Tanzania: Tourism Won't Be Affected By Forex Shop Clampdown'

THE recent clampdown on forex shops in Arusha has not and will not have any effect on the tourism industry, the government assured yesterday.

Fielding questions from reporters shortly after winding up his familiarization tour of Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr. Constantine John Kanyasu, said the well-coordinated exercise that rocked the region on Monday had left the 2bn US dollar sector stable, adding that tourists continued to make the most of the myriad of attractions found in the country.

"The crackdown by the central bank hasn't affected the sector in any way as tourists and other players continue to enjoy services offered by the ministry," clarified the deputy minister.

The government's assurance comes amid growing fears that the crackdown and the ultimate closure of a number of Bureau de Change outlets will affect the sector which accounts for 25 per cent of foreign exchange earnings in Tanzania while also creating about 600,000 jobs.

There were fears that Arusha, which is revered as the country's tourism hotbed, was likely to face an economic downturn following the clampdown of the forex shops which enters its fourth day, today.

A spot-check by the 'Daily News' yesterday, established that a good number the outlets that deal in the exchange of foreign currencies still remained closed.

A section of Arusha residents who spoke to this paper said they could still access the service from some NMB bank branches and the Bank of Tanzania (BOT) branch in the region.

Speaking here on Tuesday, Central Bank governor, Prof Florence Luoga said the crackdown was aimed at unearthing and exposing unlicensed forex shops.

According to Prof Luoga, the exercise which also involved members of the Tanzania Peoples Defense Forces (TPDF) also sought to revoke licenses of forex shops that were alleged to be involved in money laundering.

Meanwhile, the deputy minister for natural resources and tourism urged tourism stakeholders and conservators to keep politics out of the conservation.

"If we continue to peddle politics in matters of conservation, we will end up with no parks," cautioned the deputy minister.

He further challenged TANAPA to expeditiously resolve the conflicts pitting the organization mandated with the regulation and the use of National Parks in the country with district councils and villages.

He, however, commended the parastatal organization for operating profitably, saying the government was reaping fortunes in the form of revenues from TANAPA.

In his rejoinder, TANAPA Conservation Commissioner, Allan Kijazi told the deputy minister that the organization had in this financial year allocated 2.5bn/- in land use planning and management as a way of addressing land related conflicts with 392 villages surrounding the 16 national parks it manages.

Dr. Kijazi noted that it was also using the 'good neighborliness’ as a way of resolving such disputes.

"Such conflicts have not only wasted much of our time and resources, but they have also affected our core business which is conservation," explained Dr. Kijazi.

According to the Conservation Commissioner, TANAPA will strive to foster its relationship with communities and villages that border its national parks.

Tanzania: Massive Boost for Tourism From China

A CHINA'S multinational business, Touchroad International has signed an agreement with Tanzania Tourism Board to bring in 10,000 tourists next year.

According to a statement issued yesterday the agreement was signed in Shanghai, China on Tuesday on the first day of a nine-day long TTB road show in China to promote Tanzania's tourist attractions to China, currently the global leading tourism market.

Under the agreement the Shanghai-based company will fly in tourists using a special chartered plane.

The signing ceremony was graced by the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and Natural Resources, Dr Aloyce Nzuki, TTB and other government officers.

Shanghai was the first point for the road show that begun with the meeting that was officially opened by Dr Nzuki. From Shanghai it will go through five cities namely Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Chengdu and ending at Beijing until next Tuesday.

TTB Board Director, Ms Devotha Mdachi presented the country tourism attractions and investment opportunities.

During the meeting some 200 Tanzania and China tourism stakeholders had a chance to showcase their tour packages tailor made for Chinese market.

Air Tanzania Corporation Limited (ATCL) was among stakeholders corporate that show case their package being flying to Guangzhou next February.

The road show was organised by the Tanzania embassy in China in collaboration with TTB.

Tanzania: Dar, Berlin in Talks Over Dinosaur Revenue Sharing

THE government is holding talks with Germany on possible sharing of revenue from a dinosaur ferried from Lindi Region to the European nation more than hundred years ago.

The Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Japhet Hasunga, said yesterday that from the talks, the government is targeting to establish how much is being collected from the skeleton and how can the government of Tanzania benefit from it.

The skeleton is preserved at the Humboldt Museum in Germany and it is considered as the main tourism attraction at the museum. According to him, progress of the talks would determine whether the government will have to bring back the dinosaur fossils into the country or not.

"But it has to earn us (the country) money", he said in Dar es Salaam when addressing a press conference about government's plans to promote tourism attractions situated in the southern regions. The Deputy Minister went on to explain that the skeleton was 22 meters in length and 13.7 meters height. It is one of the largest mounted dinosaur fossils on permanent exhibit in the world.

"Therefore, it would be difficult to have it back into the country," noted Mr Hasunga, adding that until now German hasn't been able to reveal how much it has collected from the dinosaur fossils. The European nation has been funding various conservation projects in Tanzania.

"We believe that part of the money that they have been spending on supporting various projects here is earned from the remains of the dinosaur that was ferried to Germany a century back," added the Deputy Minister.

On board, Mr Hasunga was optimistic that presence of the fossil in German is one of the ways of marketing Tanzania abroad, adding that the dinosaur is considered as the country's ambassador on tourism and scientific research to many countries in the world.

However, he said that it would be difficult to bring back the skeleton because it was assembled using modern technology that isn't available in the country.

"It would be a bit difficult to bring back the dinosaur fossils from Germany because as a country, we lack the capacity and technology required to preserve and display the remains for tourism purposes," he said.