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The world should know we`re giants in tourism
2007-08-20 08:29:03
By Editor
Foreign guests with our country`s interests close to their hearts have been so touched by our development challenges that they have, this for the umpteenth time, reminded us on the need to appreciate the fact that the world-renowned Mount Kilimanjaro is on Tanzanian soil and put the God-given asset to optimal social and economic use.
The reminder comes from visiting European youth parliamentarians who had always believed that Africa`s highest peak is based in neighbouring Kenya and were therefore hugely surprised on discovering that they were misled.
How Tanzanians will take this incident is hard to tell but a compilation from any sample of responsibilities will definitely read that is far from comforting or exciting.
Although there is no denying that agriculture remains the de facto backbone of our national economy, the tourism sector also has a decisive role to play in cushioning us in the face of the pressures and problems that our status as a poor country heaps on us.
Much the same applies with respect to all other sectors, where maximum efficiency and productivity would lead to returns sure to stand the nation in good stead.
It is obvious that this is why there has hardly ever been occasion for the government in post-independence Tanzania to operate without a fully fledged ministry overseeing the tourism sector, at times also incorporating the information and other `allied` portfolios.
What we currently have sounds the best of combinations – Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.
Considering the many and varied natural wealth that our country is endowed with, notably land, minerals, marine resources and generally favourable weather, it is hard to imagine what other gift we would want nature to present to us for us to shake ourselves free from the shackles of crippling poverty that is the lot of millions of our people.
All things considered, and going by the way people from all over are often baffled by our failure, inability or refusal to turn the combination of our human capital and natural resources into enviable social and economic development, we have precious little to blame outsiders for our trials and tribulations.
We are saying this fully briefed that our Tourism ministry, national tourism board and the government generally have not been lying idle as other countries conceived and implemented serious initiatives, campaigns or drives to make themselves the darlings of tourists from all over the world.
But startling observations about our tourist attractions keep making media headlines, sometimes from people or institutions that are ordinarily expected to know much better.
This makes us find it of fundamental importance that we redouble our efforts in selling ourselves to the world as a tourism giant to be reckoned with and in countering disruptive publicity about that fact.
That must be the idea as we take part in international tourism and other fairs and in whatever other relevant events or activities Tanzanians are involved in – anywhere and everywhere – because relying wholly on the government just won’t do.
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