TANZANIA: National Tourism Television Channel To Telecast Very Soon

A new tourism television channel dedicated exclusively for the country's attractions will hit the sky soon at the national broadcasting television.

This follows the signing of an agreement between the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC), the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) and the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) in Dodoma on Wednesday.

The TBC Director General, Dr Ayub Rioba said at the signing ceremony that, the channel would run twenty four hours a day with a focus on the national parks, beaches, archeological sites, marine parks, game reserves, conservation, among others.

I am very delighted for this milestone achievement giving TBC an opportunity to play its role as a national public broadcaster in the promotion of the tourism sector, he said.

TBC as a national public broadcaster has a role not just to inform but to help the country promote the tourism sector to boost the foreign currency reserves.

The introduction of the new tourism channel marks the first time in the country's history for a local television station to reach out to diversified international markets.

The agreement also comes in the wake of President John Magufuli's directive when he visited TBC mid last month that the national public broadcaster should introduce a tourism channel.

Under the agreement, TANAPA, NCAA and TTB will finance the project aimed at promoting the local touristic attractions across the country and to the outside world.

Currently, tourism is the country's forex earner, generating over 2.1 billion US dollars (about 5tr/-) annually.

TBC also runs TBC 2 Television channel and radio stations, namely TBC Taifa, TBC FM and TBC International. It is the fastest growing brand, according to the recent Geopoll study.

On her part, the TTB Managing Director, Ms Devotha Mdachi said that the partnership marks a new era in the promotion of the country's tourism sector.

This is a proof that our efforts of promoting tourism are winning support from all other players in the public and private sector, she said.

On his part, TANAPA Director General, Mr Allan Kijazi said his institution was excited about the partnership with TBC.

TBC has shown that we can use our own media to project the tourism attractions not only to Tanzanians but to the whole world, Mr Kijazi said.