DAR ES SALAAM: A UNIVERSITY of Dar es Salaam scholar has advised tourism players in the country to consider forming Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) at district and regional levels countrywide.
Professor Elgidius Ichumbaki told a high-profile tourism summit going on in Dar es Salaam yesterday that a DMO could tap into entire offers a particular destination might have in store to cater for interests of different investors in one destination.
The University of Dar es Salaam lecturer and researcher in heritage management, conservation and tourism, said the role of a DMO is to bring to light a series of issues on one destination.
“We shouldn’t forget that the private sector is very much fragmented in terms of social relations, especially among the travel and tourism industry players,” observed Prof Ichumbaki, explaining that a DMO goes beyond the travel and tourism industry to cover environment and other fields as well.
He said the DMO, which is a locally established non- state-run organisation play- ing the role of the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) at one destination, is a solution for a series of challenges facing the industry, including uncoordi- nated marketing.
“You go to a fair and find multiple stakeholders from the same destination marketing the same destination,” wondered the scholar, stressing that a DMO reduces such unnecessary costs and pro- motes a destination as one.
“We shouldn’t forget that these destinations are fragile, they would not last for years, DMOs should set up particular protocols for each stakeholder to comply with them and maximise use of destinations.
Doubting the process in use in the country for col- lecting statistics pertaining to the travel and tourism, Prof Ichumbaki said there were either more or lesser tourists than projected, suggesting that a DMO would be committed enough to gather information from all accommodation facilities to obtain precise data.
A Destination Management Organisation (DMO) is an organisation that manages a destination’s tourism development and marketing. DMOs are responsible for ensuring that a destination is successful, competitive and socially and economically developed.
Mr Philip Chitaunga, the Assistant Director of Wildlife Division in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tour- ism, allayed the travel and tourism industry players’ fear, nonetheless, saying the industry statistics was genuine.
Mr Chitaunga, who represented the Minister for Natural Resources and Tour- ism Minister, Dr Pindi Chana, said the process of collecting data adhered to directives from the UN Tourism and that besides national parks, it involved a number of other areas, including tourist arrivals for meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE), shopping, holidays,health and visiting relatives and friends.
“A tourist from the Dem- ocratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) comes to Kariakoo market and spends over 1,000 US dollars a trip, more than the one visiting a national park,” said Mr Chitaunga, ex- plaining that travel and tourism players were invited to conferences to convince par- ticipants to visit tourist sites.
Responding to concerns over the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) lacking a focal person for the travel and tour- ism industry during the forum, Mr Nestory Kissima, a Senior Investment Officer, pledged to table the observation to the management of the centre.
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“Currently, we have focal persons from 13 institutions, but there is room for adding some from other institutions, including those overseeing the travel and tourism indus- try,” he said.
The Ministry of Natu- ral Resources and Tourism is, jointly with the Tourism Confederation of Tanzania and the EnviroSasa, organis- ing the two-day forum aimed at reducing non-tariff barriers to unleash the untapped tourism potential along the coastal belt.
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