Tanzania eyes 2m visitors by 2017

 

ARUSHA, Tanzania - The Tanzania Tourist Board expects tourists visiting the country to double to two million by 2017.

“We expect to reach two million tourist arrivals by 2017,” Devota Mdachi, the TTB acting managing director said recently.

“With more international airlines flying into Tanzania, improved infrastructure, increased tourism investments and marketing, we can reach that target,” she said.

Tourist arrivals broke the one million barrier for the first time in 2012 when foreign visitors surged 24%.  The number rose 1.7 per cent in 2013 to 1.095 million, bringing in $1.85 billion.  Most of the visitors came from Britain, Germany, the United States and Italy.

An increase in visitors to Tanzania in the past two years has chipped away at Kenya’s dominance and boosted Tanzania’s ambitions to become a regional tourist hub.  

Observers say this is a direct result of  the spate of terrorist attacks that have scared away visitors to Kenya in the last three years.

Tourist arrivals in Kenya slid last year to 1.5 million after an all-time high of 1.8 million in 2011.

In the first quarter of 2014 the number of visitors dropped 4 per cent compared to 2013.  According to analysts the real figures are worse.

Frequent attacks by Somali militants have had a devastating effect on Kenya’s tourism industry, scaring away tourists, some of whom looked elsewhere for tropical beaches and wildlife safaris.

Some Western tourists have found that, due to their governments’ travel advisories about the security situation, their travel insurance does not cover them for the Kenyan coast.

Tanzania has experienced nothing like the level of deadly violence that has hit Kenya, which angered militants by sending troops to fight al Shabaab militants in Somalia.

Zanzibar has experienced sporadic security problems, with a series of bomb attacks over the past year, targeting mosques, churches and restaurants, and acid attacks on a Catholic priest and two British teenagers last year which were blamed on Islamist militants.

But one tour operator in Zanzibar said the archipelago had benefited from the fact that the problems were worse in Kenya. “A lot of tourists who have cancelled their trips to (the Kenyan port city of) Mombasa are now coming to Zanzibar and that’s something that’s good for the local tourism industry.”

The impact on Kenya’s woes on Tanzania has been mixed.

While some operators say tourists are switching from Kenya to Tanzania, others say they are suffering due to the fact that Nairobi remains an air transit hub for the whole region.

“The Kenya security issues have impacted negatively on Tanzania as 30% to 40% of tourists visiting Tanzania come through Kenya due to the fact that Kenya has more international carriers,” Reuters quoted  Lathifa Sykes, CEO of the Hotels Association of Tanzania (HAT).

She said Tanzania’s tourism industry had the potential for further growth over the coming years, but investments were stifled by a complex and unpredictable tax regime, limited tourism infrastructure and inadequate marketing and branding.

“Growth of 9 per cent a year since 2010 could be accelerated to 20% a year if the government worked more closely with the private sector,” Sykes said.

Tourism employs about a third of Tanzania’s work force and contributed 13 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012, making it a vital industry for a nation of 45 million people that needs more jobs.

Like other African nations, tourist officials are now worried that fears about the spread of the Ebola virus, which has decimated tourism and other business in West Africa, could have knock on effects on the other side of the continent.

“The message that we’ve been putting across is that this disease (Ebola) has not entered Tanzania and so far we have not had any cancellations,” Mdachi said.

She said airlines for now were saying their flights were still full. Tourism is now Tanzania’s largest foreign exchange earner, according to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT).  This is after gold incomes fell significantly as a result of lower world prices for the commodity.

Tourism receipts totaled nearly $2 billion in the year between July 2013 and June 2014 following a 12.3 per cent increase, BoT said in its Monthly Economic Review. The details were released as Tanzania’s tourism industry prepares for the inaugural Swahili Tourism Trade Fair due to take place early next month in Dar es Salaam from October 1 to 4, 2014.

Ousseina Alidou (left), director for Center for African Studies and Richard Edwards (middle), Rutgers-New Brunswick chancellor greet Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete (right).

“This is really a momentous occasion for our University. … It reflects our slogan, ‘Jersey Roots, Global Reach,” Edwards said.

Kikwete opened up about the problems facing Tanzania, as well as the role of global partnerships in solving the challenges, at the event sponsored by the Center for Global Advancement and International Affairs and Center for African Studies.

“I am happy that the discussion is not whether international partnerships are important or not, but the discussion is how we can create this partnership in a manner that they are effective and efficient in addressing global challenges,” he said.

Kikwete has held his position since 2005, after serving as a Minister for Foreign Affairs for 10 years and as Finance Minister from 1994 to 1995. 

One issue that Kikwete has strived to get the ball rolling on is the field of research and development in Tanzania. 

“If we want to accelerate the pace of development, we have to do more in areas of science and tech, in areas of research,” he said. “[These are] areas where I found we were not doing well.”

After being elected president, Kikwete visited all the research institutions in the country and was shocked to discover that the institutions had hired no personnel in 10 years.

Soon after the finding, he advised that no existing employees retired before they made remarkable discoveries.

“I said, ‘You guys will not retire until we come to the point where we are now mixing genes, combining and getting a monster somewhere, then you can take care of your grandchildren,’” he said.

Kikwete lifted the employment freeze, updated research equipment and devoted more funding to research. Currently, the country has better research institutions that conduct at least two to three research programs and train students in acquiring masters and Ph.D.s.

Although the water bottle on Kikwete’s podium dropped several times, Kikwete was undeterred from stressing the importance of solving global challenges through global solutions.

“Many challenges and problems the world is facing today are global in nature,” he said. “There is no Eastern or Western problem alone, no African or European problem or American problem. …” 

Kikwete said one example of problems that have seen progress owing to international collaboration are the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. 

Since 1990, child mortality rate has been halved, according to the U.N. MDG report from 2014.

In 2012, 6 million fewer children are dying than in 1990.

Similarly, the world’s recent problems, like the ISIS crisis, fall in no single country’s framework.

“[It is] no longer an Iraqi problem, we were told at least there are 600 people from Britain ... 500 from Sweden and so many from all over the world, ISIS may look like a Syria or an Iraq problem but it’s global,” he said.

Ami Patel, a Rutgers student, witnessed first-hand the atmosphere in Tanzania during Kikwete’s election. She remembers people dancing in the streets out of happiness that their problems would go away.

Patel asked Kikwete how nervous he felt knowing that the citizens had tremendous expectations from him.

“Your fear was my fear,” Kikwete said.

Everyday, he continues to actualize what he promised for Tanzania, whether it is health, religion, research and development or elimination of poverty.

Ousseina Alidou, director for the Center for African Studies, highlighted Rutgers’ involvement in Tanzania and the African continent.

She said Rutgers has more than 120 faculties that are actively engaged in research, partnership collaborations and teaching of colleagues in many African countries.

“I believe it’s vitally important to make people aware of those opportunities and encourage deeper engagement with Africa and African colleagues, student, faculty and the professional world.”

Kikwete said he has very high hopes from the agreement between Rutgers and University of Dodoma and called it their “baby.”

“I am to see the collaboration between these two universities,” he said. “I expect to see this collaboration grow from strength to strength. You say there 25 [faculty members] who work in Tanzania, I want to see 125.”