Dodoma hotels expect to be fully booked for next 3 months

Starting this weekend, 638 constituent assembly members will arrive in Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania, as the work for a constitutional review process is due to be launched by President Kikwete on Tuesday, February 18.

All regular members of parliament and the assembly of Zanzibar will be part of the assembly which is tasked to produce a new constitution for the country, to be ready ahead of the 50th anniversary of the union between the mainland, then called Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

President Kikwete only recently announced the names of 201 additional assembly members, drawn from across civil society and the business sector, all of whom are now driving or flying to Dodoma to process their registration and get accommodated at over two dozen hotels which were selected by parliamentary staff providing the logistics for the constituent assembly members.

While the core time frame to complete the work was set as 70 days, the president can extend this period to 90 days and this in fact is the more likely scenario, bringing a huge windfall to Dodoma hotels which expect to be fully booked for the duration. A regular source, tongue in cheek added this to the discussion: “We have wagenis coming for our parks and beaches, business tourists for investments and now we have political tourists also going to Dodoma to write our new constitution. For us in the hotel sector it really does not matter where they come from or who they are, as long as our rooms are full and our bills are paid.” True that is, of course, and now for sure is the time to cash in by the participating hotels in Dodoma.