These remarks give our tourism authorities real food for thought

But it could be the very nature of the business the industry is engaged in that is behind the sector’s ‘undoing’.

This is because tourism is usually expected to play such a crucial role in the development of local communities, nations and globally but is so vulnerable to numerous factors that anything going wrong with it can unleash problems of tragic proportions.

For instance, even the mere hint or suggestion that a single village in a particular country has reported a presumed case of a highly contagious disease can touch off an immediate decline in the number of tourist arrivals and, with that, in the revenue the government would have earned from the industry.

The situation would be much similar, or worse, should it be reported that a country’s wildlife sanctuaries no longer host species of fauna and flora commonly attracting inquisitive local and foreign tourists.

These are not hypothetical scenarios: the Ebola outbreak saw tourism in most parts of West Africa – and in some distant corners of the world – come crumbling down.

So, it is always with understandable huge sighs of relief that countries and nations receive positive reports or comments relating to the performance of their tourism and other sectors particularly relative to better-placed and more aggressive rivals.

Skylink Travel & Tours Limited, a travel management company accredited by the International Air Transport Association, has recently done precisely that for Tanzania.

Commenting on the extent to which the implementation of the government’s strategies and policies had helped improve the country’s tourism sector in the last two decades, Skylink managing director and CEO Moustafa Khataw quickly said consultations between the government and stakeholders “gave an impetus to the growth…to ensure the promotion of Tanzania as a tourist destination”.

In remarks that many people may find surprising, the Tanzanian Skylink executive was happy that road shows on Tanzania’s tourism were done in parts of the world as “remote” as Argentina, Brazil, China, Ecuador, Paraguay and Russia.

He was not wholly complimentary or generous, though, bluntly describing customer service delivery from tour operators and from hoteliers in the Country of Mount Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti National Park as not up to standard.

But no one would associate him with cynicism, his vivid optimism perhaps encapsulated in these words: “I strongly believe that Tanzania is a unique destination… The infrastructure has improved over the last 15 to 20 years… It has opened up to more luxurious brands of hotels, lodgings and campsites…I strongly believe that there is room for all tourists to come to Tanzania irrespective of their budget.”

We stand convinced that Khataw, who made the remarks in an interview with an international online publishing firm based in Paris, has provided the relevant authorities with timely food for thought.

They combine into a critique which, in praising while also offering constructive criticism, the likes of the Natural Resources and Tourism ministry, Tanzania Tourist Board, and the country’s hospitality industry in its entirety have no option but to take as seriously as circumstances demand.