LocationsClean, Resilient and Data-Driven: The Urban Systems Behind Sustainable Tourism
June 24, 2026
A view of Pugu Kinyamwezi Dumpsite in Dar es Salaam, highlighting the scale of urban waste management challenges and the need for data-driven, circular and climate-smart solutions
At Pugu Kinyamwezi Dumpsite and the Msimbazi flood monitoring zone, the link between urban systems and tourism became impossible to ignore. Clean cities, climate resilience and smarter data systems are not secondary issues for tourism. They are the foundation of sustainable destination competitiveness.
Globally, travel and tourism contributed about US$10.9 trillion to global GDP in 2024 and supported 357 million jobs worldwide (World Bank, 2025). Yet tourism is also highly exposed to climate risks, waste pressures, biodiversity loss and infrastructure stress. The analytical implication is clear. Sustainable tourism planning cannot be confined to destination branding. It must invest in the urban and environmental systems that make destinations livable, resilient and trusted.
This was one of the clearest lessons from the Japan SDG Innovation Challenge 2.0 Sustainable Tourism Study Tour in Tanzania, held from 8 to 13 February 2026, with core mission activities taking place from 9 to 12 February 2026 across Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar. The mission brought Japanese technology companies to Tanzania to explore how innovation can support sustainable tourism, climate action, environmental monitoring and digital transformation. The itinerary connected field realities with policy dialogue through visits to the Msimbazi flood monitoring zone, Pugu Kinyamwezi Dumpsite, Pugu Kazimzumbwi Nature Forest Reserve and Jozani Forest, alongside engagements with local start-ups, the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), the Zanzibar Ministry of Tourism and Heritage and the Tanzania Peacekeeping Training Centre.
Tourism does not stand alone. A destination’s competitiveness depends on roads, drainage, waste systems, digital payments, conservation, safety, reliable data and the quality of public services. A beautiful beach, forest or heritage site can lose value when the surrounding systems are weak. For Tanzania and Zanzibar, the opportunity is therefore not only to promote destinations, but to strengthen the systems behind them. Clean urban environments, climate-resilient infrastructure, smart data systems and coordinated public services are becoming central to sustainable tourism competitiveness.
Infrastructure is part of the tourism product
The visit to Msimbazi showed how flood risk is also a tourism issue. Flooding can disrupt access roads, damage infrastructure, affect city mobility, increase public health risks and weaken investor confidence. For visitors, poor urban resilience is experienced as delayed travel, unsafe movement and unreliable services. For communities, it is a recurring development burden. For government, it is a planning challenge that requires better data, earlier warning and targeted investment.
Other countries, for instance, demonstrate the value of geospatial intelligence in flood response. Copernicus Emergency Management Service has used satellite imagery and geospatial data to support emergency mapping in flood and crisis situations, including flood mapping in Mozambique (Copernicus EMS, 2019 and 2026). The lesson for Tanzania is not only technical. It is institutional. Data systems must be linked to the decisions that matter, such as where to prioritize drainage improvements, how to protect vulnerable communities, and how to safeguard transport corridors that support economic activity and tourism flows.
Field visit to the Msimbazi flood monitoring zone in Dar es Salaam, where discussions focused on early warning systems, flood analytics and climate resilience.
Waste management is destination management
The visit to Pugu Kinyamwezi Dumpsite reinforced another analytical point. Waste management is often treated as a municipal service, but in tourism economies it is also a competitiveness issue. Waste affects beaches, streets, forests, public health, coastal ecosystems and the visitor experience. It also affects workers and communities who live close to waste facilities or depend on informal waste recovery.
The team observed that better waste systems require more than collection. They require data on waste flows, route efficiency, disposal points, dumping hotspots, resource recovery that led to institutional accountability. Smart waste tracking, digital dashboards, satellite monitoring and circular economy models can help public institutions and private actors move from reactive waste collection to planned resource management. This is especially important for growing urban and island destinations, where tourism activity can increase pressure on water, land, beaches and disposal systems.
Kigali’s waste management and urban cleanliness experience for example, shows the importance of linking public systems, regulation, civic participation and circular economy thinking (UN-Habitat, 2022). Research on smart waste management in rapidly urbanizing African cities also points to the need for digital tools that are adapted to local infrastructure, financing and governance realities (Atofarati et al., 2025). Tanzania can draw from these lessons while building its own model around local enterprises, municipalities, tourism institutions and data-driven public management.
COSTECH hosted an innovation ecosystem engagement between Japanese companies, local start-ups and Tanzanian technology actors during the Japan SDG Innovation Challenge study tour in Dar es Salaam
Institutional anchoring and policy relevance
The study tour was grounded in national ownership. In Dar es Salaam, the delegation was hosted at COSTECH by Dr. Erasto Shemu Mlyuka, Acting Director, Centre for Development and Transfer of Technology. COSTECH’s role matters because climate resilience, waste innovation and tourism technology require local capacity, local firms and sustained technology transfer.
“The value of technology is not only in the tool itself, but in how it is transferred, adapted and sustained locally. Tanzania’s innovation ecosystem has a critical role to play in turning global solutions into practical national capabilities.”
Dr. Erasto Shemu Mlyuka, Acting Director, Centre for Development and Transfer of Technology, COSTECH
In Zanzibar, the delegation was hosted by Dr. Aboud Jumbe, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Heritage. The discussions connected tourism innovation with government priorities, including better visitor management, destination planning, conservation compliance and pilot opportunities in Zanzibar.
“Sustainable tourism requires clean environments, strong institutions and reliable data. For Zanzibar, innovation must help us protect our natural assets while improving the quality and value of the visitor experience.”
Dr. Aboud Jumbe, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Heritage, Zanzibar
Meeting with the Zanzibar Ministry of Tourism and Heritage, led by Permanent Secretary Dr. Aboud Jumbe, to explore sustainable tourism, digital transformation and potential pilot opportunities.
From isolated pilots to connected systems
The study tour identified opportunities around smart visitor management, digital waste systems, satellite-enabled flood monitoring, dumpsite monitoring and coastal protection. The deeper opportunity is to connect these ideas. Visitor data can inform site management. Waste tracking can strengthen destination cleanliness. Flood analytics can protect access infrastructure. Coastal monitoring can safeguard the environmental assets that sustain island tourism. Local start-ups can adapt and maintain solutions. Public institutions can provide legitimacy, ownership and scale.
The risk is that pilots remain fragmented. A smart waste tool, a satellite dashboard or a tourism pass will not transform systems on its own. The analytical priority should be interoperability, governance and institutional learning. Pilots should test not only whether a technology works, but whether it improves decisions, reduces costs, strengthens inclusion and can be maintained locally after initial support ends.
Call to action
UNDP Tanzania calls on government partners, municipalities, Zanzibar institutions, private investors, local innovators, circular economy actors, tourism operators and development partners to collaborate on clean, resilient and data-driven destination systems. The next step is to co-design practical pilots that connect waste management, climate resilience, coastal protection and smart tourism into one development agenda. Partners ready to support evidence-based experimentation and scalable implementation are invited to explore cooperating with UNDP Tanzania to build destinations that are not only beautiful, but also clean, resilient and future-ready.
Authors:
Peter Nyanda, Analyst, Digital AI and Innovation, UNDP Tanzania
Chizuru Horiba, Programme Analyst, UNDP Tanzania.
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