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Over the past decade Zanzibar has become a very popular holiday destination. In just five years, the number of tourists has almost doubled. At the same time many Maasai (mainly men) from mainland Tanzania migrate to Zanzibar for work purposes. These men find a job in the tourism sector, especially as security guards in hotels or sellers of souvenirs at the beach. These activities give them a chance to meet tourists from all over the world. These meetings often result in developing closer relations with women from the so-called West. Some of them turn into long-term relationships, which sometimes end in marriage and often result in a change of one partner's place of residence, i.e. emigration of Maasai men to the tourists' countries of origin or the decision of women to live in Tanzania. My presentation concerns five couples who got married at least eight years ago and have decided to live in Tanzania. I will discuss what kind of economic strategies they adopt in the situation of no dual citizenship for adults in Tanzania; what actions are Western partners taking for the benefit of the Maasai community that they live in; how children are brought up as well as how gender relations are shaped in the aforementioned relationships. I will present what are the relationships like with the extended family. Maasai community is patriarchal, but relations with women from the Global North seems to be an alternative to gender relations understood in this way; they also seems to result in the emancipation of the Maasai in the context of their still subordinated position in the postcolonial nation-state. My research reveals the changes taking place in the Maasai community that are shaped by tourism and related migrations. I rely on my own ethnographic field research carried out in mainland Tanzania.