Revenue boost in Royal Tour featured film

THE Royal Tour documentary has earned the country numerous benefits since its launch in March last year including boost in revenue collection, especially in some attraction sites which features in the film.

That was revealed in the government’s recent highlight of the benefits realised from the film in a period of one year, since it was launched including branding Tanzania tourist destinations in the world.

Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) Conservation Commissioner, William Mwakilema said recently during the virtual symposium on one year of the film that, its benefits have been observed in terms of revenue collection and the increased number of tourists visiting the country.

Mr Mwakilema said that in one year of the film reign, a total of 259,789 tourists visited Mount Kilimanjaro and earned the country more than 78bn/-.

He added that Serengeti National Park received 491,375 visitors, saying that  it is the only park that  contributes half of the income  collected from all the parks under TANAPA by bringing in  a total of 157b/-.

“TANAPA has 22 parks but only two parks, Mount Kilimanjaro and Serengeti National Park featured in the Royal Tour documentary, thus generating more income than other national parks under the authority,” he pointed out.

On his part, Chief Executive Officer of African Queen Adventures, Ms Alice Manupa, said through the film her company received 70 doctors from America who came to visit various attractions in the country.

Ms Manupa further said that the film also stimulated domestic tourism to the extent of  mobilising local visitors to the sites.

“In a period of one year, a total of 900 women from within the country visited Ngorongoro National Park, besides other Tanzanians who also visited the site,” she said.

The Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors’ Chairperson, Rahim Bhaloo, said the film has brought both direct and indirect benefits to the Isles and generated value chain in the tourism sector.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities Zanzibar, Ms Fatma Mabrouk Khamis said that the film has brought benefits in the isles tourism sector including arrival of eight tourist cruise ships accommodating 300 to 800 people.

Ms Fatma said the documentary has inspired even people from the East African region to come and witness the tourist attraction sites in the isles.

She added that the film has also multiplier effects in other sectors such as investment, transportation and service delivery.

Last week, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Dr Hassan Abbas said that the country has earned multiple benefits from the Royal Tour documentary, since its launch in the past one year, citing a 5.8tri/- revenue collection by March this year.

Elaborating, Dr Hassan Abbas said that between March 2022 and March 2023, tourism income increased to 5.8tri/- from 3.3tri/- recorded a year before the launch of the documentary.

“This documentary has brought great benefits to our country … there has been significant increase in the number of tourists, where a total of 1.4 million tourists visited the country between January and December 2022,” he said.

He said the number of tourists recorded is an increase of 57.7 per cent compared to 620,000 tourists who visited the country one year before the launch of the film.

Dr Abbas said that a total of 1.2 billion people around the world are aware of the Tanzania Royal Tour film by watching, hearing or reading, thus promoting the country’s tourism around the world.