Tanzania’s Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa has tasked all envoys representing Tanzania in foreign countries to help grow tourist arrivals to Tanzania by wooing more tourists to visit various tourist destinations in the country.
Speaking as the Special Guest at the official opening of the fourth Swahili International Tourism Expo (SITE), in Dar es Salaam, the premier challenged its envoys to use the many unique attractions of the country to woo tourists and investors.
According to Mr Majaliwa, Tanzania was endowed with many tourist attractions, some of which were not found anywhere in the world, however, the number of tourists coming into the country was still not adequate.
The Prime Minister reiterated that plans were far advanced to tap the potential of beach tourism by establishing a special directorate to be coordinated by TTB in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.
Mr Majaliwa said the country was blessed with many beaches 1,300 kilometres from Tanga to Mtwara and others found on Lake Victoria, Tanganyika and Nyasa.
The Board Chairman of the Tanzania Tourist Board, Judge (rtd) Thomas Mihayo, said as of 2017 the number of tourists visiting the country stood at 1,327,143 and that Tanzania earned 2.26 billion US dollars.
In her welcome remarks, the Managing Director of Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) Devotha Mdachi said aside the expo where buyers will engage exhibitors, the TTB had put together Familiarization tours for international buyers and media to visit the various tourist attractions in the country to appraise themselves with the tourism offerings of Tanzania.
“In order to make sure that our agents from foreign countries get to know better our tourist destinations, we have prepared a tour after SITE exhibitions and our agents will visit, Ruaha, Mikumi, Udzungwa and Tarangire national parks, as well as Ngorongoro Crater and the Spice Island of Zanzibar,” she said.
This year’s SITE exhibition brought together 170 tourism companies and over 300 tourism agents worldwide.
