Tanzania’s full-year official figures show that international arrivals for 2022 were at over 95% of those recorded before the pandemic.

According to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the number of foreign tourists who visited Tanzania last year increased to 1.45 million, up by 57.7% from the 922 692 recorded in 2021. More impressively, the figure is just 4.7% lower than the 1.53m international arrivals received in 2019.

The Bank of Tanzania also reported travel receipt earnings of US$2.56 billion in 2022, almost double the $1.3bn recorded in 2021 and just surpassing the $2.53bn recorded in 2019. The tourism and hospitality sectors are crucial for the generation of foreign exchange earnings for Tanzania, contributing about 53.6% of the total services receipts for the country, which amounted to $4.77bn in 2022.

Daniel Masolwa, NBS Acting Director for Economic Statistics, attributed the impressive rise in tourist numbers to a cleared backlog of deferred bookings, relaxed COVID restrictions and marketing drives initiated by the sector.