Tanzania targets Belgian tourists

TANZANIA (eTN) – Tanzania is looking to attract Belgian tourists and investors in prime attractive areas, including the rich historical town of Bagamoyo along the Indian Ocean coast.

Tanzanian Ambassador to Belgium, Dr. Deodorus Kamala, had led a group of Belgian investors in a fact-finding mission aimed at exploring areas of tourist visiting and investment.

In their recent trip to Tanzania, Belgian investors visited the upcoming tourist town of Bagamoyo, best known by its slave trade history dating back during the 17th and 19th centuries.

Bagamoyo is a historical town with building architecture inspired by African, Swahili, Arab, Indian, and European cultures.

The most-visited landmarks are Caravan Serai, the old German administrative building, the first Post Office in East Africa, the Arab Fort, Arab Tea House, the Kaizer Street lined up by buildings with highly-decorated doors, and the first Roman Catholic Church building in Tanzania.

Caravan Serai has an exhibition which provides useful information on Bagamoyo’s tourist attractions, history and cultures, outstanding monuments, ivory and slave trade, and places of memory associated with slave trade and slavery in East and Central Africa.

Bagamoyo played various historical roles in Tanzania. Apart from being a slave and ivory port, it was also a German headquarters in 1891.

Belgium is a source of about 11,000 tourists visiting Tanzania every year, while Tanzanian tourist business stakeholders take part in an annual tourism exhibition held in Brussels.