THE past three years or so have seen a boom in the number of foreign nationals visiting our country – as tourists.

Official figures show the number as having risen from 922,692 in 2021 to 1,808,205 last year.

Earnings collected from the foreign visitors are reported to have increased by 161 per cent – from US$1.3 billion in 2021 to US$3.4 billion during the period, with domestic tourism resulting in 175.3 billion/- earnings.

This comes to a ‘triple jump’ – from US46.3 billion/- recorded in 2021, all implying that domestic tourism is making encouraging headway in the sector mix.

Going by the Natural Resources and Tourism minister, the number of Tanzanians touring our conservation areas rose from 788,933 in 2021 to 1,985,707 in the past year, with revenues from the tourism subsector hitting the US$3.4 billion mark in 2023 from US$2.5 billion a year earlier.

All this is bright and indicates two related aspects that don’t come out clearly in the remarks, the first being that there is full recovery from stoppages due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

There is also a surge in travel locally and from outside, but it is fairly unclear whether Tanzania now has a better slot as a tourist destination.

Officials credit this surge in tourist travel numbers and earnings chiefly to President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s efforts in marketing the country’s tourist attractions through ‘The Royal Tour’.

There is consensus that the documentary played a major role in these successes, with the rise in numbers of foreign visitors having been witnessed since that period.

Yet research distinguishes how things are associated and how one thing causing the other – and so on. Indeed, the film is identifiable with the rise, but it is not enough to proceed with suggestions that it was the film that brought a change.

Data show that Tanzania was ranked 12th in Africa among ‘best performing destinations’ as per data compiled by global tourism agencies from January to December 2023.

But even with the sharp increase in tourist visits compared to the 2019 to 2022 period, the whole issue of ranking is admittedly rather unsettling, as just one or two of the other destinations have attractions nearly comparable to Tanzania but they do much better in attracting tourists.

Tourism authorities and local experts are yet to dwell on this question sufficiently, often proffer fairly easy marketing or promotional answers with respect to those destinations however well-known.

Some data from different seem to contrast. For instance, January 2024 saw the World Tourism Barometer compiled by UN Tourism cite Tanzania as ranked 5th in Africa in attracting the biggest number of foreign tourists.

It is easier to believe the latter figure than the previous one, even though it is not just marketing that holds back Tanzania from being the highest puller of foreign tourism.

The newly unfolding Special Wildlife Investment Concession Areas (SWICA) project rolled out at the start of the year earns US$2,773,000 (7.1bn/-) from fees charged on allocated blocks. It serves as an example here.

Were some national parks or key game reserves to be allocated to investors in like manner, and they compete, we would have cause to expect a surge in all categories of tourism – and concomitant earnings.