Zainab’s expert tips on how tour operators can market Tanzania

By Anganile Mwakyanjala

I recently visited the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) offices in Dar es Salaam, and everyone was so busy.

It had been that way ever since the launch of The Royal Tour documentary, curated to market Tanzania's tourism attractions.

It was an unprecedented strategy, and its impact could only be measured by how many of Tanzania's tour operators were back in business.

However, the situation was different just a few years ago. Tanzania’s ‘open borders’ policy during the Covid-19 pandemic didn't stop tourism from plummeting.

The Serengeti, with all its wonders, could do little to attract visitors. Today, things have changed.

"Our tourism sector has bounced back. The Royal Tour attracted so many tourists, but you have to visit the tour companies and hear from them," said Dr Gladstone Mlay, the marketing manager at TTB. After a while, he put me in touch with the beneficiaries, and I was off to Moshi.

I walked into the office of one of the leading safari tour companies in Tanzania and East Africa, Zara Tours.

Started by a former Air Tanzania employee, Zainab Ansell, famously known as Mama Zara, the company has been operational for more than 37 years.

"For two years, we had to shut down our business. Banks wouldn't give us loans. It was a terrible time in our line of work," Mama Zara lamented.

37 years ago, she courageously left her lucrative job at Air Tanzania and started her own company, initially serving as a travel agency.

On her first day of business, her office was empty, with no clients walking in. That's when she had to go door-to-door and market her new business.

Word of mouth and exceptional care for her newfound clients saw her business grow, and airline companies like KLM, Ethiopian Airways, Air France, and Lufthansa trusted her to sell their tickets. Her business flourished.

After a while, the airline ticket business was becoming extinct, and Mama Zara knew she had to diversify her business and adapt. "I looked at Kilimanjaro and said 'I am going to sell Kilimanjaro,'" Zainab said.

She assembled her team and started to market Kilimanjaro as a tourist destination, and Zara Tours was born. Even during this era, the internet was not that accessible.

Fast forward 37 years, and Zara Tours has more than 70 freelance guides, 500 freelance porters, and numerous properties. Zara Tours and Zara Adventures have surely been success stories.

However, in 2019, all that was put to an unceremonious halt during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Revamping the tourism sector was not done by a single wave of a magic wand, but coordinated and timely efforts were well executed, including the launch of The Royal Tour documentary.

"Dr Samia, our president, has done a wonderful job. Everybody now knows Tanzania and where we are. This has been able to bring a lot of tourists to our country," she informed.

Mama Zara insists in Tanzania that we keep pushing ourselves and go to different places to market our work.

The work is never done, and there is still so much room to grow and to use the momentum The Royal Tour documentary has created to sell the beauty of our country.

The Royal Tour documentary was the first tourism documentary done by a sitting Tanzanian president.

Challenging times truly forced Tanzania to use all its creativity to attract customers to a sector that contributed so much foreign exchange and employed so many young people.

It became a lifeline to many regions, especially the Northern Circuit, which was badly impacted by the pandemic.

The local tour operators have found an ally in President Samia, as it was evident during the filming that she was truly in tune with nature.

"She loves tourism, and this is a very big advantage on our side. We are very blessed to have her," beamed Mama Zara.

From July 2022 on, Zara Tours started seeing an increase in tourists coming back, and their business peaked in December 2022. That's when the tourist flow was consistent.

"Now everybody is good and busy. Tour operators are doing the best we can to get people to come to Tanzania," Mama Zara said.

They are coming to Tanzania. Kilimanjaro International Airport, which serves as the hub that brings in most of the tourists, with their flights connecting through Amsterdam Airport, has reported the highest growth in the number of passengers utilising the airport, with a record 64.02 percent rise from last year.

KIA (Kilimanjaro International Airport) has been an instrumental facility that has exponentially boosted tourism in the Northern Circuit.

As a woman in this male-dominated business, Mama Zara has faced countless barriers to cementing her position in the tourism sector.

"When we were starting, even money was an issue, and I had to make people believe I could do it as a woman," she remembers.

"The key to success is to never give up and to face every day with positive thoughts. I wake up every day at 5:00 am, say my prayers, and go to the gym, except on Sundays. This keeps me going. I prepare myself to meet any kind of challenge," Mama Zara said.

With this positive outlook on life, her longevity in tourism should come as no surprise.

After close to four decades in this business, Mama Zara is still proud to take people to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro and back.

She has made a friend in the American Mr. Macon Dunnagan, who has summited Mt Kilimanjaro 50 times and is now the honorary Tanzanian ambassador of tourism to the United States.

"When tourists come down from climbing Kilimanjaro and they are very happy, that gives me pleasure," she said. "When people come to Tanzania, they feel welcomed," she continued.

The Royal Tour also ignited local tourism. Tanzanians are now more motivated than ever to tour their own country, and Zara Tours is seizing the opportunity.

"We organised a tour for 57 women, members of UWT (Women’s Wing of Chama cha Mapunduzi), and they went to see Tarangire," she mentioned.

Zara also sends Tanzanians to climb Mt Kilimanjaro every year in celebration of Independence Day.

"Tanzanians are learning about local tourism, and we have to reach out to them, market our tourism to Tanzanians too, and use all the available media to do so," Mama Zara insisted.

They have launched "Twenzetu Serengeti," a tourism campaign to take place in December, targeting Tanzanian families.

They are also planning "Twenzetu Kilimanjaro" on December 2, which doesn't require summiting the highest mountain in Africa but just taking a hike at the lower level of the mountain at the base camp and having fun.

Tourism employs many youths in the Northern Circuit, and the revamped sector is surely a lifeline to their economy and more so for the whole country.

During the low season, when they have the fewest number of tourists coming in, Zara Tours has devised a plan to provide land for these young people to engage in farming.

Every day, Zainab would sit with her hot cup of coffee and just look at the majestic Kilimanjaro, realizing how blessed they are as Tanzanians.

From the snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro to the plains of the Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Crater, and the white-sand beaches of Zanzibar, Tanzania has it all.

The Royal Tour could have been a magic bullet that propelled Tanzania to the top of the list of the world's most magnificent tourist destinations.

Time will tell if tour operators, the government, and all stakeholders will use this momentum to ensure that Tanzania continues to attract many more tourists while also conserving our natural beauty and protecting the wildlife and environment that put food on the plates of all those whose livelihoods depend on tourism.