Foreign tourists that visited Tanzania from January to July this year rose by 62.7 percent year on year, the east African nation’s statistics watchdog said on Wednesday.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) director for economic statistics, Daniel Masolwa, said 742,133 foreign tourists visited Tanzania during the period under review compared to 456,266 tourists that visited the country in the same period in 2021.
Tanzania will also receive more investors and tourists from the Russian federation wishing to explore opportunities and attractions within the country.
This is according to the Russian Ambassador to Tanzania, Andrey Avetisyan in a recent press conference in Dar es Salaam. Avetisyan said that current trade volume between the two brotherly countries which stands at around $200million was very low compared to the growth potential.
“Russian business groups and individuals are emailing the embassy on an almost daily basis, enquiring for investment opportunities in Tanzania. This marks good prospects for recording trade growth in the near future to benefit citizens of the two countries,” he hinted.
He also reiterated Russia’s commitment to strengthen the bilateral trade relationship to benefiting people of two countries.
The envoy said that in turn, Tanzania authorities are positively responding by timely granting the Russian embassy all needed clarification on available opportunities and investments logistics required before one can start projects in the country.
According to him, Tanzania is socially welcoming to Russian, as many professionals did their studies in his country and they speak Russian language, which eliminates barriers of communication.
“Many doctors here speaks Russian, so no worry on where one can access medical education and more Tanzania students are getting study scholarship in Russian, hence,” he said.
Tanzania has embraced openness in its business, and this is of interest to many Russian, the envoy said, adding that promotion of Kiswahili language is taken positively as many universities in Russia are teaching the East African medium of communication, hence, another advantage for investment.
“Some Tanzania products like tea, coffee and cashew nuts are of good quality and the demand for such products is high in Russia, yet supply is still very low. This is our job in the new trade strategy to open up more market for these products, so that Tanzanians can export more to our market,” he said.
On the side of Tourism, Avetisyan highlighted that more Russian tourists are set to start visiting Tanzania, after eased travel restrictions previously instituted globally to combat spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
On his part, Masolwa spoke in the capital Dodoma that July 2022 recorded the highest tourist arrivals of 166,736 compared to 81,307 arrivals in July 2021, which is a 105.1 percent rise.
The official urged service providers in the hospitality sector to get prepared for the rising number of tourists visiting Tanzania by improving and expanding their hospitality services.