Unhealthy directives hinders growth of tourism sector in Tanzania: Mbatia
Vunjo Member of Parliament Mr James Mbatia speaks in Parliament on Tuesday. He has associated slower growth of tourism with arbitrary government directives which he said caused uncertainty. Photo | Edwin Mjwahuzi
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Mbatia said tourism arrivals had been increasing by about 13 per cent between 2012 and 2016 but grew by just three per cent in 2017.
Dodoma. Vunjo Member of Parliament Mr James Mbatia has associated slower growth of tourism with arbitrary government directives which he said caused uncertainty.
Mr Mbatia was contributing to the debate on the Natural Resources and Tourism budget on Tuesday.
He said tourism arrivals had been increasing by about 13 per cent between 2012 and 2016 but grew by just three per cent in 2017.
"This (decline of arrivals) is definitely caused by haphazard announcements and directives issued by the government," said Mr Mbatia.
He was also concerned by high number of taxes tour operators pay, which he said were a burden to operators and investors in the sector.
Mr Mbatia also said although Tanzania has many tourist destination poor infrastructure is still a problem.
On tourism advertising, Mr Mbatia said the government planned to use TBC but he doubted if the channel could reach targeted countries which mostly watch channels like CNN.
