By Maureen Odunga
IN
a move to promote domestic tourism, a local company, Jovago has
launched an online campaign dubbed 'Tanzania Yetu' to encourage local
residents to visit attraction sites in the country.
Addressing members
of the media in Dar es Salaam recently, the Public Relations Manager of
Jovago, Ms Lilian Kisasa, said that the campaign was aimed at
encouraging Tanzanians to share photos and videos of the attraction
sites they have visited across the country using #Tanzaniayetu.
"Through various
social media like face book and Instagram, people will be able to post
photos and videos of the country's attractions they have visited so as
to encourage others," said Ms Kisasa.
Based on Tourism
Report of 2015, most tourists visiting the country are from Kenya,
United Kingdom, United States of America, Germany, South Africa and
France, which constitutes 60 per cent of foreign visitors and 40 per
cent domestic.
"The campaign will
require local people to share their experiences in the tourism sector so
as to motivate those who have never done so to explore their own
country and enjoy the beautiful attractive places they have never seen
before," she pointed out.
According to the
Country Manager of Jovago Tanzania, Mr Andrea Guzzoni, Tanzania has a
lot of potential that people could learn from and enjoy the beauties of
the country. "We do appreciate foreign visitors into the country but
local residents should take personal initiatives to promote their own
tourism sector so as to boost the economy of the country," noted Mr
Guzzoni. On his part, The Director of Tourism and Marketing at TANAPA,
Mr Ibrahimu Mussa, lauded the effort taken by Jovago in promoting the
tourism industry in the country.
"Technological use
of such nature in our country should be encouraged, taking into
consideration the gradual use of smart phones," said Mr Mussa. He said
sharing videos and photos is an easy way of creating awareness,
therefore most people in the process will be motivated to visit the
sites.
He added that in
the next financial year, the ministry intends to extend further their
service by posting adverts of the country's sites through the social
media and currently the attractions possess social media pages such as
face book and instagram. "Statistics shows our annual site visitations
include approximately 950 tourists whereas domestic tourists comprise of
300-450 people," added Mr Mussa.
He called upon
Tanzanians to overcome the misconception that only rich people are the
ones who can afford to visit the country's attraction sites. "Anybody
can visit our attractions regardless of being well off or not, because
the entry fee is affordable, people can simply organise themselves as a
group to cater for transport issues," he said.
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