Tanzania tourism sector review
Monday May 21 2018
The Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC). Tanzania is hoping to attract international conferences especially to hotels in the Southern Circuit and Lake Victoria Zone. FILE PHOTO | NATION
Tanzania will review its 1999 Tourism Policy to attract more private companies to invest in tourism, especially in the southern part of the country, which teems with wildlife, beaches, historical sites and geological features.
The sector has been depending mostly on wildlife, but now the government and other stakeholders are proposing an expansion to include conference and meeting tourism to ensure that visitors also tour attractions in the Southern Circuit and Lake Victoria Zone.
The Tanzania Tourist Board managing director Devota Mdachi told The EastAfrican that the board is working hard to attract international conferences to Tanzania, an idea that banks on the hotels available in Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar and Arusha.
The Ministry of Tourism will also establish a Tanzania National Convention Bureau to oversee the development.
Currency earner
“Our target is to build meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions tourism for large groups,” Ms Mdachi told The EastAfrican.
Tourism is Tanzania’s leading foreign currency earner and a key economic sector accounting for 25 per cent of its revenues. The country earned $2.2 billion from 1.3 million tourists who visited in 2017.