Tourist arrivals up by 64pc

PILLY NASHON in Dodoma

THE National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has released new figures of tourist arrivals in the country, showing a sharp rise to 1,175,697 visitors between January and October 2022, compared to 716,741 during the corresponding period last year.

According to the NBS Director of Economic Statistics, there was a noticeable increase of 458,956 tourists, which is equivalent to a 64 per cent rise, attributing the increase to the much publisised Royal Tour documentary and other initiatives by the government.

According to Mr Masolwa, in October 2022 alone the number of tourists who entered the country increased to 141,517, compared to 92,345 visitors in 2021, which is equivalent to a 53.2 per cent increase.

Mr Masolwa said that from the African continent, Kenya was leading by the large number of tourists who visited Tanzania in October this year with 15,701 tourists, followed by Burundi (8,929 tourists), South Africa (3,802), Rwanda (3,715) and Uganda (3,229).

He explained that France recorded the highest number of tourist arrivals from outside Africa with 12,543 tourists, followed by the United States of America (USA) with 9,097 tourists, Germany (8,874), United Kingdom (6,514) and Italy (4,557).

“The increase of tourists is attributed to the government’s continued efforts to promote tourism attractions within and outside the country in general and in particular through the Tanzania Royal Tour documentary filmed by Dr Samia,’’ he noted.

“As you can see there is a massive increase of tourists entering Tanzania tourist attractions in this period compared to last year’s period. We hope in December we will receive a large number and we might approach the number of tourists entering the country in 2019 before Covid 19 pandemic,” he added.

“During the Covid 19 pandemic, the number of tourists decreased but due to big efforts especially the Royal Tour Film by the Head of State, this year we have noticed a huge increase of tourists from all over the world” he added.
Mr Masolwa further explained about other attributes of economic growth indicators for 2022 as compared to 2021, insisting that among the proxy of economic growth was the use of cement which had increased from 4.8 tonnes in 2021 to 5.6 tonnes in 2022 equivalent to a 14.5 per cent increase.

He also vowed that the increase of the consumption of cement was due to the implementations of different national projects such as SGR, Construction of Roads and the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project (JNHPP), among others.

Mr Masolwa mentioned another indicator of economic growth as the improvement, growth and increase of telecommunication services where the country has maintained the increase of voice traffic upward from 25.6 billion minutes recorded in July to September 2021 to 33.4 billion minutes recorded during the same period in 2022.

He said the increase in these three proxies indicate that the National Economic Growth was increasing upward and they are creating economic opportunities at individual level.