Tanzania: Tanapa Rolls Out China Media Blitz

Mikumi — The Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa) has partnered with the Chinese embassy in a fresh drive to lure more tourists from the Asian country.

China is the world's largest outbound travel market, with reports saying some 120 million people travelled overseas in 2015 alone.

Tanapa director general Allan Kijazi said Tuesday the recently launched drive was a result of the growing bilateral relationship between Tanzania and China.

He said this as a group of 16 senior journalists from various Chinese media houses completed their tour of the Mikuni National Park in Morogoro Region.

He said the Chinese embassy was committed to supporting Tanapa, and had seen it necessary to arrange the visit.

"This first group of 16 journalists from various major media houses in China will extensively help market our country," he said.

"Each of them has not less than 40,000 social media followers, mainly Chinese. So, this will go a long way in making Tanzanian tourist attractions known and read about back in China."

Tanapa has been working closely with various Tanzania embassies to market the country's national parks.

Mr Kijazi said the German Embassy had already started the process to identify key people from German who will come, tour the parks and then go back to market Tanzania's tourist attractions.

Speaking moments after their Mikumi tour, head of the Chinese delegation, Ambassador Liu Guztin, said they had been excited about the tour and would meet their end of the deal in marketing Tanzania as a major tourist destination.

Mr Guztin, a former Chinese envoy to various African countries, said: "The tour has taught and enabled us to view animals that are not found in our country. I hope every one of us will educate their followers back home."

The delegation was also accompanied by officials from the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB).

TTB senior public relations officer Godfrey Tengeneza said the visiting journalists had also visited Tanzania to attend a meeting on China-Africa relations.

Natural Resources and Tourism minister Prof Jumanne Maghembe recently challenged TTB to peg its target at 3 million tourists by 2018.

There have been concerns, however, over the poor allocation of funds to TTB's promotional activities.

The government has severally been urged to provide more funds for the promotion of tourism.