21/09/2026
While on our benchmarking tour in Tanzania, we also visited the Datooga community in the Lake Eyasi region. The visit offered an important lesson; increasingly, travellers are looking for something deeper: people, stories, traditions, skills, food, livelihoods and authentic human experiences.
The Datooga have developed a way of life in which pastoralism, traditional craftsmanship, trade, family life and cultural knowledge remain important parts of their identity. One of the most fascinating aspects of the community is its traditional metalworking. Datooga blacksmiths are renowned for transforming discarded or scrap metal into useful objects such as arrowheads, spearheads, knives and jewellery. Their work also connects them economically with neighbouring communities, including the Hadzabe.
For someone working to promote Busia County as a tourist destination, this experience raises an important question:
What can Busia learn from the Datooga experience to develop stronger Community-Based Tourism products?
The answer lies not in copying the Datooga, but in understanding the principle behind their tourism appeal: a community's everyday culture can become a tourism experience when the community itself is at the center.
For Busia Tourism, the message is clear: Our greatest tourism assets may not always be buildings or attractions. Sometimes, they are the people, knowledge, skills, stories and traditions that have been passed from one generation to another.
If we preserve them, respect them and create meaningful tourism opportunities around them, Busia can turn its living heritage into sustainable livelihoods while giving visitors reasons to stay longer, explore deeper and return again.
To read more please click on the link below:
https://takemetobusiasafaris.co.ke/learning-from-the-datooga-what-lake-eyasi-can-teach-busia-county-about-community-based-tourism/
Busia to the world!
Tourism Regulatory Authority Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife - Kenya MagicalKenya World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Global Tourism Forum