Arusha — The Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO) has
unanimously elected, Mr. Zuher Fazal as vice-chairman to succeed Peter
Lindstrom, who steps down after several years at the helm of the
association.
Mr. Fazal, the Managing Director of one of the East African region's
largest and most successful tour companies, 'Leopard Tours', has been
serving TATO as its councilor in-charge of public relations.
With world-wide connections, he is expected to help TATO to raise the
tourism profile especially with regard to public-private-partnership.
TATO is a leading advocacy agency for the multi-billion-dollar tourism Industry.
The recently held TATO Annual General Meeting didn't let Mr.
Lindstrom go with the wealth of experiences, instead he was elected to
serve as the association's council member.
TATO AGM also retained tour operator, Vesna Glamocanin-Tibaijuka, as its treasurer.
The other councilors included, Alex Lemunge, Samwel Diah, Seamu
Brice-Bennet, Maria Strauss, Henry Kimambo and Joseph Mwema as well as
Mr. Sirili Akko as its executive secretary.
Addressing the 31st annual general meeting, TATO Chairman, Willy
Chambullo, said engaging the government with an eye to streamline taxes,
licenses, and fees, is highest in the list of TATO priority areas.
Tour operators are currently subjected to 32 different taxes, twelve
being business registration and regulatory licenses fees as well as
eleven duties for each tourist vehicle per annum and nine others.
Mr. Chambullo says that the contentious issue is modality and time spent in complying with intricate taxes.
Latest assessment of Tanzanian tourism sector indicates that the
administrative burdens of completing license tax and levy paperwork
place a heavy cost on businesses in terms of time and money.
A report done by Tanzania Confederation of Tourism (TCT) and BEST-AC,
shows that average annual cost of personnel to complete regulatory
paperwork per local tour operator is Tsh 2.9 million ($1,795) per year.
"TATO also would work in partnership with the government to create an
industry that can be trusted by the customer, overseas tour operators
and the general public" Mr Chambullo explained.
"We are going to improve the code of conduct for our members and
offers even better services to our members" TATO chief concluded.
Tanzania's tourism sector is among the sectors with great economic
potential. It provides a substantial amount of foreign exchange
earnings, employment and acts as a stimulant to other sectors like
agriculture thereby contributing to economic growth.
Recent statistics show that earnings from the Tanzanian tourism
industry increased from $200 million in 1993 to $1.88 billion in 2013.
The number of visitors also increased over the same period from 230,000 to a record one million.
The reported number of tourists who visited Tanzania in 2012 places
the country on the map of leading African safari destinations with
million-plus visitors per year.
Other tourist competitive African destinations, rich with resources
and which have a high record of tourists reaching a million or above are
Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa
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