Arusha — The country's tourism sector is slowly but surely bouncing back if the recent number of tourists that visited Tanzania is anything to go by.
According to Natural Resources and Tourism Deputy Permanent Secretary Juma Mkomi, Tanzania received 922,692 tourists last year, compared to 620, 867 who visited the East African nation in 2020.
This is equivalent to 48.6 per cent increase, Mr Mkomi, who was briefing reporters here at the weekend, attributed such a feat to the government's plans of steering the $2bn/- industry to greater heights.
"The plan is indeed paying off as we look forward to attract more tourists to the country," explained the Deputy PS.
More visitors arrive in Tanzania as tourism industry is steadily recovering from Covid-19 impact that restricted travelling. According to the National Bureau Statistics, 742,133 tourists arrived in the country from January to July this year. That number is more than 80 per cent of all tourists who came in the country last year.
Fifteen major markets accounted for 81 per cent of all tourists last year, from 71.8 per cent in 2020.
"France leads the market, followed by the United States, Kenya and Zambia," he disclosed.
Worth noting in the study is the average spending of a tourist while in Tanzania.
According to the report, a visitor spent some 199 US dollars in their daily spending spree from the previous 152 US dollars in 2020.
"Tourists who purchased package services had spent an average of 364 US dollars per day and those who did not purchase the service and products for packages spent an average of 141.0 US dollars," the Deputy PS detailed.
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The study further revealed that Wildlife Tourism continued to be the mainstay of the lucrative industry, followed by beach tourism.
Such statistics will be used as a roadmap in laying out more robust strategies of wooing in more tourists, according to Mr Mkomi.
"The Royal Tour documentary is just among the strategies that we aspire to use in realizing the mission," he said, while dissecting a multi-agency report which details the number of tourists visiting Tanzania.
The Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Tourism and Natural Resources Ministry equally rallied key players in the tourism and hospitality sector to make the most of the sector's reboot, as it continues to reel from the aftershocks of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The report, conducted in 2021 has been jointly commissioned by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, the Central Bank, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Zanzibar Commission for Tourism (ZCT) and the Immigration Service Department.
It also featured findings from the country's major entry and exit points such as Airports and borders.
