Tackle hurdles to attract 2m tourists by 2020, govt urged

Dar es Salaam. The government will undertake a number of projects in the coming four years in the endeavour to attract two million tourists by 2020.

But the sector players say the goal will be achieved if poaching, multiple taxes, poor infrastructures and inadequate promotion funds are addressed.

Tourism is Tanzania’s leading foreign exchange earner.

The country earned $2.23 billion from travels and related activities in 2015, up from $2.01 billion in 2014, according to Bank of Tanzania (BoT) figures.

An estimated 1.1 million tourists visited the country last year.

To increase the numbers, the country will add impetus to the tourism landmark by encouraging local tourism and opening up some new attractions in the southern zone.

The country will also increase the number of beds and the number of tourism products to achieve the desired numbers,” reads a statement in the National Five-Year Development Plan 2016/2017 to 2020/2021.

A number of new tourism products are on the cards, with a Sh500-million Theme Park earmarked for construction in Dar es Salaam during the financial year. Construction of an investment building – Utalii House – will be continued at area where the United States Embassy used to be in Dar es Salaam.

To support the envisaged numbers, which will also mean increased earnings, the government will also attract more investors into the industry who will be required to invest in hotels and increase the number of beds during the next few years. Latest statistics from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism indicate that country is a home to 174 registered tourist hotels with a total room capacity of 21,929.

Of the number 91 hotels are in Tanzania’s northern safari capital, Arusha. This reflects a serious shortage of hotel rooms to accommodate the explosion number of holidaymakers as in 2014; the natural-resources-rich-country was attracted 1,140,156 tourists.

Training in the sector will be taken seriously, according to the Plan.

Stakeholders are however of the view that the goal will only be reached if the country works on factors pertaining to poaching, multiple taxes, poor infrastructures and inadequate promotion funds.

Over the past six years, more than 80,000 of the country’s elephants have been slaughtered for their ivory, representing a 60 per cent of the population, signalling that humanity could soon drive the great animals to extinction.

Other threats are loss of natural habitat through human activities incompatible with conservation interests such as cultivation, overstocking of livestock, deforestation, use of pesticides and other pollution.

“It is an open secret that if, we Tanzanians do not conserve our wildlife and look after our natural assets then nature based tourism will not be able to attract two million tourists come 2020,” the chief executive officer for Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (Tato), Sirili Akko told BusinessWeek in Arusha in a recent interview.

It was in apparent reaction to this that the government says it is setting aside Sh7.46 billion during the coming financial year in order to help the Tanzania Wildlife Authority (Tawa) in its efforts to contain poaching.

Tourism provides 600,000 direct jobs to Tanzanians.

Over one million people earn an income from tourism. Besides, the sector’s value chain supports parks, conservation areas and now community-based wildlife management areas (WMAs) as well as farmers, transporters, fuel stations, spare parts suppliers, builders, tent manufacturers plus suppliers of food and drinks. But these benefits are smashed by multiple taxes, levies and fees as visitors see Tanzania as an expensive destination.

“We need to address the issue of multiple taxes, if we are going to succeed to bring two million tourists to Tanzania by 2020 and compete with other countries with the similar attractions,” the chief executive officer of Hotels Association of Tanzania (Hat) Ms Lathifa Sykes told BusinessWeek in a recent interview.

Indeed, tour operators in Tanzania are currently subjected to 32 different taxes, twelve being business registration and regulatory licenses fees as well as 11 duties for each tourist vehicle per annum and nine others. The Tato immediate past chairman, Willy Chambullo the contentious issue is modality and time spent in complying with intricate taxes.

“It’s cheap to pay penalty for doing business illegally than to comply with complex tax regime in tourism trade in Tanzania” he told BusinessWeek in a recent interview.

Tour operator spends over four months to complete regulatory paperwork, whereas the tax and license paperwork consume a total of 745 hours per year.

A report done by Tanzania Confederation of Tourism (TCT) and BEST-Dialogue shows that average annual cost of personnel to complete regulatory paperwork per local tour operator is Sh2.9 million per year.

All these costs are normally passed along to end-users, making Tanzania expensive and place the tourism industry in a disadvantaged position.

Additional Reporting by Adam Ihucha