WHENEVER President Samia Suluhu Hassan's name is mentioned, the image of peace and reconciliation spirit in Tanzania will automatically come into your mind.
In two years since she took over the office, Dr Samia introduced the 4Rs philosophy (Reconciliation, Resilience, Reforms and Rebuilding) to maintain peace and stability in the country.
The Head of State took the stance to change the leadership tactic in solving the problems and challenges affecting the country's economic, political and social systems.
Samia's 4Rs have contributed to massive developments in various economic sectors particularly in conference tourism industry.
As a result, Conference Tourism Industry in the country is growing at a good pace, following the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) recording a revenue of 14.6bn/- in 2021/22, compared to 11.3bn/- in 2020/21 financial year.
AICC Annual Report 2021/22 unveiled that revenue collections from the centre's main revenue sources were 14,612,665,666/- being an increase of 29 per cent compared to 11,366,497,993/- recorded in the year ended June 30, 2021.
According to AICC Managing Director Mr Ephraim Mafuru the impressive pace is attributed to efforts made by President Samia opening and promoting the country in international conferences, as well as aggressive marketing strategies employed to mitigate the adverse effects caused by Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking on recently in Dar es Salaam during a working session between journalists, editors and AICC officers, coordinated by the Treasury Registrar (TR) office, Mr Mafuru said the centre has undergone gradual and steady improvement in various areas, including revenue collection.
"The revenue collections from the AICC's main revenue sources were 14.6bn/- in 2021/22 financial year compared to 11.3 bn/- in 2020/21 financial year, estimated as an increase of 29 per cent," he pointed out.
In particular, he noted that it was after a big campaign to open up the country, Tanzania rose to fifth position by hosting 18 conferences which is 10 per cent of the African market share, since President Samia rose to power.
Adding: "Four years ago, Tanzania ranked 13th position in hosting the conferences and contributed only five per cent of the African market share."
Moreover, he said the country has everything it takes to compete in the Continental and Global Conference Tourism industry.
Couple with that he added that with the modernisation of facilities Tanzania will attract high end events that will generate the desired foreign currency.
"AICC aspiration is to organise 30 international meetings per year, attended by an average of 1,000 people, spending an average of 400 US dollars per day in four days; this will translate to 48 million US dollars in revenue. By doubling this number of delegates to 2000, this revenue will be 96 million US dollars per year," he said.
In a related development, Mr Mafuru said the centre operates and manages the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC) in Dar es Salaam, rents offices at the headquarters Complex and 627 housing units.
The MD also elaborated the next six months (July to December) plans of the AICC, such as creating a new road map for all AICC/JNICC projects and refresh the brand identity to reflect the current positioning statement 'We Bring the World to Tanzania'.
In the same line, he highlighted the key priority projects of the AICC for the next five years, including developing and implementing a new master plan for AICC properties, re-development of existing plots/properties and expansion of the AICC Hospital.
"Among of the key priority projects of the AICC for the next five-year including construction of the new conference Mount Kilimanjaro International Convention Centre (MK-ICC) and renovation and expansion of JNICC- (Immediate to medium term).
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Expounding on the facilities, Mr Mafuru said AICC is composed of Simba Plenary Hall, Lake Nyasa Exhibition Hall and 17 other breakaway rooms.
Elaborating, he adds that Simba Plenary Hall entails 1,350 seats in theatre style, LED screen, 2 large-screen multimedia projectors, professional audio amplification and mixing equipment.
Adding: "the hall also contains 4 languages simultaneous Interpretation system, wireless internet access and broadcasting (web-streaming) and digital audio and video recording.
Regarding the Lake Nyasa Exhibition Hall, MD Mafuru says the hall designed with flexible use facilities to accommodate differentiated use, venue set and design such as registration area, temporary storing area, loading and unloading areas, modern kitchen and restaurant.
In line, he outlines the conference facilities at JNICC whereby he says the Centre involve main Plenary Hall(serous) with capacity of 1003 seats and 20 other venues.
