Cultural groups need govt help

A call has been made for the government to invest in cultural tourism groups because majority of the tourists have shown a clear interest in it.

Visitors from different countries across the world have been visiting different regions in the country to learn traditions through traditional songs and dances. According to groups that promote cultural tourism in Arusha and Kilimanjaro, the sub sector has a great potential of helping poor families economically because it involves everyone even those who did not go to school.

Meru District-based Mulala Cultural Group chairperson, Anna Pallangyo told The Citizen over the weekend that the government should support the groups in terms of capital for they will help bring more tourists, which in turn, will enable them fight poverty. Statistic from the Tanzania Tourist Board shows that the number of tourists in the country increased from 1.1 million in 2015 to 1.3 million in 2016.

“These groups promote culture, that means every villager can be involved either in cooking traditional foods, singing or dancing, so even those who did not go to school can participate and increase their income,” she said.

Ms Pallangyo added that her group can receive over 700 tourists per year, which guarantees an income of more than Sh30 million, adding that apart from paying the members, the villagers also benefit.

She further explained that most of the groups were facing a challenge of raising enough money to tents for the visitors or houses to host them.

“I have only four rooms whose construction was completed this earlier this year and most of the tourists preferred to spend at least three days in a week,” she said.

A coordinator for Rundugai Cultural Tourism Group located in Hai District, Ndossi Ndumiaita said the beauty of cultural tourism is that it involves all people regardless of age and education.

He said the sub sector also offers tourist’s opportunities to interact with indigenous people, adding that tourists’ interests have been changing as some of them shift from Safaris to cultural tourism.

“This group was established in 2014 and since then the number of tourists has been increasing every year. This year alone we have received over 200 tourists who were interested in traditional issues. Last year we earned Sh8 million whereby some of the money was channeled to Village Development Funds (VDF),” he said.

“The government should invest in these groups because cultural tourism is growing very fast in the world. Cultural tourism is the new way of helping the youth to get employment.”

UN-World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) annual report shows that cultural tourism is one of the sub sectors that are growing fast and steadily across the world.

In Tanzania there are more than 60 groups that promote the cultural tourism and 120 requests have been sent to the TTB.