Tanzania is working overtime, rolling out the red carpet for nearly 90 million Asian tourists expected to travel abroad in 2011 and spend a staggering US$86 billion.

Tanzania, the second East African economic powerhouse after Kenya, has already launched a new tourism promotion blitz dubbed - "think Asia" with an eye to diversify its tourist sources.

Last week, the state recalled its high commissioners from Japan, China, Malaysia, India, and Russia to brainstorm over comprehensive approach to promote Tanzania's tourist attractions in Asia, the biggest emerging travel and tourism market.

The recalled envoys include Omar Ramadhan Mapuri who represents Tanzania in China, Salome Sijaona (Japan), Cisco Mtiro (Malaysia), and John Kijazi (India), as well as Mr. Julius Mjema, an officer from the Tanzanian Embassy in Russia.

The Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB), the state-run marketing agency said that it has resolved to diversify its tourist market from the long-established sources of western countries and a few African counterparts.

Tanzania’s traditional tourist sources are Britain, Germany, the United States, Italy, France, Spain, and the Scandinavian countries.It also receives a sizeable number of tourists from South Africa and Kenya.

“We are now generously throwing our gates open for Indians, Chinese, and Japanese tourists. In a bid to woo them, we must use our envoys to promote our attractions there,” TTB Managing Director, Dr. Aloyce Nzuki, told eTurboNews at the Serengeti National Park, shortly after their three-day indoor talks with ambassadors.

Allan Kijazi, the Director of Planning and Tourism Services for Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA), said the "think Asia" strategy is targeting to tap at least 50,000 travelers out of 89 million Asian tourists expected to travel abroad this year.

Nearly 80 percent of all tourist arrivals in Tanzania are either from the US or Europe, said Mr. Kijazi, adding that it was risky to rely on just two foreign exchange sources, particularly during the turbulence.

"Asian countries are set to become the next big economies in the world. It is high time we started tapping such markets in order to diversify our tourist sources," said Mr. Kijazi.

 “China remains Asia's largest source of outbound tourists, as the number of outbound travelers continues to soar,” said Dai Bin, head of the academy in the report.

According to the latest release from CNTA i.e. China National Tourism Administration the outbound departures from China reached over 57.39 million in 2010 with a year-on-year growth of about 20%. With the higher than expected bookings for overseas travel during the forthcoming Chinese New Year CNTA predicts outbound travel from China would increase 16% to 65 million in 2011, while overseas spending would jump further 14% to $55 billion.

The report, the Blue Book of China's Tourism Economy (2010-2011), said the travel boom will send 3 million more Chinese travelers abroad in 2011 than last year, with a larger amount of outbound tourist spending.

The flourishing outbound tourism market is sending the wealth of China's well-heeled tourists beyond the country's borders.