Stakeholder Engagement and Social Networks: Enhancing Sustainable Food Waste Management in Zanzibar’s Tourist Hotels

Zanzibar has witnessed fast growth in tourism due to its natural beauty and unique cultural values. On average, about 600,000 tourists arrive annually, creating demand for more hotels, which significantly adds to the generation of waste streams on the island. Food waste is a multifaceted issue and a cross-sectoral problem. However, existing research on food waste management in hospitality focuses mainly on operational and managerial perspectives, while overlooking the role of stakeholder engagement and their social interactions, creating a gap in understanding the relational and context-specific factors shaping sustainable practices, particularly in small island destinations. Therefore, collaborative efforts from different stakeholders are required to ensure sustainable waste management. This study aims to map the key stakeholders and analyze engagement dynamics and structural patterns of social networks to improve hotel food waste management as part of a sustainable tourism strategy in Zanzibar. Stakeholder mapping and analysis, and social network analysis, were applied to examine both the dynamic and interaction patterns. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with different stakeholders related to tourism and waste management operations to solicit their roles, responsibilities, interests, knowledge, interaction, information sharing, influence, and power in decision-making. The results revealed that waste management is the responsibility of local authorities, and there was limited interaction, information sharing, and coordination among stakeholders and across sectors. Building collaborative relationships is important and can be achieved by stimulating interactions through active communication platforms, including social media and online webinar sessions. Moreover, the study proposes a context-specific model for analyzing small-scale stakeholder interactions regarding food waste management in tourist hotels that can inform future stakeholder coordination and policy interventions.