Why Tanzania won’t benefit from Kenya woes

"If these tourists could stay in East Africa, the whole region would have benefited in one way or another”-Wadj's photo prdct

Dar es Salaam. Any chances that Tanzania’s tourism could gain from the terrorist attacks in Kenya have been dampened by poor marketing skills and the neighbourhood factor, The Citizen has learnt.

Early this month, some Western countries evacuated their citizens from Kenya following what they saw as a fragile security situation caused by a series of Al-Shabab attacks.

The cancellations will cost Kenya $57 million (Sh105 billion).

But while the situation in Kenya could well have been a blessing in disguise for Tanzania’s tourism sector, the Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa) Director of Tourism and Marketing, Mr Ibrahim Mussa, told resturation that tourists generally do not draw a clear line between African countries.

“Tourists and their agents in the West are poor in geography and history,” Mr Mussa said.

“They tend to view us as Africa or East Africa in terms of regional placing for their market purposes, so it is difficult to say one would now benefit by saying ‘don’t go to Kenya, come to Tanzania instead’,” he said.

Tanzania’s best option would be to double the marketing of its tourist attractions and hope to win more customers.

“Kenya is currently in high gear to counter the insecurity threats to the sector,” Mr Mussa said. “It will serve us better to market our attractions more.”

Two weeks ago, hundreds of British tourists were evacuated from Kenya after the Foreign Office warned against all but essential travel to parts of the country due to terrorism threats.

Instead of letting these tourists fly back to Europe, stakeholders argued, Tanzania could have done something to make these tourists stay in the region.

“It is discouraging to note that tourists are taken back to Europe while there are more attractions in Tanzania than in Kenya,” said Tanzania Air Operators Association Executive Secretary Laurence Paul.

“If Tanzanians were keen enough on business they would have found an alternative way to bring those tourists to the country.”

He was quick to add: “It is not that we are happy with what is happening in Kenya. Our concern is the whole region."

"If these tourists could stay in East Africa, the whole region would have benefited in one way or another.”

According to some industry stakeholders, Tanzania is strategically positioned but its people are not creative enough to tap into business opportunities.

Mr Paul added: “We are grieving with Kenya. But when it comes to business, we are supposed to be more creative."

"I sometimes imagine if this turmoil was happening in Tanzania, I am sure these tourists would have been directed to Kenya because Kenyans are very serious when comes to business.”

He urged Tanzanians to be more courageous when it comes to business or face the prospect of being “even poorer”.

But there are those who argue that the private sector cannot tap into such opportunities unless the government works on the challenges in the tourism sector.

Some of the drawbacks include multiple taxes that make it difficult to attract tourists in large numbers.

Besides, tourism is very price-sensitive and subject to intense competition.

Key players can decide to reduce some rates so as to attract more tourists, according to our source, but the many taxes mean that the sector will remain very expensive.

Industry players have also complained that while it is important to present a united front, the government rarely implements their proposals.

But Tanzania Confederation of Tourism (TCT) Executive Director Richard Rugimbana argues that diverting tourists from Kenya to Tanzania is an unlikely proposition as the trips are planned way ahead.Said Mr Rugimbana: “I am actually feeling very sad about what is happening in Kenya."