TOURISM: Optimism high as Chelsea FC visit Tanzania
ZANZIBAR: Tourism earnings through sports in Tanzania are expected to increase in the near future, thanks to new initiatives taken by government and the management of Chelsea Football Club from England.
In the course, recently two officials of the club namely, Ms Carly Telford, who is the Commercial Manager and Barnes Hempel, the Head of Global Sales travelled from London to Tanzania and met Zanzibar President, Dr Hussein Mwinyi and the Minister for Culture, Arts and Sports Dr Damas Ndumbaro on issues of how to further develop the soccer realm and tourism sector.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam, the Chelsea Coordinator in Tanzania, Mohammed Reza Saboor said Dr Mwinyi, was impressed with the visit and was ready to see development of soccer and tourism in the Isles taking place without any hesitation.
Mr Saboor noted that in the (Mainland) Tanzania, Minister Ndumbaro also showed interest in the club further investing and sharing football skills with the locals.
He added: “ A lot of support is still needed to develop soccer particularly for the youth in Tanzania. Chelsea officials have shown interest to support our youths in sports, especially talents’ grooming so that they can also play in major football clubs abroad.”
Elaborating, he said Tanzania has good football players who can play abroad, but only that they lack enough exposure and networking.
He said the discussion between the government and Chelsea officials would further open more doors for soccer to be an industry that employs many youth.
In their talk, it was noted that the English football club will open an academy in mainland and Zanzibar.
Chelsea is a big and reputable football club in the world with more than 500 million fans, so the partnership between the two parties would help to improve economy of Tanzania.
Mr Saboor said Tanzania will witness flow of tourists (mostly Chelsea fans) trooping to the country through the friendship, hence increase in foreign exchange earnings.
Apart from foreign exchange their coming to Tanzania would lead to opening more business empires in the country in form of more hotels and hence, creation of more employment opportunities to the locals.
