Govt warns hotel owners over poor treatment to locals

By  Florence Mugarula,The Citizen Reporter

Posted  Wednesday, December 11  2013 

In Summary

He urged local tourists to report to relevant authorities if they will be mistreated or segregated when seeking services at tourist hotels or lodges so that actions will be taken against the owners.

Dodoma. Owners of tourist hotels and lodges in the country have been warned to avoid segregating local customers on the bases of economic income and instead all should be attended equally.

The deputy minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Lazaro Nyalandu, told Parliament yesterday that his ministry has been receiving complaints from various local customers over poor attention they get from tourist hotels and lodges in the country.

Mr Nyalandu was responding to question by Rev Peter Msigwa (Iringa Urban-Chadema) who wanted to know measures taken by the government to address the problem.

Rev Msigwa, who is also the Shadow minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, said in many of tourist hotels and lodges in the country, customer services for the locals were poor while owners and hotel workers were busy offering high quality services to foreigners.

According to the MP, in order for the government to promote domestic tourism, there must be improvement in the quality of services offered by tourist accommodation facilities.

In his response, Mr Nyalandu said his ministry has been addressing the problem, saying warnings were issued to tourist hotel owners to attend customers equally.

“Every person has the right to go and get quality services in any hotel or lodge no matter whether he is a foreign or local tourist. Racial segregation has no place in the country,” said Mr Nyalandu.

He urged local tourists to report to relevant authorities if they will be mistreated or segregated when seeking services at tourist hotels or lodges so that actions will be taken against the owners.

Meanwhile, the deputy minister told Parliament that the Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa) has already announced tenders for Mikumi Tourism Hotel, which was closed following misunderstandings between the hotel management and the government.

According to Mr Nyalandu, the matter has sinc been sorted out and the facility was returned to Tanapa.