Goverment puts rogue tourism firms on firing line

Dar es Salaam. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism has embarked on an exercise of verifying registration certificates and licenses for firms that are engaged in the tourism businesses in the country.

The move, according to the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Major General Gaudence Milanzi, seeks to identify and scrap all unregistered and unlicensed firms from operating doing the business.

He said in a statement that unregistered and unlicensed firms have been linked to incidences of fraud including conning and causing unnecessary inconveniences to tourists.

Such incidences, he said, were tarnishing Tanzania’s image to tourists hence the need to deal with them once and for all.

“Section 29 (10), (21) and (31) 1-6 of the Tourism Act 2008 prohibits people from doing tourism businesses without registration and payment of fees for a respective year,” reads the statement.

According to the statement, the government was currently issuing registration forms for 2018, warning that those seeking to register should provide valid and accurate information.