Tourism Attracts Debate in London

TOURISM, one of Tanzania’s five leading sectors for investment was at the centre of discussion between the Tanzanian and Omani delegations end of this week here in London.

The Tanzanian delegation was led by Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Dr Aloyce Nzuki, while the Omani team was led by Deputy Minister for Ministry of Tourism, Ms Maitha Saidf Majid Al-Mahrouqi.

The two teams met on the sidelines of an international tourism exhibition called the World Travel Market held in Britain’s capital of London end of this week. Dr Nzuki described the talks as important but preliminary.

“Our determination is to strengthen co-operation between the ministries of our two countries. We shall have to sign an agreement so that we can work together to publicise similar tourism services,” he said. Giving examples of areas of cooperation under consideration, Dr Nzuki said: “We shall examine how Air Tanzania and Oman Air can work together.

We shall examine issues relating to accommodation and transport, especially tourist ships between Tanzania and Oman. These are the most pertinent issues in tourism today.” Ms Maitha Al-Mahrouqi said for many years Tanzania and Oman have had friendly relations.

“What is being done today is to strengthen the relations in a new style because tourism is an important area that requires high publicity and it provides an opportunity to exchange visits,” she said.

“There will be various ways for publicising our two countries and marketing tourist attractions. There will be opportunities for Omani journalists to visit Tanzania and vice-versa, who will tell stories about what they will have seen in our two countries,” she explained.

The Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) Director General, Ms Devota Mdachi, described the meeting as important and a positive development in the future of Tanzania’s tourism.

She said Oman had a big economy and good tourist attractions and that Tanzania was known for safe tourism in Africa.

She said the co-operation will help the two sides to exchange useful experiences and learn new methods for publicising tourist attractions in the two countries. Tanzania, under TTB coordination, was represented by more than 50 companies in the London expo and is the second largest tourist exhibition in the world.