Tanzania has ambitions of becoming Africa’s tourism hub, the god news is, it is not such an unrealistic dream for this East African country. According to the world bank, if Tanzania makes all the right moves, and investments, this goal is very achievable. Tanzania’s tourism revenues could increase fourfold in the next 10 years and also create more jobs.
In a report titled, ‘Unlocking the Potential of the Tourism Industry for Tanzanians,’ the world bank revealed that the country’s tourism industry could generate 16 billion US dollars by 2025 up from 4.48 billion US dollars. The world bank says that Tanzania’s government needs to focus on streamlining its tax and fees systems and make more transparent revenue allocations, if indeed it wants to this kind of tremendous growth. Stakeholders policies and mindsets need to change, and soon.
According to Philippe Dongier, the Country Director for Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda there is potential for further growth but some of the needed reforms are rather urgent and need to be attended to as soon as possible if Tanzanian is to achieve its goal.
The government of Tanzania is already making efforts to re-brand the country as a leading safari and business destinations. Tanzania safaris are already quite popular with most tourists traveling to East Africa, because of the country’s many beautiful and exciting sights. But more marketing is necessary so the country has set aside 1.5 million US dollars in a bid to revive the sector through advertorials in local and international media houses promoting the country’s scenic tourist sites such as the Serengeti National park, and several other game parks that are found in the country.
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Tanzania has several game parks rich with wildlife, and very beautiful scenery…[/caption]
According to local Tanzania local sources CNN and BBC will be tasked to air the advertisements worldwide and it is hoped this will boost tourist arrivals. The goal is to double tourist numbers to 2.5 million annually.
In 2013, Tanzania received one million visitors bringing in 1.5 billion US dollars in foreign exchange earnings, which is remarkable by any account. With the new marketing strategies and revision of policies the number of tourist should go up by far this year and in the coming years.
As an industry, Tourism in Tanzania employs over 500,000 people which is quite a big portion of the population, ad which the government should take into consideration as I restructures and makes changes. Diversification of tourism activities across the country could also be a helpful strategy.
The end goal is to have more tourists visiting Tanzania so there is need for better facilities, revision of fees, to promote and encourage more and more tourists to buy the Tanzania safari experience.
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