AIR Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) and China’s Touchroad International Holdings Group yesterday inked a deal to bring some 10,000 Chinese tourists’ to Tanzania this year.
Speaking before signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Dar es Salaam, ATCL’s Sales and Supply Manager Edward Nkwabi said the deal is not only a way forward to promote tourism industry but also to market services provided by national carrier.
“The deal is an opportunity to promote the country’s economic development through tourism and the airline,” he said. The MoU signed at Tanzania Tourists Board (TTB) office where ATCL was presented by Mr Nkwabi and Touchroad by the Group Chairman Mr He Liehu.
The event witnessed by TTB’s Chairman, Justice Thomas Mihayo. Mr He said through the move, it would be a great opportunity for Chinese to visit various tourists’ attractions in Tanzania mainland as well as isles.
He said apart from bringing normal tourists some will come for business tourism– hold trade and investment talks with their counterparts. Last December, Touchroad had inked a deal with TTB to bring in Chinese tourists this year.
According to statistics issued yesterday by Justice Mihayo, in 2017 about 140 million tourists from China visited separate countries, 10 million of them visited Bangkok in Thailand while only 29,000 tourists came to Tanzania.
“Through this new deal, a Chinese campaign dubbed ‘Tour Africa New Horizon’, [will see] tourists visit Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Djibout. In Tanzania they will spend five days while two days in Zimbabwe and one day in Djibout,” he said.
Source: By Jimmy Lwangili-Daily News Dailynews.co.tz
