Unfortunately there’s probably no way to get this to import unless you make it into something like a lyric. Because MusicXML doesn’t have a very strong semantic way of describing text items, Dorico has to basically try to parse out other types of items from the directions in the MusicXML document, but when it fails to parse it as a tempo, or a dynamic, it throws it away. We have certainly talked about changing this, but for the time being there’s nothing else you can do to persuade Dorico to import it.
Thanks for the answer Daniel. That’s a real shame IMO. I might be unaware of some of the implications of this but I still don’t understand why it would be thrown away. It’s not just random words tags we’re talking about here, rather it’s a , expressed in . Seems pretty clear that this is something that should be displayed in the score along with “dolce” or other standard directions. Best, Michael
BTW dare I mention that Finale imports such directions?
I agree it would definitely be preferable for it to be imported, and as I indicated, it is something we are considering for a future version.
I’m still trying to find a workaround for this and so tried the fingering xml tag. The file is imported without errors but sadly the fingering is not displayed 
Best, Michael