Dar es Salaam — Tourism sector was the main contributor of foreign exchange receipts by the country in the year to December 2018, a Bank of Tanzania (BoT) report has revealed. In the BoT Monthly Economic Review (MER) report for the year ending December 2018, travel earnings (dominated by tourism) increased due to a rise in the number of tourist arrivals.
The earnings reached $2.44 billion from $2.25 billion tabled in the same period the previous year.
The total receipts from services recorded positive due to also the increase in the transport sector, which rose from $1.14 billion in 2017 to $1.22 billion in 2018.
“Transport receipt increased due to growth in volume of transit goods to and from neighboring countries particularly Zambia, DRC, Rwanda and Burundi partly contributed by improved competitiveness at the DSM port, including removal of Value Added Tax on auxiliary services of transit cargo,” BoT reports.
MER reported that following an increase in travel and transport foreign receipts, the total foreign exchange receipt from services was $4.01 billion in the year to December 2018, an increase of $182.8 million from the amount registered in the corresponding period in 2017.
Story by Josephine Christopher-The Citizen
