Nyalandu: We’ll attract 5 million tourists in 2020

Natural Resources and Tourism minister Lazaro Nyalandu. FILE PHOTO 

In Summary

Tourism has overtaken gold to become Tanzania’s number one foreign exchange earner yet promotional budget remains minimal. What should Tanzanians expect from you in the 2015/2016 budget?

Tourism has overtaken gold to become Tanzania’s number one foreign exchange earner yet promotional budget remains minimal. What should Tanzanians expect from you in the 2015/2016 budget?

Our focus is mainly on branding Tanzania. Branding is about how the world views Tanzania. It is about promoting the fact that whenever one hears about Tanzania, he/she should want to visit the country.

And what are you doing in as far as branding is concerned?

We have just completed preparing an advert on Tanzania that will start to be aired on CNN and BBC before the end of this (2014/2015) financial year. We will soon sign an agreement with CNN and BBC so the advert can start being aired. It is a fantastic advert that has covered almost every corner of Tanzania from South to North and East to West. It covers Tanzania from the Selous to the Serengeti and from Mount Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar. The advert has been prepared by Hollywood experts.

How much has been spent on the advert?

We spent a staggering $2 million (about Sh4 billion) on the project. It took us the best firm directors, using the latest cameras to prepare it. At times, we had to use helicopters and drones during the shooting process. What we are doing now is editing it in such a way that something that took us about six hours to shoot can simply be accommodated in an advert of 60 seconds. It’s challenging but we must do it.

Whenever we talk of promotional budget, we hurriedly think about the money that goes to the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB). Should we expect that they will receive enough funds this time around to match their Kenyan and South African competitors when you present your budget in the next few days?

Money is not everything. As government, we have several means of marketing our tourism. It only requires the eye and ear of creative leaders.

Tourism stakeholders are currently divided over the fees that the government intends to charge hotels around national parks with the Tanzania Confederation of Tourism (TCT) saying the move will hit the industry hard. What is your take on this?

As government, we maintain the predictability of our taxes, fees and charges. We want to have competitive rates but we also need money to sustain our tourism. This is why those coming to our sites must pay for the costs. It is basing on the concept of sustainable tourism that we have TTB which specifically works on tourism promotion. We also have Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa) which is entrusted with the mandate of conserving our national parks while the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority is entrusted with the task of conserving the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Soon, we will transform the Wildlife Department into an independent and autonomous entity by turning it into the Tanzania Wildlife Authority. All these bodies need cash to run themselves and contribute towards Tanzania’s tourism development endeavours and that is why some fees cannot be avoided.

But why transform it into an authority?

We want it to work like an autonomous entity with complete powers of protecting/conserving our game reserves throughout the country. That is one of the measures we are taking to curb poaching. I believe if we conserve our attractions and promote our attractions properly, we can surely reach the goal of five million tourists in the short term period.