Travel expert lays accent on promotion of tourism

THE travelling sector, pivotal to the growth of tourism in the country and other segments of the economy, deserves more attention, a travel agency with a branch in Dar es Salaam has noted.

Speaking to the ‘Daily News’ in an interview recently in Dar es Salaam, Country Manager of Jovago Tanzania, Mr Andrea Guzzoni, said: “The travelling sector is one of the industries which can increase the income of the country in a short period of time if it is considered more seriously and taken as a first priority in revenue collection in country.”

The number of tourists in Tanzania was increasing day by day, he said, adding that presently there were approximately more than 600,000 visitors visiting the country per annum.

Jovago Tanzania is an online hotel booking service with offices in Lagos (Nigeria), Nairobi (Kenya) and Dakar (Senegal) and founded by Africa Internet Group.

It facilitates the booking process for its users to provide them with the best hotel booking experience with fast, transparent and easy-to-use services.

Unfortunately, he said, “There are still few travelling sectors in Tanzania which perform well in the market.” Observation of one’s audience always makes it easier not only to pinpoint their needs, wants and budget, but also to determine what kind of consumers can truthfully hold up one’s business and become aides for the business.

“If you are dealing with young couples, make sure you meet all the needs for young couples and there, you will see the output of the industry,” he explained.

Mr Guzzoni further explained that a research conducted recently by Experian Marketing Services in 2015 found that if the travelling sector understood the consumer behaviour, it would definitely be better positioned to understand their audience and thus make business more successful.

In the travelling sector, Guzzoni stated, there were two categories which one could consider: young couples (18-34) and families, (husband, wife and children), he said young couples are said to have high status jobs and rent high value properties.

They also adapt to technology and smart-phones. They spend more than 20 per cent of their time on the internet, 14.2 per cent shopping online, 13 per cent looking through news and media, 5 per cent on lifestyle websites, 43.6 per cent on others and the remaining 4.2 per cent on travelling websites.

Families, on the other hand, possess expensive assets and have big investments, but they always adopt technology from the younger generation.

In European countries, young couples are more likely to take trips to European cities, the US and South East Asia, with the most popular destinations being Paris (3.4 per cent of all searches by destination), New York (3.1 per cent) and Dubai.