Assessment of the Roles of Tourism Activities towards Poverty Alleviation in Rural Areas: A Case of Arumeru District, Arusha Region

This study examines the roles of tourism activities on poverty alleviation in rural areas in Arumeru District. The objectives of this study was to identify contributions of tourism activities towards poverty alleviation in Arumeru District, to examine challenges facing tourism activities towards poverty alleviation, to identify and assess measures used to address challenges facing tourism activities in poverty alleviation. A researcher used case study design because it involves a careful and complete observation of social unit of a person, family, institutions and cultural groups.The target sample involved 19 respondents from local authority and 55 respondents from heads of household representatives in Arumeru District as a sample size. Four data collection methods were employed by a researcher during the study, interviews, observation, questionnaires and documentary reviews. A researcher analyzed the results by using statistical packed for social scientist (SPSS) vision 16.0 and Microsoft excel as well as content analysis. Both Qualitative and quantitative data analyzed by frequencies, tables, charts and percentages in order to simplifying interpretations of the findings.The findings of this research suggest that, at the moment tourism is not really contributing in poverty alleviation in the community investigated in this study although most of respondents perceived tourism as a positive initiative which can help to improve the living standard of the poor. But numbers of barriers were identified to hinder their participation in tourism activities including, Education about tourism and its products, awareness and capacity building about tourism resources utilization. This study has therefore, recommended that, the issue of transparency to be at the heart of all tourism ventures that seek to improve the livelihood of the poor by turning tourism activities from theory to practical