Ukraine war worries hospitality industry

Dar es Salaam. Hospitality has been one of the busiest industries this year due to an increase in tourists, amid recovery from Covid-19 that hit this sector the hardest.

However, stakeholders warn if the war between Ukraine and Russia prolongs, it may affect the industry’s performance next year.

Stakeholders admit that a number of hotels are busy with conferences, high occupancy rate of the rooms and general good prospects. They say that despite the impressive trend, the ongoing war can accelerate inflation which in turn will discourage foreign travellers.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), from January to July 2022, tourist arrivals increased to 742,133 compared to 456,266 who visited the country in the corresponding period in 2021, an increase of 62.7 percent.

Out of the 742,133 tourist arrivals, 222,449 tourists entered the country through Zanzibar, which is equivalent to 30.0 percent of total arrivals.

Speaking to The Citizen, the Hotels Association of Tanzania (HAT) chief executive officer, Mr Edward Kennedy, said it has been both a good albeit challenging year.

According to him, the tourism business is tricky because its performance depends on the season. But this year, there were bookings that had been made since last year that filled up some hotels.

“But all in all, everyone got business at their own level because there were also new clients,” he said. He said Covid-19 has given valuable lessons to stakeholders about what should be done so that the industry can continue to perform well. This includes encouraging domestic tourism which also bears fruit.

He also appreciated efforts by the government towards encouraging and attracting investors in building infrastructure but if the war between Ukraine and Russia continues, it may affect the industry in the coming year.

“If this war continues, it will lead to inflation. We depend heavily on foreign tourists. So if inflation hits the United States for instance, that means people will struggle to find money for their needs. This will result in a shake in the industry,” he noted.

He said that they hope that the war will end and things will go back to normal soon as interruptions are bad for business. For example, Land Cruiser vehicles are widely used in tourism but fail to arrive in the country due to global issues.

In addition to that, President Samia Suluhu Hassan has already showed her intention to revive tourism. Natural Resources and Tourism deputy minister Mary Masanja says, “The number of tourists has increased. This is a good indication for us after having gone through a difficult time during the recent pandemic. I can say it has been a good year, we hope that the coming year will be even better following the Royal Tour.”

Ms Masanja added, “After the Royal Tour, we have started to see major changes especially in the areas of investment we have set aside for tourism. So there are changes and more efforts are being put forth to further improve the sector.

“We continue to encourage domestic tourism so that many Tanzanians visit these attractions and promote attractions in other areas as well so people have more options to visit besides the North Zone. We have 22 national reserves,” she said.

Contributing to that, Assistant Director for Tourism Business from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism Kanisia Mwadui said that it was true that there are tourists who cancelled their trips but only a few.

She said, “Currently the hotels are full and this is a great news for the country because just last year a hotel with about 150 rooms would only have two guests.

“We see this as success and attribute it to the strategies that the government put in place. These strategies inspired tourists to have more confidence travelling here. Right now, if you go to many hotels, you will find that they are booked up to six months from today. This shows that the sector is kicking into high gear once again after a rather rough patch,” she said.