Tanzania eyes Middle East tourist market

(eTN) - Highlighting the growing number of tourists from the Middle East to East Africa, Tanzania tourist officials are eyeing the upcoming Arab travel markets, also taking advantage of the Middle East registered airline companies operating in the African skies.

A delegation of tourist business officials from Oman visited Tanzania last weekend to see and assess the tourist attractive sites, mainly the wildlife parks and other places suitable for tourist visits.

Organized by the Oman Adventures of Muscat, the familiarization tour to Tanzania was the first educational trip by Arab-speaking tourist business executives to explore the Tanzanian tourist attractions.

Though the number of Arab tourists to East Africa is not as big as the European and American holiday makers, there has been a notable figure of hunting tourists from the Middle East to Tanzania and the rest of East Africa.

The newly-appointed Tanzania envoy to Egypt, Mohammed Hamza, said he will add a force on promoting this country’s tourism potential in the Middle East market.

He said during courtesy discussions with the Tanzania Tourist Board’s Managing Director, Dr. Aloyce Nzuki, in Dar es Salaam, where the envoy pledged to attract Egyptian businessmen to invest in Tanzania's tourism industry, also to encourage Egypt Air to increase flight frequencies to Dar es Salaam.

In such a move, the envoy said there was a need for Tanzanian tourist authorities to organize educational trips for Egyptian tour operators, investors, and journalists to visit Tanzania in order to tap more travel information into the Middle East market.

The envoy noted that it is high time Tanzania vigorously market itself in the Middle East as it is a market targeted by many other destinations worldwide. On his side, Dr. Nzuki requested the envoy to arrange for the translation of the Tanzania Tourist Board website into Arabic and secure opportunities for the staff of the Board and others from the private sector to learn the Arabic language in order to effectively tap into the market.

About 14,000 tourists from the Middle East states visit East Africa every year, compared to traditional tourists from Europe and North America. Though small in figures, East African nations are taking advantage of the Middle East-registered airlines to be a lifeline for Arab-speaking holidaymakers.

Low-cost airlines registered in Middle Eastern states, including the Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airways, Oman Air, Gulf Air, and Air Arabia fly to East Africa while making a good link between East African nations and the rest of the world through Dubai, Doha, Jeddah, and Cairo.