1.4mn tourists visit Tanzania in 2021

Dar es Salaam, Jan 2 Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said that 1.4 million tourists visited the east African nation in 2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic that hugely affected the tourism industry.

In her message to welcome the New Year, President Hassan said only 620,867 tourists visited the country in 2020, the year that the pandemic was first reported in Tanzania and in several other countries across the world, reports Xinhua news agency.

"In 2021, there was an increase of 779,133 tourists who visited Tanzania," she said in her address televised live by the state-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation.

"Our expectations are that the tourism industry will continue to flourish in 2022 and beyond," she said.