Abstract:
Porters’ socio-economic welfare has been an intricate issue that is brought up every
time when mountain tourism is discussed. This study sought to analyze the
determinants of tourist porter socio-economic welfare in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania.
The study was focused on determining the effect of wages and tips on porters’ socioeconomic welfare, examining the effect of working conditions on porters’ socioeconomic welfare and evaluating the contribution of porter associations in improving
their welfare. The study adopted a cross-sectional study design with the sample of 141
respondents who constituted the total sample of this study. Moreover, the study
employed data collection methods including questionnaires, interviews and
documentary reviews. Quantitative approaches were deployed to analyze data involving
descriptive and inferential statistics using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS)
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th version. Descriptive statistics involving percentage and tables were used to present
the data which was collected. The findings from the study revealed that, despites
porters being the backbone of the trekking industry they are paid low wages by their
employer compared to what is recommended by government public notice number 225
of June 2008. The findings further revealed that porters are working in poor
environment, with insecure employment based on short term basis while using inferior
equipments compared to the ones used by the tourists. Corruption in weighing station is
something that is still present and practiced. The policies and porter protection laws are
still lacking as they are not adjusted periodically and not followed to the latter. With
regards to the porters associations, the study discovered that these associations have
been doing an excellent job in building awareness among tour operators and tourists on
how these porters are to be treated and paid for their labor however due to various loop
holes in policies, laws, administration and corruption their efforts seems not efficient
enough as majority of the porters are still underpaid and mistreated. Therefore, in order
to improve the situation the government and other tourism stakeholders should view
and reform the tourism policies, laws and administrations so as to meet the social and
economical changes as well as conducting thorough follow ups so as to ensure the
practice is conducted in an ethical manner while following the rules and systems in
place.