THE GOVERNMENT URGED TO REVIEW ITS POLICY TO ATTRACT TOURISM INVESTORS

Charles Lupilya, Dar es Salaam Tourist Board (DTB) Chief Executive Officer

The government has been urged to review its tourism policy as a way of ensuring that investors in the sector don’t incur losses for providing services to tourists visiting Dar es Salaam City.

Dar es Salaam Tourist Board (DTB) Chief Executive Officer, Charles Lupilya told The Guardian in an exclusive interview yesterday that the review of the policy will help investors in the tourism sector especially the ones investing in Dar es Salaam know how they benefit from tourism business.

“Tourism policy is very important for those entitled to run tourism businesses. The challenge with Dar es Salaam city is that investors are not assured of making profit if they invest in such business,” Lupilya said.
He said experience shows that most tourists visiting the city have a variety of needs; therefore a well established policy will attract private investors to invest even more hence increase revenues.
Lupilya reasoned that failure to have a well established policy will lead to uneven development in the country as some areas will be underdeveloped like arts and crafts, spectacular waterfronts, islands, migratory butterfly, hocking and beaches.
According to Lupilya, tourism within Dar es Salaam city has been taking a snail’s pace due to the fact that the government has not established a policy which can assure investors of profit.
He however said tourist attractions currently available in the city are not enough to attract more tourists and make the business viable.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN