewed although many respondents refused to provide what was considered to be commercially sensitive information, most notably turnover, productivity, occupancy rates and training budgets. All the enterprises selected were owned and managed by Zimbabwe nationals. The survey spanned the fall range of large, medium and small hotels and tour operators. Five hotels had less than 100 employees, seven between 101 and 200, and three more than 200 employees. Seven of the tour operators had less than 10 staff and only two had more than 100 employees.

6.3.2 Training Responses

Only 40 per cent of the hotels surveyed and just 7 per cent of the tour operators indicated that they had significantly increased the level of their training activities since the start of ESAP in 1991. The type of training provided remained unchanged among all the tour operators with continued reliance on informal on the job training. However, the quality of supervisory staff was reported to have improved considerably with the increased availability of better trained recruits during the 1990s.

Increased competition and changes in the general economic environment are by far and away the most the most important factors that have encouraged increased training provision among tourism enterprises (see Table 6.10). In particular, training needs at the large five star hotels have increasingly been based on client comments on the service provided. In contrast to the metal goods industry in Zimbabwe, new management and the introduction of new technologies have had relatively minimal impact on the level and type of training provision among tourism enterprises. Government training policies and direct training provision have also been relatively unimportant in stimulating increased training activity.

6.3.3 Overseas Training and Foreign Trainers

Only one hotel (7 per cent of the sample) significantly increased the amount of overseas training undertaken by their managerial and skilled staff (in particular in international cuisine). Among tour operators, only one company sends staff overseas for training. The high costs of overseas training were cited by all respondents as being the key factor preventing them from relying more on overseas training.

Forty percent of the hotels and tour operators used foreign trainers in order to achieve specific training objectives. Duration of training (which was both on and off the job) ranged from one week to three months. Over 90 per cent of respondents ranked this training as 'effective' or 'very effective'.

6.3.4 Views on Government Training Policies and Practices

While the quality of training at the Hotel and Tourism School in Bulawayo is generally rated quite highly, the overwhelming view of survey respondents is that the government has failed to take a strong pro-active role in support of training that is essential for the future development of the tourism industry. As can be observed in Table 6.11, better facilities at public training centres and steps to promote more in-house training are the two key areas of government intervention which survey respondents consider as particularly crucial.

Table 6.10: Factors encouraging increased training among tourism enterprises (percentages)

		No impact	Minor impact	Moderate impact	Major impact
New management/ownership	Hotels	80	0	20	0
	Tour operators	93	0	7	0
New equipment/technologies	Hotels	73	7	20	0
	Tour operators	86	7	7	0
Introduction of new management practices	Hotels	46	27	20	7
	Tour operators	80	0	13	7
Increased competition	Hotels	33	0	13	54
	Tour operators	7	0	66	27
Better availability of public training	Hotels	87	0	0	13
	Tour operators	80	13	7	0
Better availability of private training	Hotels	93	0	7	0
	Tour operators	66	0	7	27
Increased demand for training by employees/trade unions	Hotels	83	7	0	0
	Tour operators	100	0	0	0
Efforts of HARAZ/ZATSO*	Hotels	66	0	27	7
	Tour operators	100	0	0	0
General economic environment	Hotels	20	0	20	60
	Tour operators	7	0	60	33
Change in government training policies	Hotels	93	7	0	0
	Tour operators	100	0	0	0

Notes: * Hotels and Restaurant Association of Zimbabwe/Zimbabwe Association of Tour Operators

Given that the Hotel and Tourism School has already been granted considerable organisational autonomy and none of the survey companies sponsor apprentices, it is not surprising that little importance is attached to changes in these areas. However, it is surprising that so few tourist enterprise (and especially hotels) do not consider reform of ZIMDEF to be a higher priority. Similarly, there is little interest in greater encouragement being given to private sector trainers. This is may be because the quality and relevance of current training in hotel and tourism services by the private sector is generally not rated highly and consequently tourism enterprises are wary about the private sector playing a larger role.

Table 6.11: Relative importance of possible government interventions to improve training among tourism enterprises (percentages)

		Unimportant	Quite important	Very important
Creation of an autonomous training agency	Hotel	86	7	7
	Tour operators	67	26	7
Changes to ZIMDEF levy	Hotel	93	7	0
	Tour operators	53	20	27
Better staffing at technical colleges	Hotel	27	66	7
	Tour operators	53	47	0
Better facilities at technical colleges	Hotel	27	20	53
	Tour operators	40	60	0
Reform of the apprentice system	Hotel	100	0	0
	Tour operators	93	7	0
Encouragement of more private sector trainers	Hotel	93	7	0
	Tour operators	80	13	7
Promotion of more in-house training	Hotel	53	7	40
	Tour operators	67	26	7
Facilitation of expatriate trainers	Hotel	40	33	27
	Tour operators	33	67	0
Encouragement of overseas training	Hotel	33	33	33
	Tour operators	13	73	13