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By The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. The travel trade in Tanzania performed well last year despite local and global economic challenges, but could have done better with improved facilitation, Tanzania Association of Travel Agents (Tasota) chairman Moustafa Khataw has said.He told The Citizen on Sunday this week that businesses and the authorities in the country should embrace new technology to advance travel facilitation, which is now a key aspect in tourism.
Failure to timely embrace digital technology, he noted, will see Tanzania being sidelined in the international travel trade, which the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) expects to hit the one billion mark this year. The UN agency forecasts international tourist arrivals to reach 1.8 billion by 2030.
“Despite a number of challenges last year such as clients not settling their dues on time and some public agencies not honouring their commitments, business was not bad last year. Our performance was also affected by pressing economic conditions in the national economy and the stalled global economic recovery,” Mr Khataw noted.
“Prospects for 2012 are positive especially if we make the most of information and communication technology (ICTs) in improving visa application and processing formalities as well as in making bookings and other travel arrangements,” he added.
In its latest World Tourism Barometer, the UNWTO says that advanced travel facilitation has direct impact in boosting tourism economies. According to its secretary general Taleb Rifai, adoption and use of ICT in travel facilitation also stimulates demand, which is crucial in the current turbulent economic times. The UNWTO says in the report, which was released early this week in Madrid ahead of the International Tourism Trade Fair that ends today, that international tourist arrivals grew by 4.4 per cent in 2011 to a total 980 million. In 2010, which was characterised by a stalled global economic recovery, major political changes in the Middle East and North Africa and natural disasters in Japan, the arrivals were 939 million.
UNWTO forecasts international tourism to continue growing in 2012 although at a slower rate. Arrivals are expected to increase by three per cent to four per cent, reaching the historic one billion mark by the end of the year. It says emerging economies will regain the lead with stronger growth in Asia, the Pacific and Africa.
“Travel facilitation is closely interlinked with tourism development and can be key in boosting demand. This area is of particular relevance in a moment in which governments are looking to stimulate economic growth but cannot make major use of fiscal incentives or public investment,” Mr Rifai notes in the report.Last year, Australia international travel advisory firm Lonely Planet named Tanzania as one of the top 10 destinations in the world to visit in 2011.
On January 6 this year, the influential The New York Times selected the country among 45 places for tourists to visit in 2012.
The number of arrivals in the country was last reported at 783,000, which generated $1.28 billion (about Sh1.92 trillion) that was below the government target of one million holidaymakers and business travellers. Despite attractions such as the Serengeti game park, Mt Kilimanjaro, and the sea resort of Zanzibar, Tanzania has not hit targets due to inadequate marketing of the country and poor infrastructure.
In March last year, Tourism and Natural Resources minister Ezekiel Maige said Tanzania was expecting the number of tourists to increase by 13-26 per cent in 2011. The ambitious projections were pegged on a new marketing strategy and the recovery of the global economy from the financial crisis.
“The government's goal was to attract 900,000 to one million tourists in 2011 and we believe we are now better equipped to achieve this target,” Mr Maige noted. Mr Khataw, who is the managing director of Uniglobe Skylink Travel and Tours, said travel trade in the country has been growing between 10 and 12 per cent in the recent past. Commenting on travel traders’ operational challenges, he said shortage of skilled labour was another major hindrance.
He attributed the shortcoming to lack of requisite investment in training sectoral personnel, which he said should be addressed immediately.He called on the authorities to open doors for external manpower especially from the EAC bloc in the context of the common market protocol while the country builds local capacity.
Meanwhile, Tanzania, through Mr Khataw, has been named to the Uniglobe’s Chairman’s Circle, which brings together the top brains and performers in global travel trade.
He said the group of 37 travel management companies is an influential lobby for networking, which plays a critical role in promoting inbound tourism. “Mr Khataw joins the 2012 Chairman’s Circle for delivering exceptional performance over the past year,” the chairman and chief executive officer of Uniglobe Travel International, Mr Gary Charlwood, said in a statement.
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