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Airports in dire need of facelift
2006-10-18 08:56:09
By Gerald Kitabu
Tanzanian airports are in urgent need of a facelift to increase the number of tourist arrivals.
The Director General of Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) Prosper Tesha said yesterday during a national conference for 22 airport managers, directors and heads of department that the country’s airports do not meet required international standards.
He underscored the importance of the country opening up foreign investment alongside other efforts to improve safety at the airports.
According to World Tourism Organisation report for 2005 released last month, Tanzania’s tourism industry ranks seventh in sub-sub-Saharan African behind South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Nigeria, Seychelles and Senegal.
An estimated 550,000 tourists visited the country, compared with 1.2 million tourists who went to South Africa and over 900,000 tourists who visited Kenya in the same.
In East Africa, however, Tanzania was ranked second, ahead of Uganda, who recorded just over 300,000 tourist arrivals, while Rwanda and Burundi recorded on average 200,000 each.
Tesha said given that all regions are potential tourist destinations, it had become imperative for the country to modernise its airports to tap the vast tourism potential. He said runways at some airports are in state of disrepair and became worse during the rainy .
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