ROYAL TOUR FILM WILL BOOST TANZANIA TOURISM

 Tourism stakeholders in Arusha have welcomed the Royal Tour Initiative by President Samia Suluhu Hassan. 

The effort will boost the sector which was on the verge of being knocked down by Covid-19 two years ago. 

"The initiative is good. It is unique and long overdue", said Daniel Ole Njoolay,the retired diplomat and resident of the city.

He hinted that few government leaders had ever thought of the Tour, saying this was an alternative way of promoting tourism.

Ambassador Njoolay, who served as the Arusha Regional Commissioner in the 1990s, said the region will be a major beneficiary.

"In fact, we have seen foreign tourists flocking in droves to Arusha after the easing of Covid-19 restrictions", he pointed out.

Njoolay, who is currently serving as board member of several state bodies, said the US market was critical for Tanzania's tourism.

America overtook other states as the leading tourism source country to Tanzania in the early 2000s till the pre-Covid-19 era. 

The retired envoy said President Samia should be praised for the initiative because the country's rich attractions need aggressive promotion. 

One of the challenges facing the industry, he said,was that the country's attractions were not much known to the world.

"I am an economist by profession. The trickle down effect of the Royal Tour to the economy will be enormous", he went on.

Walter Maeda, the chair of Arusha regional business chamber, hastened to say that marketing of Tanzania's tourism has been poor.

"Our tourism promotion has been poor. We appreciate what President Samia is doing. It is unprecedented," said in an interview.

He added that tourism was "everything" in Arusha in that it had a trickle-down effect

on the entire business sector. 

These are the hotels, eateries, horticulture, open markets,curio shops, taxis and tour guides "who thrive on this business".

Mr.Maeda said some travel agents abroad were ignorant of the exact location of iconic attractions such as the  Ngorongoro crater, the Serengeti and Mt. Kilimanjaro.

"The Royal Tour will now open up Tanzania to the world, not only the US. We really appreciate it", he pointed out.

Other stakeholders said time has come for Tanzania to diversify its tourist attractions, instead of focusing only on wildlife. 

For metropolitan Arusha these have to include cultural artefacts,cuisine,museums, entertainment centres and cultural dances.

Other stakeholders reached out by this newspaper stressed the need for Tanzania to upgrade its tourism facilities.

"Our local airports should have night landing facilities. These must include Mwanza, Mbeya (Songwe) and Dodoma airports", said one of them. 

"Unfortunately, it has taken too long for the upgrading of Mwanza airport to be completed", a travel agent who did not want his name mentioned said.  

There was also a call for reopening of currency exchange shops to facilitate the influx of visitors from abroad.

"In Arusha,it has been a big embarrassment as visitors are left wandering from one place to another to change money",said one of them. 

A significant number of stakeholders preferred to speak on condition of anonymity challenged the conservation agencies to step in.

They said the cash-strapped Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) should not be blamed for not selling the country well in overseas markets because it lacked funds. 

They cited the Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa), Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) and Tanzania Wildlife Authority (Tawa) as having a stake in the promotion efforts.

For many years, Arusha has been the hub of the multi-million dollar tourism industry, attracting 70 percent of 1.3 million visitors in pre-Covid -19 period. 

Ever since the outbreak of the pandemic, the figures have dropped to aboud 600,000 foreign visitors in 2020,rising to 900,000 last year.