480,000 tourism jobs at risk if Covid-19 persists

Dar es Salaam. The government has laid bare the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the tourism industry, with a warning that at least 477,000 jobs will be lost and revenues drop by 77 per cent should the pandemic persist beyond October this year.

Natural Resources and Tourism minister Hamisi Kigwangalla, told Parliament yesterday that the number of people who will lose jobs represents 76 per cent of the total direct employment in the sub-sector. The tourism industry in Tanzania employs some 623,000 people at the moment and according to the minister, the coronavirus could whittle it down to 146,000 only.

The minister revealed that earnings from tourism will also decrease from $2.6 billion (About Sh6 trillion) projected earlier to $598 million (Sh1.4 trillion), a whopping 77 percent decline.

“This is because the number of tourists anticipated to visit Tanzania during that period will decline from 1.9 million to 437, 000 which is a 76 per cent drop,” said Dr Kigwangalla in Dodoma.

He was tabling, in Parliament, his ministry’s 2020/21 budget estimates in which he asked MPs to approve a total of Sh114.6 billion for his annual expenditure.

Tourism is Tanzania’s second foreign exchange earner, raking in $2.5 billion (Sh5.75 trillion) in 2019 compared to gold which topped the list with $2.7 billion (Sh6.21 trillion). Transport services came third with $1.3 billion (Sh2.99 trillion) and in fourth place was manufactured goods with roughly $1 billion (Sh2.3 trillion).

Tanzania is one of Africa’s leading tourism markets, with Serengeti plains and Ngorongoro crater its safari gem among the global travel enthusiasts but the industry worldwide has taken a knock since the Covid-19 pandemic grounded airlines and saw hotels closing as countries closed boarders and restricted movement to stop the virus from spreading. While several countries have started easing the lockdown, it was still uncertain when movement restrictions across the globe would end.

Yesterday, Dr Kigwangalla did not indicate in his budget any fiscal or policy interventions to help the local industry recover but his permanent secretary, Prof Adolph Mkenda, earlier told The Citizen in a telephone interview that the ministry will meet its stakeholders on Monday, in Arusha, for a discussion on the impact.

“We expect to come up with a detailed recovery strategy to enable the sub-sector to recover quickly after the pandemic,” Prof Mkenda noted.

In his speech, the minister, who is the Nzega Rural MP, said revenue collected by institutions under his docket such as Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa), the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), the Tanzania Forest Services Agency (TFS) and the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (Tawa) would all suffer.

According to him, revenue projected by Tanapa will decline from Sh363.9 billion to Sh64 billion, NCAA collections will go down from Sh162.7 billion to Sh58 billion. “TFS anticipated revenue will also decline from Sh153.6 billion to Sh121 billion, as Tawa revenue targets will decrease from Sh58.1 billion to Sh22 billion,” he said, warning that the institutions may fail to even meet their operational costs.

The minister said a rapid assessment on Covid-19 carried in April showed that the country started recording the loss in March.

He said by March 25, 13 airlines had stopped flying to Tanzania, diminishing hopes of tourists’ arrivals. Speaking on the budget which declined by 4.66 per cent, Dr Kigwangalla said he requested for S69.594 billion in recurrent expenditure and Sh45.02 billion for implementation of development projects. According to him, Sh700 million out of funds allocated for development projects will be locally sourced, while Sh44.32 billion will sourced from international sources.

He said among development projects targeted include the Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (REGROW) and the capacity building project for residents in conservation areas, game reserves as well as strengthening the anti-poaching unit.

Others are the tree planting projects for business purposes, capacity building for institutions, organising trainings on forestry and beekeeping as well as value addition on forestry products.