Build roads to promote tourism - players

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Ray Naluyaga, The Citizen Bureau Chief

Mwanza. Investors in the hospitality industry are happy with President Jakaya Kikwete’s creation of the ministry of Works.

They say since the ministry will be involved in developing roads and airports, more investors will be attracted in the Lake Zone.

One of them, Mr Manoj Mehta, told The Citizen during the first anniversary of Malaika Beach Resort (photo), the only five-star hotel in the Lake Zone, that lack of a reliable airport had been an obstacle to the growth of tourism.

Mr Mehta, who is the resort’s managing director, said the tapping of enormous economic potential of Mwanza would require the improvement of infrastructure.

“There is no easiest way of exposing the enormous tourism and hotel industry this region can now offer if the airport isn’t developed,” he said.

Built on the shores of Lake Victoria at a cost of Sh4 billion, Malaika Beach Resort is wholly owned by locals. It has 100 employees - 97 per cent of them Tanzanians.

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Photo by Hans Kristoffersen (Copyright 2010)