Welcome to AWOTTA

ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN IN TOURISM TANZANIA

Tanzania is blessed with a multitude of world class tourist attractions. In 2016 we welcomed 1.1 million tourists to our country and inbound international tourism receipts contributed over USD$2.2 billion to the Tanzanian economy [Source: World Economic Forum].

Through the continued development of tourism Tanzania will prosper, and our organisation is here to play a key role in making this happen: To advocate for the rightful positioning of women in tourism development; To provide access to first class tourism education and expand work opportunities for our schoolchildren, students and rural communities; To promote and support sustainable tourism and associated climate change initiatives; To lead in the development of innovative and quality tourist services; To develop strong networks in Tanzania and across Africa to help achieve the social and economic goals of the Tourism Industry and our Country.

We are driven by the popular saying “Nani kama Mama”, which means that the children of Tanzania look to the next generation of women to lay the ground that will lead to their prosperity. We are proud to embrace this tradition and take on this responsibility within our tourism industry today.

A personal message from

Mary C. Kalikawe, Chairwoman AWOTTA

We founded our Association back in 2011, when seven women who had dedicated their careers to the development of tourism in Tanzania decided to join forces and work together to make a collective difference. We put in place a challenging plan from promoting Tourism as an important career path for our school children, to empowering women to achieve financial security through fulfilling work supporting the tourist industry. Over the last six years we have taken great strides towards achieving our goals but there is still much work to be done.

Please join us in helping the women of Tanzania reach their true potential.

Thank you.

JOIN AWOTTA HERE!

AWOTTA Membership and growing

Regional & International Awards held by Members

500 +

Members collective years of Tourism experience

LATEST NEWS

AWOTTA supports United Nations World Tourism Day

DATE: Thursday 27th September 2018

THEME: Tourism & Digital Transformation

Join the celebration: #WTD2018

“This year, World Tourism Day highlights the need for investment in disruptive digital technologies that can help foster an environment for innovation and entrepreneurship in tourism.

We live in an increasingly connected and interdependent world with digital advances transforming how we inform ourselves, transforming our behaviour, and encouraging innovation. We need not only new tools but also new capacities and ways of thinking. So across the United Nations family we are designing innovative projects, initiatives and partnerships.

The sheer size of global tourism and its impact on many other sectors, and all of the Sustainable Development Goals, puts it at the forefront of social responsibility, which today goes hand-in-hand with innovation on all levels.

Harnessing innovation and digital advances provides tourism with opportunities to improve inclusiveness, local community empowerment and efficient resource management, amongst other objectives within the wider sustainable development agenda. The digital transformation is about providing benefits to all, and we are making sure that tourism contributes to this global commitment.”

Zurab Pololikashvili is Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

AWOTTA OPENS NEW DAR ES SALAAM OFFICE 2018

Our new year resolution for 2018 was to open an independent AWOTTA office, and we are almost there!

When we started AWOTTA 6 years ago, our vision was to have a professionally equipped office, staffed with a skilled and committed workforce who can drive our objectives and support our members every day of the year. We have sought sustainable funding over the past 2 years, and shall continue to do so, however, we can not remain a briefcase organisation anymore. WANAWAKE WANAWEZA!

We have now found a small office in Dar es Salaam, and are actively seeking financial and equipment contributions from members, friends and partners to secure its long term operations. Thank you for any support you can give.

AWOTTA is grateful and thankful for the following members and their companies who have made monetary contributions to date:

Agnes Rwegasira -Vera Inter travel
Eunice Nderigo – National college of tourism
Devota Mdachi – Tanzania Tourist Board
Mama Zakia Meghji – past MP and longest serving Minister of Tourism
Scholastica Ponera – Pongo Safaris
Nura Karamagi CEO HAT – Hotel Association of Tanzania
Zainab Ansell – ZARA Tours Tanzania
Laura Minde – Outstanding Solutions
Mary Kalikawe – Kiroyera Tours

Our Vision as we stand is “to become an exemplary women organisation across Africa”. The opening of this, our first office, will assist us in achieving this within the next 3 years.

Please contact Mary at mkalikawe@awotta.org if you can offer any support. Thank you.

2018

AWOTTA SUPPORTS THE ONE PLANET NETWORK – SUSTAINABLE TOURISM PROGRAMME

ONE PLANET brings together initiatives and partnerships, and facilitates new projects and activities to accelerate the shift to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in tourism.

MORE DETAILS COMING SOON!

AWOTTA meets YouthBuild International

DATE: 7th May 2018

DISCUSSION: Youth Employment

YouthBuild International (YBI) is an organisation based in the USA and currently operates in 22 countries around the world. Their vision is to create viable, sustainable livelihoods for all young people, through training, education, employment and self-employment. They are currently looking at expanding their programme and have been soliciting partners who they can work with in various sectors around the world. AWOTTA stood out as one of the organisations committed to building careers and supporting training programmes for youths within the tourism sector, and a meeting was arranged in Dar es Salaam on 7th May 2018.

Eunice Ulomi and Rhoda Kitila, supported by Marius Mwijage, represented AWOTTA. Discussions included: sharing experiences with YouthBuild to alleviate poverty in communities; community based tourism initiatives; AWOTTA’s program of visiting secondary schools to position tourism as a future career opportunity; and the value of internships and practical experiences for personal development.

The meeting exchange with YBI was very productive and enlightening for both sides and we shall look forward very much to further discussions and working with YBI in the foreseeable future.

For more information about the meeting please contact Mary Kalikawe.

We would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to AWOTTA member Devota Mdachi (MD of the Tanzania Tourist Board) for providing meeting facilities whilst we are equipping our new AWOTTA office.

AWOTTA supports International Women’s Day 8th March 2018 campaign #Press for Progress

A strong call to motivate and unite friends, colleagues and whole communities to think, act and be gender inclusive.

With the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report findings telling us that gender parity is over 200 years away – there has never been a more important time to keep motivated and #PressforProgress. And while we know that gender parity won’t happen overnight, the good news is that across the world women are making positive gains day by day.

CELEBRATING IWD AT SERENA HOTEL DAR ES SALAAM 2018

About International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

International Women’s Day (IWD) has been observed since the early 1900’s – a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialised world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies. International Women’s Day is a collective day of global celebration and a call for gender parity. No one government, NGO, charity, corporation, academic institution, women’s network or media hub is solely responsible for International Women’s Day. Many organisations declare an annual IWD theme that supports their specific agenda or cause, and some of these are adopted more widely with relevance than others.

“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organisation but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights,” says world-renowned feminist, journalist and social and political activist Gloria Steinem. Thus International Women’s Day is all about unity, celebration, reflection, advocacy and action – whatever that looks like globally at a local level. But one thing is for sure, International Women’s Day has been occurring for well over a century – and continue’s to grow from strength to strength.

What colours signify international Women’s Day?

Internationally, purple is a colour for symbolising women. Historically the combination of purple, green and white to symbolise women’s equality originated from the Women’s Social and Political Union in the UK in 1908. Purple signifies justice and dignity. Green symbolises hope. White represents purity, but is no longer used due to ‘purity’ being a controversial concept. The introduction of the colour yellow representing a ‘new dawn’ is commonly used to signify a second wave of feminism. Thus purple with green represents traditional feminism, purple with yellow represents progressive contemporary feminism.

25-26th FEBRUARY 2018

AWOTTA WAS PROUD TO BE A PARTNER IN THE

WOMEN’S DAY FORUM FOR TOURISM 2018

HELD AT DUNIA CAMP IN THE WORLD RENOWN

SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK

THANK YOU TO ALL THE PARTNERS & DELEGATES FOR MAKING THIS SUCH A WARM, INSIGHTFUL, THOUGHT PROVOKING & DYNAMIC EVENT.

THEME: Changing mindset about the role of women in society and participation in the labour market

The gender gap in employment, economic opportunities, treatment and social outcome continue to be a persistent challenge worldwide and even more so in Africa. In Tanzania, unemployment for women stands at 12.3% in comparison to 8.2% for men, and even worse in cities where it stands at 32% for women and 11% for men. Progress to address this has been slow and even where opportunities have been made more readily available the quality has been wanting. There are several opportunities and quick wins to aid in accelerating the reduction of this gap. The global trend shows at present there is movement to the service sector, away from agricultural sector where still a majority of women in sub-Saharan Africa are engaged in. In 2015, 50.1% of the global population was working in the service sector, 57.4% of which were women. Though this figure seems encouraging at first glance, it conceals the fact that the larger portion of women’s participation is still in lower levels, while participation in managerial and technical levels remains very low – the most recent statistics showing women in these positions at 17%.

In Tanzania, the tourism industry is the 2nd largest service sector and has enormous potential to easily employ and empower women, even in positions that have traditionally been considered for men.

This women’s day forum sought to ‘push for progress‘ for women in Tanzania, by understanding what the persistent barriers are that inhibit women from fully taking advantage of the opportunities available, and limit their rise to authoritative, decision-making, managerial positions.

Our discussions focused on how we can build on the current momentum for gender parity and promote, encourage and nurture it across our tourism industry.

Dunia Camp, Serengeti, Tanzania

A 2018 MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIRWOMAN, MARY KALIKAWE

AWOTTA is very proud of its achievements. It is recognised by the Government, the media and industry professionals not only in Africa, but around the world, as the voice of women in the tourism industry for Tanzania.

There is so much work we have done in the past 6 years: holding members meetings to strengthen our network; celebrating World Tourism Day in Zanzibar; training Goeth institute students to guide German tourists; participating in the University of Dar es Salaam business school career development programs; visiting schools to inspire our children to work in our industry; spearheading the formation of Tanzania services sector platform in partnership with TPSF; fundraising meetings at Alliance Francaise; supporting TWCC to celebrate World Women’s Day and so much more!

Today, we have organisations and people approaching us to seek partnerships! Swedish NGO ‘ My Sustainable trip’, wants to work with AWOTTA to get some marginalised women to make soaps and cosmetic products using local materials to sell into hotels and other tourist outlets. Unitera of Canada has approached us for a similar partnership, and the book which I was asked to write a forward for, ‘The World of Women Tanzania’ (which tells wonderful stories of the diversity of our women and their entrepreneurial traits) is still being actively distributed across Europe and Africa.

We are committed to do more in the coming years by expanding the membership base, offering mentoring support, business knowledge, and personal development opportunities. We will work to be visible in conservation of our tourist attractions and support of sustainable practices. And we will continue to strengthen networks with like minded individuals and organisations, with the aim of creating opportunities in the tourism industry for not only our members, but the women and children of Tanzania.

We couldn’t do any of this without your support. So thank you for your continued hard work, passion and commitment throughout 2018.

SEE OUR 2017 HIGHLIGHTS!