HUNGARIAN President Katalin Novák’s work and private visit in the country has created other avenues for the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) to lure more tourists from the Eastern Europe nation to visit the vast attraction sites in Tanzania.
During a press briefing held at the State House in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday with regard to the visit, President Samia Suluhu Hassan indicated that Tanzania received 7,188 tourists from Hungary in 2022.
She described the figure as very significant and highest to be recorded from the Eastern Europe country over the years, expressing optimism that her counterpart’s three-day visit which consisted of a private trip to Arusha via Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA), will attract more tourists coming from Hungary to Tanzania.
Commenting on this, TTB Executive Director Mr Damas Mfugale revealed that the board has already taken concrete measures to boost the number of tourists who are visiting Tanzania from the Eastern Europe countries.
Mr Mfugale indicated that TTB has adopted various strategies including conducting roadshows in countries such as Hungary, Czech Republic, and Poland in March this year, with the aim of tapping into the wider market in that side of Europe.
“Led by our Ambassador in Germany, these meetings attracted around 250 stakeholders from the countries,” said Mr Mfugale.
He disclosed that TTB in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism eye carrying out ministerial missions, where they will be meeting with outbound operators in Eastern Europe countries early next year-the major goal of attracting the entire market of Europe.
According to him, currently Tanzania is doing well in Western Europe; therefore, TTB envisioned attracting more tourists globally so as to reach its major goal of receiving five million tourists come the year 2025.
As stipulated in the Third Five-Year Development Plan (FYDP III of 2020/2021 to 2025/2026), Tanzania seeks to achieve its target of notching an income of 6 billion US dollars (about 14tri/-) from 5,000,000 tourists come 2025.
To promote sector competitiveness and linkages, FYDP III is prioritising the development and implementation of a clear tourism legal and regulatory framework and strengthening public-private dialogue and collaboration.
Key interventions include promoting new tourism products development and diversification for sustainable growth as well as mobilising for the southern tourist circuit as alternative to other circuits.
Elaborating, Mr Mfugale cited the 2022 statistics that showed Tanzania received around 1.5 million tourists and in this year the number may rise to 2.2 million.
On the record, he said tourists from America accounted for around 100,000 tourists followed by other countries like France, Germany, and the United Kingdom with about 80,000 visitors.
To further promote the country’s attraction globally, Mr Mfugale observed that they intend to have various translated versions of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s Royal Tour film, which had targeted the US market to other languages, so that it can be used to brand Tanzania in other nations.
On other hand economists have recommended that for Tanzania’s tourism sector to do well in the Eastern Europe market, there was a need for Tanzania mission abroad to aggressively market and brand the country’s attractions in exhibitions and using leaflets as well as effectively capitalisng on the use of social media platforms.
A seasoned economist-cum-banker, Dr Hildebrand Shayo said through the use of tour operators from both Tanzania and Eastern Europe countries in collaboration with airline companies the country can market its attractions.
Such will create a snowball information sharing approach, stressing the need to ensure the country’s operators meet expectations of the tourists who will in turn be Tanzania’s good ambassadors.
For his part, veteran economist and lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, Prof Humphrey Mosha underscored the need to create attractive conditions that will attract tourists to come to Tanzania and in turn the country benefits from foreign direct investments.
