Implication of Changing Climate on Tourism Development in Southern Tanzania: The Case of Ruaha-Rungwa Landscape

East Africa tourism is one of the most successful sectors in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), mainly attributed to the diverse natural landscapes and biological resources, creating special tourism assets. However, despite its importance, the tourism industry, particularly in the southern circuit of Tanzania, has been significantly affected by climate change impacts. The effects of climate change have been detrimental to both the environment and socio-economic activities such as loss of species, disturbances to the timing and patterns of tourism seasons, and disruptions to various tourism facilities and activities. This study examines the impacts of climate and non-climatic factors on tourism development in southern circuit of Tanzania focusing on Ruaha-Rungwa Landscape (RRL). The study adopted a mixed-method approach that uses both secondary and primary data collected through household surveys, interviews Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and field observations. The sample size included 234 household, 110 key informants and 44 FGD participants. Data analysis was done using EXLSTAT and Mann–Kendall Trend Analysis to analyse climate trends. SPSS was used to analyse quantitative primary data, while content and thematic analyses were used to analyse qualitative primary data. This study observed nortable changes in climatic conditions over the past 30 years within the study area. These changes includes unreliable rainfall patterns, reduced rainfall, occurrence of rainfall extremes events and increased temperature especially in the last decade in Ruaha National Park. Further, climate change impacts have negatively affected tourism development in the study area, largely related to eruption of wildlife diseases and decline of wildlife population, loss of revenue attributed to early closing of tourism seasonality and destruction of infrastructures such as the tourist amenities. Furthermore, non-climatic factors, such as budget constraints, inadequate investments, poor infrastructure, and uncompetitive position, has observed to hinder the development of tourism activities. The low development of the tourism activities in the area can be attributed to low adaptive capacity of the stressed ecological processes to support provision of ecosystems goods and services. The study recommends that in averting the impact of climate change on tourism development, both climatic and non-climatic stressors must be effectively considered during the planning processes.