Tourists from United State at a park. PHOTO | US EMBASSY IN TANZANIA
The United States and Kenya have emerged as main tourist sources for Tanzania as the country sees recovery from Covid -19 pandemic.
Tanzania has registered 742,133 between January and July, representing a 62.7 per cent rise from the corresponding period last year, where 456,266 visitors were received.
The latest tourism statistics were released by the director of economic statistics at the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Daniel Masolwa in Dodoma.
According to him, 30 percent of the arrivals had Zanzibar as their destination.
The number of tourist arrivals last month stood at 166,736 as opposed to 81,307 arrivals a year earlier, he said.
“Tanzania is among countries with the best natural and other attractions in the world but wide sections of the global travel market are still unaware of those attractions,” he said.
He credited the surge in numbers to ‘The Royal Tour’ documentary featuring President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
The increase makes it essential for service providers in the tourism industry to expand and improve their services and ensure they have a customer care edge, as the film has substantially raised awareness of the tourism sector in Tanzania, properly marketing the country’s tourist attractions to the world.
Masolwa said statistics on the number of tourist arrivals corroborates the impact of the film in the market, pointing at the massive rise from “key Western countries”.
Between January and May, the United States had the largest share of tourist arrivals with 51,301 travellers, with France bringing in 47,403 tourists. Germany (30,817), Poland (29,004) and Britain (28,275) were the other major tourism travel sources.
July arrivals were similarly led by the US (17,135), France (12,634), Britain (8,586), Germany (8,015) and the Netherlands (5,102).
African countries brought in substantial tourist and business travel arrivals from January to July, led by Kenya (86,220), Burundi (54,877), Malawi (27,079), Uganda (21,080) and South Africa (20,868).
Tourist arrivals from African countries in July had a similar pattern with Kenya at 16,654, Burundi (7,966), Malawi (5,113), South Africa (4,335) and Rwanda (4,035).
Masolwa described the tourism industry as a major source of foreign currency for Tanzania.
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