AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE prudent and right measures taken by President John Magufuli to contain coronavirus pandemic have made Tanzania a safe place and one of the few destinations, which tourists should now, chose for a holiday.
The global tourism industry was hard hit by coronavirus where passenger flights and hotel bookings were canceled, and safaris as well postponed.
Studying the situation keenly, the president ruled out lockdown as not the best option for Tanzania to counter the deadly pandemic, because it could have caused more problems to the ordinary people and the economy.
After ruling out a copy and paste lockdown approach to contain Covid-19, President instead urged people to stop panic and observe preventive and protective guidelines on the virus, and at the same time participate in national building activities.
These measures bore fruits and President Magufuli declared that the country is free of the deadly respiratory disease.
Two months ago, the government took bold measure to reopen its airspace after suspending international passenger flights due to Covid-19 scare, the move that witnessed increased number of airlines into the country.
For example, Ethiopian Airlines that landed at the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) on June 1st became the first regional flight to fly to Tanzania since the coronavirus pandemic.
This was followed by the Crystal Cruises, Gulfstream from Croatia, Qatar Airways – Dreamliner, A7-BCG, RwandAir and more others landing at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) in Dar es Salaam.
Other airlines that have resumed their flights to and from Tanzania are Flydubai, Emirates, and Turkish Airlines. And of latest was the Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) with some 177 tourists on board.
The international travellers have responded positively and started coming to spend their vacation in the attractions of their choice after getting assurance that the country is safe from the deadly disease.
Huge number of tourists has started to flock in just few months since the launch of this year’s tourism season which is a positive sign for the sub sector and the economy in general
Earnings from tourism, as one of the major foreign exchange earners rose to 2.43 billion US dollars in 2018 from 2.19 billion US dollars in 2017.
Therefore, the right and prudent measures taken by the fifth phase government to contain coronavirus are expected to attract more tourists into the country thus making the tourism industry pick up before the end of the year.
