Tanzania will use a government digital booking platform, Destination Tanzania, to sell tourism services to football fans visiting the country for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), as it seeks to turn the tournament into a source of additional tourism revenue.

The platform, at destinationtanzania.tz, will allow visitors to book and purchase tourism services, including trips to the country’s attractions during the tournament, Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Hamad Hassan Chande told Parliament in Dodoma on October 27, Daily News reported.

Chande was responding to a question from Special Seats MP Shadya Omari on how Tanzania planned to use its role as an AFCON host to promote tourism. He did not give a launch date for the booking features, visitor targets or expected revenue.

Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Ashatu Kijaji told Parliament in May that the tournament was expected to draw about 1.8mn stadium spectators and a global television audience of 1.9bn, and was projected to generate economic benefits of more than $2bn, ATQ News reported. The report did not say whether that estimate covered Tanzania alone or all three hosts, or how it was calculated.

Tanzania co-hosts the tournament with Kenya and Uganda from June 19 to July 17, 2027, the first AFCON staged across three countries, according to dates confirmed by the Confederation of African Football in May.

Preparations are under way. Neema Msitha, chief executive of Tanzania’s AFCON 2027 Local Organising Committee, said in early October that the country’s stadiums were on average more than 80% complete and were due to be handed over to CAF in January, Al Jazeera reported. Dar es Salaam’s Benjamin Mkapa Stadium was among the venues inspected by CAF in September.

Tourism is one of Tanzania’s largest sources of foreign exchange. Earnings rose to about $4.41bn in 2025 from $3.90bn a year earlier, while international arrivals increased 7.1% to 2.29mn, according to the International Visitors’ Exit Survey, Daily News reported in July. Spending per visitor per night on the mainland rose 19.1% to $289, although average stays shortened by one night to nine, according to TanzaniaInvest, citing the same survey.

The market remains dominated by long-haul visitors: the US, Italy and France were the mainland’s three largest source markets, with Kenya, in fourth place at 6.4% of arrivals, the only African country in the top five. The sector contributed about 17% of GDP, and the government aims to raise that share to 20% by 2030, when it targets 8mn tourist arrivals, according to the tourism ministry’s 2026/27 budget, TanzaniaInvest reported.

The sector also received a lift this month from Washington. On October 16, the US lowered its travel advisory for Tanzania to Level 2, “Exercise Increased Caution”, from Level 3, “Reconsider Travel”, the African Travel and Tourism Association reported, linking the earlier rating to the disputed 2025 general election. The Mtwara region bordering Mozambique remains at Level 3.

The most recent edition offers a benchmark. Morocco, which hosted AFCON 2025 from December 2025 to January 2026, received nearly 600,000 foreign visitors who travelled specifically for the tournament and earned more than €1.5bn in direct revenue against €2.3bn invested in infrastructure, Industry Minister Ryad Mezzour said, Morocco World News reported. Morocco, however, already receives about 20mn tourists a year, almost nine times Tanzania’s international arrivals.