TRAVEL ADVISORY, COVID-19 FEES AIL TANZANIA TOURISM

A TRAVEL advisory for incoming tourists issued by the government last month is reported to have blocked some visitors to Tanzania. 

Industry stakeholders in Arusha said 72 hours was too short for the tourists who tested negative from Covid-19 tests to reach the country from different corners of the world. 

The May 7th,2021 advisory issued requires that all travellers heading to Tanzania should have their samples collected within 72 hours before arrival in the country.

The tests have to be based on RealTime Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) using samples collected within 72 hours.

Travellers on transit in other countries more than 72 hours will be required to be re-tested by rapid tests upon arrival in Tanzania.

Tourism players in Arusha, however, said the system was not friendly to efforts to revive the industry already reeling from the heavy impact of Covid-19.

"For a traveller from California,US the time would elapse before landing in Tanzania given the long route", one of the industry players said last  week.

He added that already some visitors  heading to Tanzania had been turned away at Amsterdam airport because they could not beat the deadline. 

A source who requested anonymity intimated to  that the best strategies to resuscitate the travel

industry now lays with the health authorities with Covid-19 still around.

There had been repeated calls from industry players to review the travel advisory timeline in order to give enough time from those tested negative to reach Tanzania within 72 hours.

Until the outbreak of the global coronavirus early last year, the United States has been the leading source country for tourists to Tanzania .

Other incoming tourists use long haul flights from  Europe, Asia, Middle East and elsewhere to reach Tanzania with multiple stopovers along the way.

The hospitality industry players in Arusha, the country's safari capital,also called for a downward review of the Covid clearance fees for the travelers.

"The high fees are also a main challenge to incoming tourists", lamented Moses King'ori, the managing director of Riverside Car Hire and Shuttle Services.

The firm operates several shuttle mini buses between Arusha and Nairobi, but has seen this  getting tougher even with the easing of travel restrictions. 

He said in coming tourists had to pay $25 in their original departure countries and another $25 at the entry point to be allowed into Tanzania.

However, the same travellers are each charged $100 when exiting the country for Covid-19 tests , something they fear can retard the flow of visitors.

On the government budget for 2021/2022 financial year Mr. King'ori said it was short of any 'stimulus package' to support tourism in the wake of Covid-19. 

Such measures should have included reduction of entry fees to the national parks " and raft taxes which for years have not been beneficial to the operators".

He said countries such as South Africa, Botswana and Kenya had introduced special packages to resuscitate their tourism sector in the wake of Covid-19.

He reiterated  the need for reopening of the foreign currency shops in Arusha which were closed in November 2018 to facilitate tourism and the general public. 

"The bureaux at the banks are not very convenient for the tourists", Mr. King'ori said, noting that only the duly licensed currency shops should be allowed to operate.

When he tabled the Sh.36.2 trillion government budget in Parliament on June 10th the minister for Finance and Planning Mwigulu Nchemba announced some measures to revive the sector. 

These included reduction of tourism business licence fee for travel agents from $2,000 to $ 500 in order to promote the industry.

According to the Bank of Tanzania, the number of international arrivals plummeted to 514,625 in the year to March 2021 from 1.5million previously.

Andrew Malalika, a tour operator, expressed his fears that the cumbersome Covid-19 tests at the entry and exit points would frustrate the flow of foreign tourists. 

"Tanzania is still a favoured destination for tourists even with the pandemic. But we have to improve services at our airports", he insisted. 

Without the pandemic which broke out last year, Tanzania would have attracted a total of 1.9million tourists last year, generating $ 2.9billion. 

On the tourism sector, he announced funding arrangements for the state-run conservation agencies whose earnings from tourism had been impacted by Covid-19.

These are theTanzania National Parks (Tanapa, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) and the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (Tawa). 

The three bodies had also been thrown into a sort of cash management crisis after the government directed their revenue collections be remitted directly to the  Treasury.

From the next fiscal year (2021/2022), the government will release funds to finance their day-to-day operations as well as implementation of development projects.