Tanzania has lowered park fees for East African citizens to attract more tourists from neighbouring countries.
According to latest programme by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania is targeting visitors from the East African Community (EAC) member states to visit wildlife parks, historical sites, and adult EAC citizens will now pay Sh10,000 ($ 4.2), the same fee adult Tanzanians will also be charged.
Dr Pindi Chana, the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, said the Tanzanian government will also focus on meetings and conference visitors through exhibitions, conferences and other tours.
But it is the decision on fees that could be more useful. Visitors from neighbouring countries had often complained of being charged more while Tanzanians are charged under EAC terms when visiting the neighbouring countries.
Tanzania had also refused to join the one tourism visa programme by Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda which allowed a visitor to tour the three countries with just one visa issued by either of the three.
Dr Chana said lowering fees and providing hosting incentives for conferences will help attract five million tourists worth $6 billion, the target set for 2025 under the Five Year Tourism Development Plan now under implementation.
Travel restrictions
The initial step is to work with EAC Secretariat in Arusha to harmonise travel restrictions and movements of people within the EAC bloc under the umbrella of the East African Tourism Platform (EATF).
Under the EATF, Tanzania joins others in the EAC bloc to form a single tourist destination for its regional citizens without restrictions at border entry points and harmonised fees to access tourist areas, mostly the wildlife parks and heritage sites.
The country has also introduced electronic visas (eVisa) for foreign tourists entering Tanzania.
The government is also targeting to raise the number of air transport passengers from the current 2.94 million to 3.09 million next year, the Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) said.
TAA is currently attracting international flights, taking an advantage of the increase of tourism after the launching of the Royal Tour documentary USA) in mid-April.
The African Tourism Board has been advocating for open African skies accompanied by strong African airlines, with code shares, joint ventures and other partnerships.
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Tanzania Declares End of Marburg Virus Disease Outbreak
Tanzania today declared the end of Marburg virus disease outbreak after recording no new cases over 42 days since the death of the last confirmed case on 28 January 2025.
The outbreak, in which two confirmed and eight probable cases were recorded (all deceased), was the second the country has experienced. Both this outbreak, which was declared on 20 January 2025, and the one in 2023 occurred in the north-eastern Kagera region.
In response to the latest outbreak, Tanzania’s health authorities set up coordination and response systems, with support from World Health Organization (WHO) and partners, at the national and regional levels and reinforced control measures to swiftly detect cases, enhance clinical care, infection prevention as well as strengthen collaboration with communities to raise awareness and help curb further spread of the virus.
Growing expertise in public health emergency response in the African region has been crucial in mounting effective outbreak control measures. Drawing on experience from the response to the 2023 Marburg virus disease outbreak, WHO worked closely with Tanzanian health authorities to rapidly scale up key measures such as disease surveillance and trained more than 1000 frontline health workers in contact tracing, clinical care and public health risk communication. The Organization also delivered over five tonnes of essential medical supplies and equipment.
“The dedication of frontline health workers and the efforts of the national authorities and our partners have paid off,” said Dr Charles Sagoe-Moses, WHO Representative in Tanzania. “While the outbreak has been declared over, we remain vigilant to respond swiftly if any cases are detected and are supporting ongoing efforts to provide psychosocial care to families affected by the outbreak.”
Building on the momentum during the acute phase of the outbreak response, measures have been put in place to reinforce the capacity of local health facilities to respond to potential future outbreaks. WHO and partners are procuring additional laboratory supplies and other equipment for disease detection and surveillance and other critical services.
Marburg virus disease is highly virulent and causes haemorrhagic fever. It belongs to the same family as the virus that causes Ebola virus disease. Illness caused by Marburg virus begins abruptly. Patients present with high fever, severe headache and severe malaise. They may develop severe haemorrhagic symptoms within seven days.
In the African region, previous outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.
Source: allafrica.com
