THE Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Pindi Chana has said that the government is optimistic to fulfill its goal of increasing the number of tourists to five million and tourism income reaches $6 billion by 2025.

She said this yesterday during the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the National College of Tourism (NCT) and the Italian Academy of Studies (ENAIP).

It was during the 9th edition of the week of the Italian Cuisine in the world started from 16th November to 23 where Italian Embassy has organized a serious of initiatives to promote the Italian Cuisine in Tanzania.

She said that the move to increase tourists and foreign currency will go hand in hand with strengthening various tourist services such as infrastructure development and the construction of modern hotels.

 "Today we are witnessing signing of an agreement between the NCT and ENAIP of Italy which will help us to increase our knowledge on the tourism side of various types of food recipes and the Italian language," she said.

She said that the agreement is very important for the nation as it will give important skills to the youth of Tanzania and she thanked President Samia Suluhu Hassan for increasing the contribution of the tourism sector to the national income up to 16 percent.

She said that Italy and Tanzania have had very good economic relations for many years and the signing of the agreement is sufficient evidence that the cooperation continues to strengthen.

The Principal of  (NCT) , Dr. Florian Mtey, said the collaboration will benefit his college in the training area where they expect the college's instructors will go to sharpen their skills in Italian colleges.

He said the trainers will learn various programs on tourism and hospitality issues as well as capacity building on research issues and how to write projects.

"In the area of joint research, NCT and ENAIP will conduct various studies to enable us to provide professional advice in the private and public sectors and our trainers will specialize in various sectors after capacity building," he said.

In addition, he said that NCT students will be going to Italy to study at colleges to learn in practice adding that instructors who study recipes from Italy have already started coming to Tanzania.

"There are Italian chefs who are already in the country and they are giving recipe training to our students and they will help our students to specialize in recipes," he said. 

He said that the NCT in collaboration with the Italian embassy in Tanzania are expected to start Italian language training at the college because it is in great demand due to the large increase in tourists from Italy.

President of ENAIP, Antonino Zigilo said on  the occasion of the 9th edition of the Week of the Italian Cuisine in the World, that started from 16 to 23 November 2024, the Italian Embassy in Dar Es Salaam has organized a series of initiatives to promote the Italian cuisine in Tanzania.

He said together with several Italian restaurants in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar and the Italian Trade Agency (ITA), the Embassy of Italy is promoting throughout the week a series of thematic dinners, including food tastings and special menus and regional Italian specialties.

He said the 9th  edition of the Week of the Italian Cuisine will involve restaurants in Dar es Salaam, Iringa, Arusha and in different locations in Zanzibar.

He said ENAIP, one of the leading entities engaged in training in the sector of hospitality in Italy, has signed MoU with the National College of Tourism, with the objective of strengthening the collaboration for building capacities of trainers and students in the tourist & hospitality sector in Tanzania.

He said duuring the week, the Embassy of Italy will host two events in Dar es Salaam and Stone Town (Zanzibar), lead by four highly experienced Italian chefs from ENAIP Veneto and ENAIP Piemonte, focusing on typical Italian dishes, prepared with high quality products from Italy.

 “The culinary art in Italy is deeply linked, among many things, to tradition, rural economy, environmental protection, landscape and culture. Promoting Italian cuisine means promoting healthy foods, at the heart of the Mediterranean Diet, declared as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2013,” he said.