BY HUMPHREY SHAO

The Ministry of Natural Resource and Tourism  said in 2010 Tanzania  tourism earnings grew by 8.2 percent  to USD 1,254.5 million compared to USD 1,159.5 million recorded in 2009 which accrued from 782,699 international visitor arrivals to Tanzania.

This was said by Deputy secretary of the ministry Nuru Millao on the press conference of launching report of  the 2010 international visitors exit survey report which held Dar es salaam yesterday.

“ the survey has been carried out annually since 2001 .survey conducted at Julius Nyerere International Airport(JNIA) ,Kilimanjaro international Airport (KIA),Zanzibar Airport (ZAA),Namanga ,Kasumulo and Tunduma borders points for the period of two weekes 23 rd August to 5^th September 2010” Said Millao.

On his briefing the  director of tourism and chair man of steering committee Ibrahim Mussa listed the participating institutions ,Ministry of the Natural Resource and Tourism ,Bank of Tanzania ,Nationla bureau   of Statistics ,immigration department ,the Zanzibar Commission    for Tourism and Tourism confederation of Tanzania .

He said source for markets for Tanzania’s tourist continue to be dominated by countries from Europe and America namely Italy, United Kingdom and USA which, in aggregate, accounted for 43.7 percent of tourist who visited who the country in 2010.

He said most of the visitor came for leisure and holiday purpose and fall within the age group of 25-44 years and majority of visitors came under pacakage tour arrangement because it is well organized and consumers are able to choose from wide options such as air tickets ,accommodation ,food and drinks.

He added that in their report they discovered wildlife tourism is main activity for Tanzania tourist reflecting the country’s wealth in National Parks and game reserves and other main activities include beach tourism and mountain climbing.