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Tanzania hosts 15 top travel agents to tap opportunities
Tourists admire animals in Serengeti National Park. PHOTO | COURTESY
What you need to know:
- Fifteen agents are currently in Tanzania sampling the key tourist attractions under the auspices of Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (Tato)
Arusha. Tanzania has rolled out a red carpet for the high-profile foreign tourism and travel agents to explore the country’s untapped tourism opportunities, as part of its new marketing strategy.
Fifteen agents are currently in Tanzania sampling the key tourist attractions under the auspices of Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (Tato), through its Tourism reboot program in partnership with Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa) and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA).
In their first leg in Tanzania’s northern tourism circuit, the travel agents had an opportunity to engage the tour operators in business-to-business forum, organised by Tato at Four Points by Sheraton, the Arusha Hotel, where they shared the passwords on how to woo high-end tourists with their local counterparts.
The agents mainly from the US, Croatia and Jamaica are scheduled to sample various tourist attractions in both Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar for ten days to get first-hand experience in order to be conversant to sell to their customers back home.
Mr Vlado Sestan, a travel agent from Croatia, who visited the country 30 years ago, commended Tanzania’s tourism policy that prefers quality tourism -- low tourists volume but with higher returns, over mass tourism, saying the rule is a sure way for sustainable conservation.
“Tanzania is in the right foot. Hold on to your tourism policy. Attract low volume high-end tourists who pay more for your national parks to remain intact,” says Mr Sestan, as he cautions the country over mass tourism impairing the excellence.
Sherise Mckinzie, the US-based Your Travel Planner Pro, says she has travelled overseas severally, but the diversity of beauty she has seen in Tanzania is the real one.
“Safety is a huge concern of the US tourists, Americans don’t like to travel with people they don’t know,” explains Ms Mckinzie, as she urges the Tanzania’s travel and tourism industry to invest in social media in a bid to attract as many Americans as possible.
