Hard times for tourism in Tanzania

In wide ranging interviews since late last year, most of the players in the sector told Smart Money that there was little, if anything, to smile about last year. As Willy Chambullo, chairman of Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO), puts it, last year was turbulent for the sector.

He said tourism activities went down by 30 per cent. A similar outlook was shared by another tour operator who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying that business declined by between 20 and 35 per cent.

“2015 witnessed an unprecedented decline in the number of tourists visiting the country,” Chambullo, who is also the Managing Director of Kibo Guides, said noting that the industry suffered mostly due to forces from without, notably terrorist attacks in different parts of the world.

He faulted the government for giving false facts on the number of tourists that visited Tanzania last year.

According to him, it was unfortunate that the government quotes figures of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) instead of using local data recorded by various organisations, including the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.

The latest UN agency data, which the government quotes, show that about 1.2 million tourists visited the country in 2015.

TATO, however, doubts the figure owing to the low business its members experienced during the year and the fact that many markets in the region suffered heavily from terrorist attacks like the Al Shabaab attacks in Kenya.

“Terrorist attacks in other countries cost us dearly, when the attacks occurred a number of scheduled flights to the region were cancelled and that affected us as well,” Chambullo said.

“Last year was worse compared to 2014,” Chambullo said and painted a gloomy picture for 2016, especially in the early months of the year.

Resonating similar sentiments, the Chief Executive Officer of the Hotels Association of Tanzania (HAT), Lathifa Sykes, described 2015 as a year that was dominated by downturns compared to 2014 in terms of occupancy rates.

“We didn’t have any high moments but on-going challenges due to Ebola, currency fluctuations, inconsistent and inconsiderate government decisions and actions not conducive to a healthy business climate. One gets the impressions that the tourism industry is seen as the golden goose but this is quickly coming to an end,” she said.

According to her, the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa reduced enquiries from some key markets. However, she was upbeat of good business this year as some of these markets have now recovered.

“Threats of terrorism across the world have subdued traveling…the attacks in Tunisia, Egypt, Paris and San Bernadino, and of course Al Shabaab concerns and bombs in Zanzibar are steering demand away to other regions of Africa”, Sykes told Smart Money.

The HAT head also attributes travel trade dismal performance to stiff competition posed by other high quality destinations within Africa and further afield. Sykes calls for more government support in the industry, less ad-hoc actions by public agencies and less business stifling rules and regulations, noting that authorities should be more serious in addressing the issue of poaching.

The Managing Director of Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB), Devotha Mdachi, said the industry suffered from the negative publicity of Africa made by the Western media on the Ebola outbreak, poaching, insecurity in some countries in the region as well as the Al-Shabaab threats.

Noting that the General Election scare was also an issue, Mdachi said many stakeholders had been complaining of 2015 not being a good year for their businesses.

Other challenges, she points out, include increasing competition from other destinations offering similar attractions Tanzania offers such as Kenya, South Africa, Namibia, Mauritius, Seychelles and The Re-Union.

She says an inadequate budget to promote the country also affected visitor arrivals and so was the depreciation of the euro against the dollar, which made travelling expensive for European holidaymakers.

“Business was not good at all for my company,” the Managing Director of Pongo Safaris and Tours, Scholastica Ponera, said noting that ignorance of geography led to many tourists associating Ebola with the whole of Africa.

The Managing Director of the African Komodo Tours of Arusha, Eric Ronald, added that operators in the Northern Circuit suffered the most. He says tourist trucks in the Ngorongoro Crater area had declined from 200 a day to between 50 and 70.