{{Kenyan tour operators’ vehicles will not take tourists directly to national parks and other attraction sites in Tanzania even after last week’s deal reached by the two countries to enhance cooperation in the tourism sector.}}
Instead, the vehicles from the neighbouring country will be allowed to drop visitors at specific towns in Tanzania before they are taken to the sites by locally registered vehicles, stakeholders in the industry affirmed yesterday.
The executive secretary of the Tourism Confederation of Tanzania (TCT), Mr Richard Rugimbana, said a meeting held in Arusha under the auspices of the East African Community (EAC) agreed that tourists coming into the country would only be dropped at their destination sites.
“I am not a spokesman of the government, but the two countries agreed to enhance the 1985 Protocol on Tourism Cooperation, this time on the issue of tour operations,” he told The Citizen over the phone from Dar es Salaam.
He declined to give more details on the outcome of the ministerial conference of EAC on tourism and wildlife, which was dominated by the contentious issues of tourist/driver guides operations at the border crossings and insecurity.
Tanzania and Kenya, the leading tourists destinations in the bloc, agreed on a draft protocol regarding tourism in 1985, shortly after the re-opening of the border between the two countries.
During the six-year closure from 1977, no tourists were allowed to cross overland into Tanzania as was the case before.
When contacted over the issue, an executive officer with the Tanzania Association of Tour Operations (Tato) Sirili Akko said tourists crossing from Kenya through Namanga would now be dropped in Arusha instead of the border town.
“For the visitors coming in through Uganda, they will be dropped at Bukoba instead of Mutukula,” he said, noting that the measure has been taken because most of the border posts lacked the necessary facilities for the visitors.
It is estimated that about 40 per cent of tourists from overseas coming to Tanzania enter the country through Kenya.
A Kenyan leading weekly Sunday Nation reported at the weekend that the decision followed a pressure from the Kenyan tour operators who have been against the rule that required them to drop tourists at the border with Tanzania for them to be picked up by their Tanzanian counterparts.
However, it emerged from the Arusha talks that Kenyan authorities have been allowing Tanzanian tour operators to take tourists to even to the national parks and airports.
The Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for EAC Affairs, Ms Phyllis Kandie, who led her country’s delegation to the meeting, said the new arrangement would also help in marketing the regional as a single tourist destination, adding that the newly found relationship with Tanzania will get the support of key stakeholders.
According to the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Lazaro Nyalandu, Tanzania and Kenya have been given six months to meet bilaterally and review their existing cooperation in the latest moratorium in Arusha.
“By resolving these challenges we will promote the tourism sector with a focus on regional integration”, he said.
{thecitizen}
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