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Tourism revenue to hit USD 1.35 billion mark next year

Posted: Friday July 25, 2008 1:34 PM BT

By Guardian Reporter

The government expects to earn USD 1.35 billion from tourism in 2009, up from a projected USD 1.2 billion in 2008, helped by increased marketing in North America and Europe, the Tanzania Tourist Board said yesterday.

Tanzania is renowned for its national parks and reserves such as the Serengeti in the north, the Selous in the southeast, and for its beaches along its eastern coastline and on Zanzibar.

"For 2009, we should try every effort to reach 950,000 visitors. For revenue it will be in the range of USD 1.35 billion,"Peter Mwenguo, managing director of the Tanzania Tourist Board, told Reuters in an interview.

"(This year) our target is to receive 750,000 tourists, but it might go up to 800,000. In terms of revenue, we are projecting about USD 1.1 billion to USD 1.2 billion."
Last year Tanzania received 719,030 tourists, fetching just over USD 1 billion, making the sector the leading foreign exchange earner.

Known for its relative stability in the region, the east African nation of about 40 million people aims to attract 1 million tourists annually by 2010, and earning it USD 1.5 billion.

Mwenguo said that post-election violence in neighbouring Kenya at the start of the year had briefly slowed down the sector, as many tourists fly to Tanzania through Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, but it had now recovered.

"There were a few cancellations, because some of our tourists come to Tanzania via Nairobi, so some people were scared to come to Tanzania," he said.

Tanzania's main markets are Britain, Germany, the United States, Italy, France, Spain, and the Scandinavian countries. Tanzania also receives a sizeable number of tourists from South Africa and Kenya.

Mwenguo said that the United States had surpassed Britain as the leading source of tourists, bringing 59,000 visitors in 2007, slightly more than Britain's 55,000.

Last year, Tanzania ran advertisements on Cable Network News (CNN) television in the United States. Mwenguo said it planned to run advertisements on more channels elsewhere.

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