Welcome to the UDSM Centre for Tourism Research (CTR)

The decision for setting up a Center for Tourism Research at University of Dar es Salaam in 2016 was and is based on the fact that, the tourism industry is today one of the leading sectors of the Tanzanian economy and has great potential for continued growth and development. Apart from important benefits such as economic impacts largely manifested through export earnings and employment opportunities there is immense support in the development of rural areas.

The growing number of tourists visiting to Tanzania, particularly towards the targeted number of 5000,000 tourists by 2025 means that Tourism research is indispensable. Tourism research has an important role to play for a sustainable development of tourism. Thus, the accumulation of capacity and knowledge at the University is a resource of great value to Tanzania that can be further be developed to meet national challenges in tourism planning, tourism education and tourism entrepreneurship.

The Centre for Tourism Research being endowed with adequate human capacity enhances the value of the capacity at University of Dar es Salaam by coordinating and supporting activities that aim to put academic results into practice. The establishment of the Centre has been enabled by the Government of Sweden through Sida-UDSM Research Support since 2015 with technical support from the over 20 years of experience of Centre for Tourism Research at the University of Gothenburg.

Research and Publication

Major mission of the UDSM Centre for Tourism Research is to conduct and contribute with the development of new knowledge in the field of tourism in Tanzania. A second mission is for the Centre to provide knowledge for higher education in tourism including curricula development in the field of the tourism and hospitality management.

Our research programme focuses on Innovation and Sustainability in Tourism with five major sub-themes:

1. The sustainability of natural and cultural resources in tourism for inclusive development:
2. Tourism resource efficiency, social inclusiveness and conservation for economic growth:
3. Innovations and entrepreneurship in the private sector in tourism as pathways to sustainable growth and inclusive development:
4. Community involvement in the country’s tourism planning and policies and their influence on local content strategies, green growth and innovations: The centre regularly organizes seminars and conferences aiming at practitioners are an excellent form of networking.
5. Networking, Links and Cooperation: A central mission of the Centre for Tourism Research is to build links with the tourism industry, policy makers and official authorities in Tanzania with the aim of generating and advancing knowledge on the best possible ways to maximize the opportunities available in the tourism sector.

The Centre through UDSM has collaborated with varied universities and other higher learning institutions in different parts of the world and Tanzania in particular. These include the University of Gothenburg, the University of Balearic Islands (UIB) in Spain and Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) in Finland. In Tanzania a lot has been shared with the Open University of Tanzania, Sokoine University of Agriculture and Institute of Tourism in Dar es Salaam.

A number of researches have also been conducted in tourism related fields.

Researchers