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Promote tourism, actors told

Posted: Wednesday May 17, 2006 8:50 PM BT

By Sukhdev Chhatbar in Arusha

Tanzania's film producers and actors have been exhorted to portray the countryís images in their productions which could serve as source of expanding the tourism industry.

''Film making and tourism go hand in hand,'' stressed the director of the Tanzania Tourist Board(TTB), Mr Peter Mwenguo, when officially launching yesterday the global centennial celebrations for the legendary American film hero, John Wayne, to climax in Arusha on May 26, next year.

The American movie star produced a world-renowned film 'Hatari' which was shot at Momella, Arusha National Park in 1962.

This rollicking action-comedy proved to be one of his most charming and exhilarating adventures - and one of the last truly great films by Wayne. The story follows a group of professional big-game hunters through a single season, as they drive high-speed across the dusty African plains capturing wild animals for zoos and circuses around the world.

Clocking in at 159 minutes, this is said to be the longest film of Wayne. He died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979.

Mr Mwenguo said the Wayneis film brought a lot of fame to the country, where real animal shots and its location ìboosted the country is tourism flow.i
The American tourists, he explained, are now ranking second highest (around 60,000), to visit the country, out of the 612,000 visitors received last year. Tourism now accounts for 16 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), he explained and offering 140,000 direct jobs.

Film producers and actors, he said, have a very crucial and influential role to play in promoting Tanzania, which expects to attract one billion tourists in the next four years.

By hosting the international centennial celebrations, ''Tanzania shall have accorded respect to John Wayne, his family and to all those who worked with him to put Tanzania on the Hollywood map of the world,'' added Mr Mwenguo.

The occasion would attract 600 visitors, including those who participated in the Hatari film, top American actors, movie makers, celebraties and tourists, according to the TTB chief.

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