Assessment of Tanzania Tourism Policy of 1999 in Addressing the Needs of People With Disability

Abstract It is known that Tanzania is blessed with multiple tourist attractions. However, the existence of these strengths alone will not guarantee successful accessible tourism if the needs of people with disability are not included in the policy. The Inclusion of the needs of this target group is a guarantee for the tourism sector to fully achieve equality and equity, which are pillars of sustainable tourism development. This paper critically addresses the weaknesses of the existing national Tourism policy of 1999 in addressing issues of people with disability in its specific policy strategies such as marketing and product development, cultural tourism as well as domestic tourism. The policy has clearly addressed the roles of women, youth and aged people in its various strategies but it ignore issues of people with disabilities. The needs of this target group need to be featured clearly in the policy as this will raise awareness of their existence hence boost the morale for tourism stakeholders to develop effective mechanisms to accommodate them. This is a literature review paper where the Policy was reviewed closely with other relevant literature. In the end, recommendations were highlighted to help policymakers to understand the behaviour of this target group. Keywords: Policy, Strategy, Tanzani