8m tourists by 2025 campaign picks momentum

BERNARD LUGONGO

MORE strategies towards hitting the eight million tourist visits by 2025 target were unveiled yesterday, with the launch of three agents to support the government in fast tracking the drive.

These are the Tanzania Tourism Licensing Board (TTLB), Tourism Advisory Committee (TAC) and Tourism Appeals Authority (TAA). Natural Resources and Tourism Deputy Minister Japhet Hasunga said the trio will manage the sector, addres its challenges, and give advice to the ministry.

According to Mr Hasunga, their duties will be in line with the government’s 2025 vision which aims at raising the number of tourists visiting the country up to 8 million over the next seven years from current number of 1,284,000.

Prior to attaining the 8 million targets, it isalso expected that the current figure will climb to two million by 2020. “We have set these targets which we expect you to play your role in supporting us (ministry) to achieve, otherwise, we will sack you before we are tossed out ourselves,” Mr Hasunga told the chairpersons and members of the three outfits during the launch in Dar es Salaam.

He nonetheless expressed optimism that there were enough resources to attain the targeted figure; what was pending was to bring the stakeholders together. Mr Hasunga directed the TTLB to ensure that it processed and gave licences to those wanting to operate businesses in the sector fast.

“I look forward to TAA working on all appeals and making decisions swiftly, ” he said, stressing that all the three agents should embrace the principles of good governance, accountability and fairness. Initially, the chairpersons for three organs: Mr Saleh Pamba (TTLB), Prof Wineaster Anderson (TAC) and Ambassador Mwanaidi Maajar (TAA) assured the deputy minister that they would work diligently.

Mr Pamba commended the government for scrapping tourist licence fees; a move he said would fuel businesses in tourism sector. Ambassador Maajar asked the government to introduce regulations within the law under which the TAA was formed, to guide them on how to ensure that justice was extended to all the stakeholders.

Prof Anderson appealed to the ministry to give utmost cooperation to the TAC, to enable it discharge its obligations effectively. The 2016 International Visitors’ Exit Survey Report shows that the figure for visiting tourists increased by 12.9 per cent. 1,284,000 tourists visited the country in 2016, while the 2015 figure was 1,137,000.

The survey established that national parks (wild animals) attracted many tourists (about 36 per cent), followed by beach tourism. The biggest number of tourists came from the UK followed by the US for Tanzania Mainland while in Zanzibar, Italy came second after the UK.

Many tourists come from those countries due to historical factors and investments. Tanzania was colonised by the UK and many investors from those countries have invested in the country, so they bring in their families and relatives for leisure and holidays in national parks and beaches.

On average, each tourist spends 178 US dollars (383,000) per day, and many of them come for leisure and holidays