DAR ES SALAAM, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa announced on Thursday that the government was in final touches of establishing a beach management directorate aimed at promoting beach tourism in the east African country.
"We instructed the ministry responsible for tourism to ensure that we improve our lakes and sea beaches for the country's development and the ministry is working on the instructions and a new directorate to regulate beach tourism will be formed soon," Majaliwa told the National Assembly in the capital Dodoma.
Majaliwa acknowledged that Tanzania was not doing well when it came to beach tourism despite the country's abundant lake and sea beaches.
The premier observed that beach tourism was doing much better in the Zanzibar archipelago than on mainland Tanzania.
He said the directorate will oversee the construction of luxury hotels and malls along beach areas to attract more tourists and investors.
He added that Tanzania has decided to come up with strong strategies to efficiently explore available opportunities in beach tourism to boost the national economy.
Tourism is the largest foreign exchange earner of Tanzania, contributing an average of 2 billion U.S. dollars annually, which is equivalent to 25 percent of all exchange earnings, according to the government data.
It also contributes to more than 17 percent of the national gross domestic product and creating more than 1.5 million jobs, 500,000 of which are direct.
A report released in June 2017 rated Tanzania's tourism industry as one of the fastest growing sectors in the country with figures showing a surge on tourist arrivals.
The 2016 International Visitors' Exit Survey Report indicated that the number of tourists who visited the country continued to rise.
The report was jointly compiled by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, the Bank of Tanzania, the National Bureau of Statistics, the Immigration Department and the Zanzibar Commission for Tourism.
The report showed that Tanzania hosted at least 1.2 million tourists in 2016, compared to 1.1 million in 2015, which was an increase of 12 percent.
The report showed revenues from the tourism industry have been increasing year after year with 2.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2016 against 1.9 billion dollars in 2015.
