Tanzania records major surge in Chinese tourist arrivals: official

DAR ES SALAAM, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) — The number of Chinese tourists visiting Tanzania’s tourist attractions has been on a remarkable rise since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Tanzanian tourism official has said.
Hassan Abbasi, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, said 54,444 Chinese tourists visited Tanzania between January and September this year, more than the number recorded for the whole year of 2023.
“The Chinese tourist market is responding remarkably,” Abbasi told a news conference Sunday in the port city of Dar es Salaam, ahead of the Tanzania and China in Alliance with Tourism and Culture event marking 60 years of strong diplomatic ties between the two countries.
He said that in 2018, before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, 32,000 Chinese tourists visited Tanzania, a number that rose to 44,038 in 2023.
The Tanzanian government has been trying to seize the Chinese tourism market by conducting promotional events, including tourism roadshows in major Chinese cities and the launch in Beijing in May 2024 of a film called Amazing Tanzania.
The film featuring President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania’s Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi, and prominent Chinese actor Jin Dong has served as a catalyst to attract more tourists from China to visit the East African nation, he said.
The Amazing Tanzania film will be relaunched in Tanzania on Monday during the Tanzania and China in Alliance with Tourism and Culture event, which will go in tandem with tourism and culture exhibitions at the Chinese-built Julius Nyerere International Convention Center in Dar es Salaam. ■