The Bank of Tanzania’s May 2024 report, released few days ago, shows the tourism sector is “unstoppable” as it continues to break records for the number of foreign tourists flocking to the country and revenue, as follows:

Tourists Continue to Pour In: The BoT report shows that during the traditionally “low season” months of March and April this year, international tourists increased by 21.9% and 21.8% respectively compared to the same months last year. “This trend reflects the continued strengthening of the tourism sector both nationally and globally.”

Tourism Sector Remains a Pillar of Foreign Exchange: Beyond this “flood” of visitors, the tourism sector also continued to demonstrate its status as a pillar of foreign exchange, generating $3.58 billion and $5.75 billion in March and April 2024 respectively, up from $2.7 billion and $2.8 billion during the same months last year. The mining sector followed with $3.1 billion in April this year, and the transport sector with $2.5 billion.

The film featuring President Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan, “Tanzania: The Royal Tour,” along with the government’s and private sector’s concerted efforts to promote the country internationally, are cited as the foundation of these successes.

“Tourism growth is also expected to drive the nation’s GDP to reach 6.3% this year,” predicts Zephania Ubwani of The Citizen in his March article titled, “Rebound in Tourism Expected To Fuel Tanzania’s Economic Growth To 6.3 Percent.”

The BoT report supports another study by the UN Tourism Organization for the first quarter of January-March 2024, which shows Tanzania ranked first in Africa and fourth globally in tourism growth compared to pre-COVID-19 levels in 2019.