TANZANIA’S TOURISM LEAPS TO NEW HEIGHTS

The conducive business environment, political stability together with increased infrastructural investment undertakings are attributable t... thumbnail 1 summary
The conducive business environment, political stability together with increased infrastructural investment undertakings are attributable to the recent enormous growth in the tourism industry, manifested by the arrival of one million international visitors by the close of 2012, an increase of 24% over 2011. Income generated from tourism activities increased from US $1.35 Billion in 2011 to US $1.7 Billion in 2012. These tourism receipts put the tourism sector second after gold in terms of foreign exchange earnings.

Tanzania is the largest country in East Africa with an area of just under 1 million square kms, with about 28% of its land mass set aside as protected land, comprising forests, wetlands and wildlife areas. It comes as no surprise therefore, that, the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report of The World Economic Forum places Tanzania second worldwide (after Brazil), for its richness in natural resources (as measured by the total number of known species living in them), with several World Heritage Sites.

This beauty of the natural resources was endorsed by experts as well as the general public through a recent search of Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, coordinated by a US based organization known as Seven Natural Wonders. Out of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, three are located in Tanzania namely the Ngorongoro Crater; the spectacular Serengeti migration; and Mt Kilimanjaro; which are all UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.

Similarly, Tanzania as a destination as well as various tourist resorts have one accollades in the recent years including:

• Tanzania being voted as best African destination to visit 2012 by New York Times
• Voted as one of the top ten countries to visit by lonely Planet in 2011
• Voted by Safaribookings.com as the best safari destination in Africa in 2013.
• The Singita Grumeti Lodge in Tanzania voted as the World’s best lodge for two consecutive years, 2011 and 2012.
• Ras Nungwi in Tanzania voted as among the Top Hotels by TripAdvisor 2013.

It is also worth noting that, Tanzania is socially and politically very stable a country. Isolated cases of petty crimes are inevitable. Nevertheless, Tanzania continues to take measures to ensure safety and security of the general public as well as tourists in the country. In particular, Tanzania has established a Diplomatic and Tourism Police Unit in the Police Force to ensure safety and security.

Furthermore, Minister responsible for Tourism has formed Tourism Advisory Committee, which draws members from both public and private sectors, to advise the Minister on all matters related to tourism including safety and security of tourists. Likewise, Tourism Facilitation Committees at National and Regional levels are in place to oversee among other things, tourism development issues.

HON. AMBASSADOR KHAMIS KAGASHEKI,

MINISTER FOR NATURAL RESOURCES AND TOURISM.