Provide More Funds to Promote Tourism

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

11 May 2011

editorial

Despite having tourist attractions that rank among the best in the world, Tanzania receives fewer visitors every year than neighbouring Kenya, and another top destination, South Africa. This is an industry in which marketing plays a vital role, as would-be visitors need to compare what is on offer to decide where to go. It is true that some effort has gone into advertising the tourist attractions overseas, but it is not good enough.

The cutthroat competition to lure visitors is a big venture that requires the country’s presence in the potential source markets through participation in tourism fairs and other promotional activities. It is, therefore, disheartening to learn that the annual tourism promotion budget is a mere Sh3 billion. This translates into 0.026 per cent of the Sh11.6 billion national Budget. And this for a sector that accounts for about 17 per cent of the gross domestic product!

The allocation is hardly sufficient to enable the country to make an impression in the international market. Kenya, which is our immediate competitor, has a much better developed tourism infrastructure and yet it spends four times more than Tanzania on promoting its attractions. South Africa, which has been attracting more tourists since the dismantling of apartheid, has a much bigger tourism promotion budget than Kenya’s, at an equivalent of Sh82 billion.

Much as we cannot fault Tanzania’s Quality Tourism approach – which requires the country to receive fewer tourists who will be able to spend more – the biblical wisdom is that “whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly”. More money is needed to advertise broadly and also in expensive avenues to catch the eye of that elite group of travellers.

Promoting the huge tourism potential will see the industry earn the foreign exchange the country deserves. Everything is at the country’s disposal, thanks to the many historic sites, Mt Kilimanjaro, the sandy beaches and southern highlands. What is needed is to set the right priorities and facilitate the dissemination of crucial information in the travel markets. If this is done right, poverty elimination will be possible.

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