Capitalizing on the recent visit of German president, Tanzania is aiming to attract more German tourists who are the big holiday spenders and strategic visitors, interested mostly in historical, cultural and heritage sites, other than wildlife safaris.

Germans are rated the highest spending holidaymakers visiting Tanzania every year and longer-staying visitors, with their number ranging between 58,000 and 60,000 between 2022 and mid-2023, with expectations to rise more.

It is estimated that about 60,000 tourists from Germany visit Tanzania every year, with expectations to increase after the recent visit of the Federal President Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier earlier in November.

Germans are big spenders among tourists visiting Tanzania per year by their longer stays and visits to most attractive sites compared to other leisure visitors who end up touring single sites, notably wildlife parks and beaches in Zanzibar.

Historical sites, local communities and cultural heritage sites are most attractive sites rated to make Germans the higher spender by longer stays.

Together with rich wildlife resources endowed with, Tanzania hold a number of historical and heritage sites of the German origin, mostly the old buildings with more than 100 years including government administrative blocks and churches.

The most attractive Tanzanian sites to Germans include the old German buildings, cultural heritage sites and Mount Kilimanjaro expeditions.

German government has been financing wildlife conservation programs, mostly in Serengeti eco-system and the Selous Game Reserve.

Germany is the third largest source of tourists visiting Tanzania every year after the United States of America (USA) and France. Data from the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) shows that about 60,000 Germans visited Tanzania’s prime tourist sites by mid this year (2023).

Ranked as Tanzania’s traditional partner, Germany is supporting wildlife conservation projects in southern Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve, Mahale Chimpanzee Tourist Park on the shores of Lake Tanganyika and Serengeti National Park in the northern Tanzania’s tourist circuit.

Leading wildlife parks in Tanzania have been established by German wildlife conservationists.

Serengeti ecosystem and the Selous Game Reserve, two of the biggest conserved wildlife parks in Africa, are key beneficiaries of German support on nature conservation in Tanzania up to this moment. These two parks are the biggest conserved wildlife sanctuaries in Africa.

Serengeti National Park, the oldest wildlife protected area in Tanzania was established in 1921 and later developed into a full national park through technical and financial support from the Frankfurt Zoological Society. The park was established by the famous German conservationist, the late Professor Bernhard Grzimek.

KILIFAIR Promotion Company is a newcomer from Germany in Tanzania’s tourism industry through exhibitions targeting to promote Tanzania, East Africa and rest of Africa, focusing to attract global tourists to Africa.

KILIFAIR stands as the youngest tourism exhibition entity to be established in East Africa, but, had succeeded in making a record-breaking event by attracting a magnitude number of tourism and travel trade stakeholders to Tanzania, East Africa and Africa through annual exhibitions of tourist products and services.

German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Tanzania earlier in November with a mission to strengthening German and Tanzania cooperation.

President Steinmeier was accompanied by a delegation of 12 business leaders from top German companies.