Tanzania drops in tourist attractions ranking

Tanzanian tourism authorities said Thursday that the east African nation has dropped in the 2015 ranking of tourist attractions from second position to seventh out of 141 countries in the world.

Ibrahim Mussa, the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) Director of Tourism and Marketing, said one of the reasons for the drop was unfavorable legislation to investors in the tourism industry.

He told journalists in Morogoro region, located about 200 kilometres west of the country's commercial capital Dar es Salaam that another reason for the drop in ranking was poor infrastructure.

"Unhygienic conditions in some of the areas that tourists needed to visit were also the reasons behind the drop in the ranking for Tanzania," said Mussa.

TANAPA Director General Allan Kijazi said there was need for the district councils situated close to national parks and game reserves to allocate special areas for investment of hotels for tourists in order to attract them to visit the country.

Kijazi appealed to the Ministry of Works, Communication and Transport to construct infrastructure outside game reserves and national parks to make them easily accessible.

Tanzania recorded a slight drop in tourists arrivals last year against previous three years impressive tourist arrivals.

Jumanne Maghembe, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism said the number of tourists dropped by 37,987 from 1,140,156 recorded in 2014 to 1,102,169 in 2015.

Maghembe told the National Assembly last month that the slight drop affected earnings from the tourism industry although the sector maintained its status as the number one foreign exchange earner in the country for the previous three consecutive years. Endit