Of the $25.5 million collected by tourism players as part of a tourism levy in Tanzania the Tanzania Tourist Board has received only $2.3 million, less than 10% of the monies collected.

This is according to Tanzania Association of Tour Operators, which argues that the amount paid to TTB is inadequate for promoting the East African country.

Tato Chairman, Willbard Chambulo, said the private sector in 2013 agreed to pay the tourism development levy in support of the TTB.

“Our members have been supporting TTB through contributing towards the tourism development levy so that it can carry out its mandate of promoting the destination in international markets,” he pointed out.

Chambulo noted that the Tanzanian government should give TTB substantial funding for the agency to market the destination in both traditional and emerging markets to boost visitor numbers.

Since the government is underfunding the marketing organisation, Chambulo said it could not promote Tanzania effectively in traditional markets such as the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and Italy.

But despite the inadequate funding, Tanzania aims to meet its target of three million international tourist arrivals by 2018.

If the country achieves the two million visitors target by the end of this year, Tanzania projects to earn $2 billion from the sector up from $1.35 billion.

 “With our new marketing strategy in place, we expect to woo more holidaymakers from emerging markets, including China, India, UAE and Brazil,” said TTB Chairman, Thomas Mihayo.