From the Workshop to the Marketplace: Investigating the Structural and Operational Bottlenecks for Craft Makers in Morogoro’s Evolving Tourism Landscape

Summary Morogoro, the gateway to Tanzania’s Southern Tourism Circuit, receives a steady flow of tourists on their way to Mikumi, Udzungwa, and Nyerere National Parks, yet the region’s craft makers remain largely unable to convert this passing traffic into income. This case study places students inside that management problem. Drawing on evidence gathered from craft makers in roadside and village locations, the case follows a craft product on its journey from the workshop to the marketplace and traces the bottlenecks along the way: scarce and expensively regulated raw materials under the Forest Act 2002, limited capital and basic tools, a confusing mixture of formal taxes and informal payments, poor roads and unreliable marketplaces, exclusion from tour operators’ itineraries, and globalisation pressures that pull young people away from craft making while pushing artisans towards tourist-oriented designs. Students are asked to step into the position of a tourism manager or a local government advisor: to interpret the regulatory and market evidence for themselves; to complete the mapping of the craft value chain; to evaluate six competing intervention options – including a cooperative union with a “Triple Lock” governance model, a hub-and-spoke marketplace strategy, and a phased digital integration plan; and to recommend, with justification, how limited public resources should be allocated among them. The case is designed for postgraduate teaching in tourism management, destination development, and cultural tourism.