EDITORIAL: New tourism plan laudable

Tourism remains the main source of foreign currency for Tanzania, but its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product is only 17.7 per cent.

Tanzania is phenomenally-endowed with attractions, most of which have not been marketed widely enough, thus denying the government more tourist-dollars.

But, there is some light at the end of the (tourism) tunnel after the launch of a television channel that is designed to promote our attractions further afield.

We indeed are excited as we wait to see what the 24-hour Tanzania Safari Channel will do for the country.

There have been assorted efforts in recent years to promote our tourist attractions, which consumed lots of money. Hopefully, this latest ploy will erase all that.

Tanzania – the second-largest economy in the six-member East African Community – plays second fiddle to Kenya in the tourism business despite its diversified tourist attractions.

We hope the new TV channel promotion bodes well for the government’s ambitious drive to increase its annual tourist arrivals to two million from about 1.3 million currently.

Besides targeting foreigners, the TV programme should also fuel a rise in the number of local people visiting our tourism sites.