Newly accredited, Saudi appointed Ambassador to the United Republic of Tanzania, Mr. Yahya bin Ahmed Akish, has expressed commitment to encourage investors from Saudi Arabia to invest in Tanzania’s tourism sector, taking advantage of the current diplomatic relations between the two nations and conducive business environment in Tanzania.
The major goal of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was to see the number of visitors growing from the present 18 million to 100 million by 2030. To aid in that movement, Saudi Arabia Airlines launched direct flights from Jeddah to Dar es Salaam, which will see more people from the Kingdom visiting Tanzania.
The Saudi Ambassador expressed his country’s position on tourism cooperation with other countries in the world after visiting the Swahili International Tourism Expo (SITE) 2023 which closed its doors last Sunday.
The Saudi Arabian Ambassador said that Tanzania can attract a large number of investors from Saudi Arabia.
While currently Saudi Arabia does not have any tourism investment in Tanzania, plans are to encourage its investors to come visit and then invest there.
Saudia Airlines, the national flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, participated in SITE to showcase its flight between Jeddah, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, and other cities in Africa. The airline launched its first direct flight to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania in March of this year after announcing the operational plans to fly to 25 new international destinations on 3 continents around the world. Launching of its scheduled flights to Tanzania was part of the airline’s strategic plans of bringing the world to the Kingdom, while making optimal use of the new aircraft that will be added to its operations.
Saudi Arabia also envisions seeing tourism employing many youths from the Kingdom.
SITE Event Grows
Kicked off last Friday, the 7th edition of SITE was held in Tanzania’s commercial city of Dar-es-Salaam. The 3-day event attracted global tourism, travel trade and hospitality industry players to showcase their products and services provided to their clients. Most participating companies at the annual exhibition were from the East African Community (EAC), Southern Africa, United States of America, United Kingdom, the Middle East, and India.
Established in 2014, the SITE event is Tanzania’s annual tourism exhibition which is targeting to grow into Africa’s top tourism business gathering event compared to the continent’s other leading travel and tourism fairs. Said the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) Director General, Mr. Damas Mfugale, “SITE is becoming among the leading annual travel and tourism fairs in Africa.”
Branded with “Responsible Tourism for Inclusive Growth,” the expo attracted over 200 exhibitors from the tourism industry as well as 150 international buyers. Other hosted buyers and exhibitors hailed from Canada, Brazil, South Africa, Spain, Poland, India, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Canada, Turkey, Kenya, Russia, Czech Republic, and China, among other nations.
(eTN): Saudi Arabia – Tanzania Tourism Cooperation: A Confident Building Approach | re-post license | post content
