There is a plea to tourists on the notice board: "Please sign the petition for a better surfaced road to Nungwi". And indeed the road is bad. The irony is that there used to be a tarmac road and some vestiges are still there. But it must have been many years ago that it was in top condition. So what happens with the money the tourists spend? The road is wide enough but the surface is appalling; in fact, it’s non-existing. It’s uneven and severely potholed. Vehicles even at low speed are engulfed in a cloud of dust, which settles on everyone and everything. The villagers have to use it to get to the stand posts to fill their drums with water every day and sometimes twice a day. There is heavy traffic. Big trucks carrying two or three huge water containers, 3000 litres, the water supply for the hotels. It is a daily supply. Each hotel has its own truck bearing proudly the hotel’s name, or not so proudly after all.
And I wonder if this is responsible tourism? I’m not convinced. Tourists have decided to come in great numbers, but the infrastructure can’t cope. At the entrance to Nungwi village, there is a dump, which is clearly full of hotel waste: crushed water bottles, biscuit wrappings, and all sorts of consumer goods. Most tourists don’t see this when they are transported across it in their shuttle buses and only few venture into the village across the dump to buy from the locals. It was no surprise to me that the locals are not very friendly towards the tourists. Most of the staff in the hotels is from Tanzania or even Kenya. The tourist money does not go the Zanzibar economy.
I haven’t investigated what diving does to the coral reefs and marine life. Every day tens of boats, occupied by 10 to 15 divers sail to the diving spots. Most of them care for the environment and don’t touch the corals. But there are many divers, day in and day out. This cannot but affect sea life.
Hopefully, the Italian property owners who are building a 100-room hotel in Kendwa are concerned about the environment and take sufficient precautions. When the hotel is fully booked, the population of Kendwa will have doubled; this is not outweighed by job opportunities, as the locals will not benefit. The bulk of this Italian money will go the first world economies.
So may be it is better to stay in low-key budget accommodation owned by locals. But with more upmarket hotels and tourists who like to be pampered and can’t go without luxury, these small hotels are doomed to fail.
I have travelled a great deal in many developing countries, but I have never seen this type of irresponsible tourism on such a large scale.