East Africa’s second largest economy, Tanzania, would have generated about $2.9 billion from the tourism sector, with expected visitors to the country of about 1.9 million tourists but for the coronavirus pandemic last year.
The dreams could not be realized as the country’s economic growth slowed down to 5.5 percent in 2020 down from 6.9 percent growth recorded in 2019.
This is contained in the World Bank’s rapid assessment on Covid-19 situation in Tanzania released in October last year, months after the first reported case in the East African region.
“Tourism operators forecasted tourism contractions of 80 per cent or more,” said the World Bank’s 14th Tanzania Economic Update.
The crisis, the report observed, could push 500,000 Tanzanians below the poverty line “with those employed in the informal sector likely to be impacted the most”.
Without the pandemic, it was expected the government would have collected Sh2.7 trillion ($1.16 billion) in taxation, said the assessment seen by The Citizen.
The statistics match with recent figures from the Natural Resources and Tourism ministry which indicate that tourism arrivals would drop only by half.
Initial fears by the ministry indicated the number of visitors to Tanzania would drop to a mere 437,000, a devastating 75 per cent fall.
International arrivals of tourists for last year were projected to be two million, raking more than $2.5 billion to the economy.
“The situation is not as alarming as once projected,” said the permanent secretary in the ministry Aloyce Nzuki during a meeting with stakeholders here.
The report was released as industry players are pushing for Responsible Tourism Tanzania, a drive aimed to bring down the severe impact of the pandemic on the sector. “This kind of tourism fosters benefits in local communities around tourist attractions and helps to minimize negative impacts,” said Julius Lesanoi, stakeholder in the initiative.
Another stakeholder Johannes Obeto said although life has rapidly transformed due to the falling tourism business in the northern circuit, in particular, there is hope.
The World Bank recommends that countries moving from response to recovery should monitor changes in traveller sentiment to understand which market segments will be the first to travel again.
“It would be a good timing now for the government, development partners and the private sector in Tanzania to better understand these responsive market segments,” it said.
The Bretton Woods institution argued that Tanzania should continue to relaunch their destinations through ‘back to business’ promotions to key source markets.
