Tanzanian authorities on Monday said they had started verifying registration certificates and licenses for firms that are engaged in tourism businesses in the east African nation.
Gaudence Milanzi, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, said the move was aimed at identifying and removing all unregistered and unlicensed firms from doing the tourism business.
Milanzi said in a statement that unregistered and unlicensed firms had been linked to incidences of fraud including conning and causing unnecessary inconveniences to tourists.
He said that such incidences were tarnishing Tanzania’s image to tourists around the globe.
The statement added that the government was currently issuing registration forms to tourist firms for 2018, warning that those seeking to register should provide valid and accurate information.
The 2016 International Visitors’ Exit Survey Report indicated that the number of tourists who visited the country, east Africa’s second-largest economy, continued to rise.
The report showed that Tanzania hosted no less than 1,284,279 tourists in 2016, compared to 1,137,156 in 2015, which was an increase of 12 per cent.
The report showed revenues from the tourism industry have been increasing year after year with 2.1 billion dollars in 2016 against 1.9 billion dollars in 2015.
According to government data, tourism has been Tanzania’s largest foreign exchange earner since 2012, contributing an average of 2 billion dollars annually, which is equivalent to 25 per cent of all exchange earnings.
Comments are closed.