TANZANIA is positioned to be a world’s tourist attraction destination, thanks to competitive marketing of the country’s tourist attractions.
This is after the government has created a friendly tourist environment and strengthening security to make tourists visiting the country safer so that when they return to their countries of origin they may plan to visit the country the second, third and more other times.
Above all, Tanzania has improved access to national parks and game reserves where visitors can visit and view a rich variety of wildlife and feel that they are at their second home.
This has earned the country the Best International Wildlife Destination Award at the Outlook Travel Awards (OLTA), announced in New Delhi, India, on Sunday. Wow!
Before this event, seven years ago Julius Nyerere International Airports (JNIA) and Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) – the two international airports – scooped the top awards at the 8th Routes Africa event held in Kampala, Uganda on July 7-8, 2013.
In February last year, Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) was awarded for the Best Decorated Booth at the OMT Mumbai 2018 travel show, a leading annual travel show in Asia and the Pacific.
Again in March last year, Tanzania won an award for the Best Destination to the World in the category of Exotic Destination 2018 during the Russian National Geographical Traveller Award.
That was after online voting conducted by the Russian Version of the National Geographical Magazine that involved 263,000 online readers.
So, there are reasons for believing that Tanzania commands world recognition in tourism after making reforms in the sector and in wildlife conservation in general, thanks to the effective crackdown on poaching and illegal ivory smuggling and the government’s efforts to make the country competitive in various sectors of the economy. All this is in line with the envisioned industrial and middle-income economy status by 2025.
But what does the recent award – the Best International Wildlife Destination Award – mean to Tanzania? It simply means Tanzania has made a positive contribution to world as one of Africa’s leading travel destinations.
With its expansion and modernisation of its airports and purchase of modern aircraft, there is the likelihoods of more positive results coming.
One of them being Tanzania’s participation for the 54th time since its inception of the International Tourism Fair Berlin (ITB) scheduled for March 4-8, this year.
The international tourism fair will attract 10,000 exhibitors from 180 countries and over 160,000 visitors. So, competitive marketing of Tanzania’s tourism attractions has started yielding positive results. Let us sustain them.
