DAR ES SALAAM, (Xinhua) — App developers are playing an important role in promoting Tanzania’s tourist attractions.
Elias Patrick, 28, an app developer, led the development of three mobile games aimed at promoting the country’s local tourism by helping tourists to find the right information on tourist attractions and their locations.
Patrick told Xinhua in a recent interview at his modest residence in Kigamboni peninsular in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania, that he named the three mobile games — the Kilimanjaro Block Puzzle, the Serengeti Block Puzzle, the Tanzanite Crush — after the country’s leading tourist attractions — the Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, the endless Serengeti plains, as well as a rare blue gem only mined in northern Tanzania, respectively.
Patrick, who employed a team of six technicians working on a temporary basis, said he spent two months developing the mobile games before he released them in July 2022. These games are also intended to brush out misleading information about tourist attractions in Tanzania, he said.
Patrick has been doing website and app development before concentrating on making mobile games. He said his hobby is visiting different tourist destinations in Tanzania.
“I developed my ideas (of making mobile games) when I visited the Serengeti National Park and the Kilimanjaro Mountain,” he said, claiming that 80 percent of internet users are on games during free hours.
When asked how he sustained developing the mobile games, Patrick said he earned income through customer-tailored advertisements with various companies, including Google and Tanzania’s CRDB Bank Incorporation.
Patrick said his mobile games have received reviews from across the world with most people expressing excitement.
“Most of the people that reviewed my mobile games were excited when they learned that the games were made by a Tanzanian who uses his IT expertise to develop something useful for his country,” he said.
“I am developing a fourth mobile game for promoting local tourism in Tanzania’s Zanzibar that will be released next month,” said Patrick, who is also the chief executive officer (CEO) of online Swahili, and CEO and founder of Elly’s brand company which aims to produce technology products specifically in e-learning, tourism and agriculture. – Xinhua
