TTB turns guns on conferences

Arusha. The Tanzania Tourist Board ((TTB) has embarked on a new drive to attract more tourists to the country through conferences and events.

The endeavour will see a minor change in TTB’s mandate with the enactment of a law that will add Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) among its tasks.

A new unit responsible for the MICE will be created at the board’s head office once a new legislation is passed by the Parliament during its coming session. The new facility will work closely with local convention centres and hotels to promote the country as a fitting destination for meetings and events, besides the traditional game watching.

“This will add value to Tanzania’s tourism where the majority of visitors come for leisure,” TTB managing director Devota Mdachi affirmed here over the weekend.

She told The Citizen that conference tourism may have been overlooked but was one of the segmets which could boost the number of visitors to the country.

‘’Initially, there was no push on MICE but we will now throw our thrust behind it if we want to hit the target of attracting two million visitors by 2020,” she said.

Tanzania’s robust tourism - the leading sector in foreign exchange earnings- is largely wildlife based with most of the foreign visitors keen on game watching.

The sector generated $ 2.4 billion during the twelve months ending last February, up by $300m from $ 2.1bn what was collected during the same period in February last year. The government’s target is to attract two million visitors by 2020. Currently tourism accounts for 17 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In efforts to promote conference or events tourism, TTB has organised two sensitisation seminars for stakeholders in the industry. The first took place in Dar es Salaam a fortnight ago and was followed by the second at Mt Meru hotel in Arusha last week.

A tourism consultant based in Arusha, Mr Leopold Kabendera, said MICE should also be factored in the new tourism policy now under preparation. A hospitality industry expert, Ms Charity Githinji, said the new paradigm in tourism bore a great potential, not only in Tanzania, but also in Africa.

Within the East African region, only Rwanda has fully embraced it while Uganda and Kenya have started to deliberatedly promote it as a key segment for tourism.

“It is easy to make money through MICE and impact on lives”, she said, regretting that Africa had few meetings despite the requisite infrastructure and world famous attractions.

Assah Mwambene, a protocol officer with the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC) said EA should learn from South Africa on how the latter has mainstreamed MICE in its tourism sector.