TANZANIA: New Promotional Films By Tanzania Tourist Board

In its endeavor to promote Tanzania as unique destination, Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) has launched two new short films of Mafia Island and Zanzibar together with the TTB official magazine Tan Travel in an event of seeing off Tanzanian participants expected to take part in a leading tourism show in the world Internationale Tourismus Borse (ITB) schedule to take place in Berlin Germany from March 8th – 12th this year.

The films whose length is 3 minutes each have been produced by TTB in collaboration with Javed Jafferji of Zanzibar for the purpose of promoting tourist attractions found in Mafia and Zanzibar Islands as well as the nature beauty of the Islands.

Speaking during the event took place recently at coffee lodge in Arusha, the Managing Director of Tanzania Tourist Board discloses that twelve such short films will be produced covering different tourist attractions tourist cities in the country and including National Parks and Ngorongoro Crater.

“This is just a beginning, we are planning to produce twelve short films for the purpose of promoting destination Tanzania domestically and internationally” discloses Devota. She further said that the film will be aired in local and international TV Stations.

As for the TanTravel which is an official TTB publication the Managing Director noted that the magazine is now back after leasing for two years for viewing exercise and that it will be available during TTB show in Berlin – German early next month.

On this side the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Tanzania H. E. Egon Konchanke said that the Government and people of German are very happy with participation of Tanzanians in the ITB as it has always been very effective.

In this year edition of ITB Tanzania will be represented by more than 60 private and public Institutions.

TANZANIA: Destination Tanzania More Expensive Because Of 18% VAT To Tourists

When tourism stakeholders met with former President Jakaya Kikwete in the beginning of last year, they agreed to identify challenges facing the sector and put it in the lab of Big Results Now (BRN) to analyse and ultimately improve the business environment.

Mr Kikwete was the chairman of the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC).

A committee was formed by the industry players from both public and private sectors and compiled a report with seven pillars of challenges facing tourism - ranging from threat to wildlife, poaching, and dynamite fishing to multiple taxes.

The report was ready at the time democratic choices had put a new government and that way, Mr Kikwete could not receive the report he promised to work on to address the challenges.

When President John Magufuli met representatives of the business community last December, the stakeholders gave him the report, with challenges they wanted addressed, they say.

According to them, they also presented the same report to the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Prof Jumanne Maghembe, and he received the presentation well.

When June 8, 2016 came, nothing had been done to address any of neither the identified challenges nor put tourism in the lab of BRN - the Malaysian model of development initiative adopted in the country which aims at adopting new methods of working under specified timeframe for delivery of the step-change required.

On top of that, a new challenge emerged when Finance and Planning minister Philip Mpango announced the introduction of the 18 per cent Value-Added Tax (VAT) on tourism services.

Despite all efforts to have the new tax removed, they hit a snag as Parliament endorsed both the Budget and the Finance Bill unchanged in the particular section.

That means, destination Tanzania is becoming more expensive by increasing its cost by 18 per cent to tourists when they enter national parks, game drive and marine cruising among others.

"VAT is not bad but the issue is its timing. We had identified challenges which the government has not yet worked on them and now it comes with the new problem. The sector needs support. What can VAT do for tourism?" says the Tanzania Confederation of Tourism (TCT) executive secretary, Mr Richard Rugimbana.

As the new tax emerges, the budget for the Tanzania Tourism Board (TTB) was still low compared to other competitors.

Kenya's marketing budget is about Sh90 billion but that of Tanzania is about Sh5 billion and has been up and down. Yet the countries are seeking visitors from almost the same markets.

Sources from the industry say that TTB will not even participate in the London-based World Travel Marketing (WTM) in November - a global annual event for the travel industry to meet industry professionals and conduct business deals.

Kenya introduced VAT on tourism in 2013 but its implementation, plus security challenges brought about by the terrorist attacks, affected the sector so much that the country scrapped it effective this July.

While the tourism players were contemplating on how to go about the imposed VAT on the sector, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) announced another increment in rates effective July 1, 2016.

The new rates apply to entry fees; motor vehicle permits; annual fee for commercial vehicles; camping fees; aircraft landing fee; crater service fee among others.

That happened ahead of Britain voting to leave the European Union; a move that affected the performance of the sterling pound against the US dollar. Decelerating pound against the US dollar makes it more expensive for Britons to travel including to Tanzania as many of the charges to foreigners are pegged in the dollar.

Tourism is Tanzania's leading foreign exchange earner which generated $2.2 billion in 2015 and the income has been increasing year-after-year.

It employs about 500,000 people although the World Bank said most of the jobs to Tanzanians especially those from communities around tourist sites are low-end.

However, the industry players are now skeptical about the future of Tanzania tourism as it would be affected by abrupt changes and lack of consistent and unpredictable policies. "I think the future of tourism will remain challenged and the government will stand to lose more, not only because of VAT but also due to its abrupt changes on sensitive sectors like tourism," says the chief executive officer of Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (Tato).

Most companies will either refund clients or absorb the cost themselves; which means because of unpredictability, the international travel agents will not be able to print their two-year brochures including destination Tanzania in their 'sales' because they can't tell which Budget the changes will happen in between," he says.

Right now TTB has clearly expressed that they are not going for market in World Travel Market 2016, and this is another blow.

Why all these last-minute changes? Not only tour operators in Tanzania but also we operators abroad publish the rates up to 18 months in advance -- so should we continue losing money on bookings or should we shred all marketing materials we printed for expensive money with lower rates in it?

If it gets hard or impossible to make long-term-planning and calculations we need to focus on other more reliable countries," posted Mr David Heidler, Denmark-based tour operator on facebook as he commented on Mr Akko's post.

The impact of the VAT is not only to destination Tanzania but also to the region which seeks to market East Africa as a single destination.

Ms Carmen Nibigira, coordinator of the Nairobi-based East African Tourism Platform (EATP), says regional tourism will be not only about products but also competitiveness and VAT is a huge factor when one wants to measure value for money.

The bottom line is EAC should have one harmonized vat system on tourism services. We cannot talk about harmonisation of our laws and regional integration when we have disparities in our law system and maturity of our product and services, she says.

If we are all serious about promoting East Africa as a competitive destination, policy makers need to understand that as a region our tax regimes need to look at the trends.

When the product and the service industry is being developed and in most cases needing some incentives - imposing taxes is not the best approach," she adds.

Tanzania tour operators now are seeking intervention from the head of state despite the fact that Prof Maghembe has insisted that the new tax is here to stay.

TANZANIA: Samatta To Promote Destination Tanzania

Tanzanian Professional Footballer who plays for Belgium based club KRG Genk Mbwana Ally Samatta (23) has accepted an offer by Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) to become a Tourism Goodwill Ambassador and has pledged to compliment Tanzania Tourist Board efforts in promoting Destination Tanzania in Belgium and Europe in general.

Samatta made this assurance when he paid a visit to Tanzania Tourist Board and held brief talks with the TTB Management on the need for him as a celebrity to support TTB in marketing and promoting Destination Tanzania particularly in an international arena.

“As a Tanzanian I owe this to my beautiful country and thus, I am ready and happy to promote Tanzania as a Tourist Destination everywhere I go” he pointed out. He further said that many other countries worldwide use their celebrities including international players to promote their countries. He applauded Tanzania Tourist Board for taking initiative to engage Tanzanian celebrities for promoting Destination Tanzania and promised to do whatever possible including using his social media network to promote the country.

On her part the Managing Director of Tanzania Tourist Board Ms Devota Mdachi disclosed that TTB will now work on the best modalities to utilize this wonderful opportunity of having Mbwana as the greatest Tanzania professional footballer to market Tanzania as a unique tourist destination.
Mbwana Samatta signed a contract with Belgium Genk club which will come to an end in 2020 season. Samatta who is also the National team (Taifa star) Captain was also voted the best African footballer playing on the African continent in 2015.

TANZANIA: Board of Directors of Tanzania Tourist Board Innaugurated 10 June 2016

TTB's Board of Directors

The newly appointed Board of Directors of Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) has held its first meeting at TTB‘s offices in Dar es salaam today.

The meeting which was meanly for Board members to acquaint with TTB roles and functions was chaired for the first time by Board Chairman (rtd) Judge Justice Thomas Mihayo and was also attended by TTB Management team.

The Managing Director of TTB Devota Mdachi also used the meeting to introduce to the Board of Directors the TTB Management team. The TTB Board of Directors which was appointed in May this year comprises of six members under the Chairmanship of Judge Mihayo. Members are Mr. Ibrahim Mussa, Director of Marketing of TANAPA; Ambassador Joseph Sokoine, Director of Europe and Americas Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, East Africa, Regional and International Cooperation; Mr Mark Leveri, Film and video Adverts Expert, Ex. Tanzania Film Company.

Others are Mr. Richard Rugimbana, Executive Secretary, Tanzania Confederation of Tourism (TCT); Ms Zubein Muhaji Mhita, former Member of Parliament and (rtd) Director of Primary Education and Mr. Agustine Kungu H. Olal, Assistant Commissioner for Policy and Economy, Ministry of Finance and Planning.

The Board of Directors will be in power for three years until in 2019.

TANZANIA: Tanzania Tourist Board Develops Tanzania Tourism APP

MOUNT KILIMANJARO

The Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) has embarked into an aggressive global e-marketing campaign for destination Tanzania by developing an Official Tanzania Tourism App.

The announcement was made through a press release issued by Devota Mdachi, Acting Managing Director Tanzania Tourist Board.

"The establishment of the Tanzania tourism official App namely, Tanzania Tourism; has come at a time when there are many efforts made by private companies' and individuals' tourism Apps, however, this one is developed by the Tanzania Tourist Board and will now serve as the Official Tanzania Tourism App." The release read.

The App was developed concurrently with the establishment of the destination online tourism portal which was officially launched by the President of the United Republic of Tanzania H.E Dr. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete recently in Dar es Salaam.

The App contains detailed information on various tourist destinations in Tanzania. Among other things the App gives an overview of what Tanzania can offer as unique tourist destination in Africa, things to do, accommodation, and how to plan your trip and will later have provision for the potential visitors to book and make online payment just to mention a few.

The official App which is available at Google play store is accessible to Android mobile phones users worldwide and will soon be found in AppStore (iPhone).

This tourism promotional tool together with a 30 seconds commercial TV advert on destination Tanzania will be promoted in a number of popular social media channels and by CNN and BBC media news outlet which include TV and mobile sites in selected markets for six months effectively from October 2015.

This will add on to a number of marketing and promotional tools and techniques used by the Tanzania Tourist Board in promoting destination Tanzania globally. The introduction of this international tourism e-marketing campaign is expected to bring about more positive impact in the development of the tourism industry in the country.

The tourism industry in Tanzania has been recording a remarkable performance in recent years. For example, in 2005 the sector recorded 612,754 international tourist arrivals and rouse to 1,140,156 in 2014. As a result, tourism earnings increased from US $823 million recorded in 2005 to US $2 billion in 2014, this largely attributed to continued macroeconomic reforms and enhanced promotional efforts.