Big Five Explorer

Kenya plans to build an international airport at Taveta near the Tanzanian border, a move that could pose a challenge to the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA).

The new airport is aimed at taping the tourism potential in both Kenya and Tanzania and could substantially lessen dependency on international airports in Nairobi and Mombasa.

“The site has been secured at Taveta and construction will start anytime from next year,” Mutinda Mutiso, the Kenyan High Commissioner to Tanzania said here on Tuesday evening.

Speaking to business community members based here from both Kenya and Tanzania, the flamboyant Kenyan diplomat said the project would cost about Ksh10 billion and that it would be completed within two years.

He said the new airport would be located a short distance from Holili, the border post between the two countries along the Moshi-Voi-Mombasa highway.

Also to be constructed in the area is an inland port to handle the cargo traffic from Mombasa port to the hinterland and landlocked countries in the region.

Besides Kenya, the port handles cargo from or destined for northern Tanzania regions, especially Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions.

Ambassador Mutiso said the new airport is aimed to tap the tourism potential of south east Kenya and north east Tanzania which are endowed with various attractive sites for visitors.

These include Tsavo West and Amboseli game reserves in Kenya and Mt Kilimanjaro and newly elevated Mkomazi national park in Tanzania.

“We want to see the Taveta/Holili border region fully integrated for investments and business,” he said, adding that his country would upgrade the Mombasa-Taveta railway line to attract more traffic, especially to northern Tanzania.

Other transport infrastructures in the area lined up for upgrading include the Mombasa-Lunga Lunga road to the Tanzanian border and Horohoro-Tanga section in Tanzania.

The diplomat defended the new international airport for his country saying it would reduce the costs and inconveniences by tourists from abroad who had to change planes several times to reach the famous game sanctuaries in the area.

However, when pressed further on the critical need for the airport in the area that has two international airports at Mombasa and KIA, the Kenyan envoy admitted that their intention was to lessen dependency on the Moi International Airport in Mombasa.

Should the project go ahead, it is likely to impact negatively on KIA which had not been used to the optimum due to high landing and fuel charges which has resulted in less traffic than anticipated when it was constructed 40 years ago.

Officials of the Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (KADCO), a private company that runs the underutilised airport, could not be contacted on their mobile phones yesterday to comment on the matter.

However, a source familiar with the aviation industry wondered on the motive of having “an international airport” in the vicinity and hinted it could be aimed to pose more challenge to KIA which has not succeeded to beat Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi in handling tourists to northern Tanzania.

Currently the second largest airport in the country handles various international and regional aircrafts including the Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) and the Ethiopian Airlines.

However, its main traffic is with Nairobi’s JKIA where several flights land and take off each few hours mainly by Precision Air, a local airline presently under the management of Kenya Airways.

Source: The Citizen (http://thecitizen.co.tz/news/4-national-news/1061-kenya-to-build-international-airport-at-taveta-near-kia.html)

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete is up to see more Japanese tourists visiting his country through well-planned advertising campaigns in Japan through business and diplomatic channels.

The President said early this week that Japanese tourists have been coming to visit Tanzania, but in small numbers compared to other traditional tourist markets, while Tanzania has a lot of tourist attractions to offer to the Japanese folks.

Mr. Kikwete said in his farewell speech to the newly-appointed ambassador to Japan, Mrs. Salome Sojaona, that more efforts were needed to market Tanzania among Japanese people so as to attract them to visit this country as tourists.

The President said Tanzania has so many business opportunities needing to be advertised in Japan so as to pull in more Japanese business stakeholders and tourists.

He added that Japan is a big market for foreign products in which Tanzanian coffee has a good marketing presence.

Underscoring the need for more Japanese tourists in Tanzania, Mr. Kikwete told the newly-appointed ambassador to team up with other stakeholders to advertise Tanzania’s tourist attractions before the big Japanese outbound market.

Despite the good business link between Japan and Tanzania, the number of Japanese tourists calling in Tanzania’s premier attractions range between 3,800 to 5,000 per year.

Most Japanese tourists are mostly attracted to visit Mount Kilimanjaro, the wildlife, and scenery. Some are in favor of Tanzania’s rich cultural heritage including traditional festivals and historical sites.

Since 1998, Tanzania has been running tourism marketing in the key Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka. A number of pieces of literature on Tanzania’s tourist attractions were translated into the Japanese language for this purpose.

Tanzania boasts the three biggest lakes in Africa – Victoria, Tanganyika, and Nyasa – as well as Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak on the continent. Its 12 national parks, containing millions of wild animals, continue to be a strong draw.

In addition, the country’s 800 km stretch of pristine coastline along the Indian Ocean has been marked for beach tourism. The President has been encouraging more tourist hotel investors to develop the beaches and create more tourist business competition in East Africa.

Through marketing and publicity campaigns by the Tanzania Tourist Board, the number of international tourists to Tanzania has increased from 137,889 in 1989 to 627,327 in 1999, earning the country over US$733 million by the start of this millennium.

The number of visitors has so far shot up between 2000 and 2009, seeing Tanzania welcome 950,000 tourists with earnings of US$1.2 billion, as per last year’s estimates.

Tanzania is renowned for its national parks and reserves, such as the Serengeti in the north, the Selous in the southeast, and the beaches along its eastern coastline and on the Spice Island of Zanzibar.

Tanzania Tourist Board targets to make a record of 1 million tourists by the end of 2010 with earnings of US$1.5 billion.

Tanzania’s main markets are Britain, Germany, the United States, Italy, France, Spain, and the Scandinavian countries. Now, the targeted new markets are China, India, and Japan.

Until now, the US has been the leading source of tourists to Tanzania with a record of 60,000 American visitors in 2009, slightly more than Britain’s 56,000 the same year and Germany in third place with 45,000 visitors.

Source: eTurbo News (http://www.eturbonews.com/14886/tanzanian-president-campaigns-japanese-tourists)

Kenya and Tanzania on Sunday began a joint census in Amboseli to assess the impact recent prolonged drought had on wildlife.

The count is targeting large mammals and will cover the entire 6000 square kilometre Amboseli ecosystem, including the Amboseli National Park and the surrounding community ranches on the Kenyan and Tanzanian sides.

According to the Kenya Wildlife Society, the count will establish the ecosystem’s wildlife population size and distribution following the drought — the worst in many years. The result will be used for ecological balancing (increasing some species in areas their population is less and reducing others where they are in oversupply).

The exercise will also determine how the distribution and abundance of large carnivores relate to vegetation types and human activities, to help in regenerating vegetation and restoring habitats. “This year’s census is particularly crucial given that the park’s ecosystem was among the hardest hit by the recent prolonged drought which led to massive deaths of zebra, elephants, buffaloes and wildebeest as well as the local community’s livestock,” according to KWS.

The exercise will be performed by a technical team and experts who will carry out both ground and aerial survey in the area for five days. It comes at a time when KWS has sounded alarm bells over the decline of large carnivores in the country.

Specifically, lions are the most endangered. With their population declining by 100 every year, conservationists have warned that they may become extinct in the next two decades if the trend is not stopped.

The rhino and elephant are the other species whose fate is on the spot following a tussle between African countries on whether a ban on ivory trade should be extended. While Zambia and Tanzania want the ban lifted, Kenya and other African countries want it extended, fearing that such a move would be a set back to conservation.

The last aerial census in Amboseli was carried out in 2007, and since then, the region has experienced a series of droughts that have not only put pressure on humans and livestock but also on the wild population, increasing human-wildlife conflicts.

According to KWS, the Amboseli National Park remains a crucial dry season refuge for wildlife for the bigger ecosystem due to the availability of water. The park has the highest density of most species, hence its importance in the conservation efforts. The society has pumped in Sh3.2 million for the census, whose results will be released in March.

Source: Sunday Nation (http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/870588/-/vr4dhu/-/)

Tourism is a vital sector not only for Tanzania, but also the entire East African region. For a long time, the industry has contributed to the development of the region, being a key foreign exchange earner.

Besides bringing in the foreign cash, which these economies badly need, the industry also creates employment.

However, its impact would be felt even more if these countries pooled their resources and jointly marketed their attractions. So far, each country has been going it alone, and yet they have tourism products that if sold together would be a marvelous attraction to the foreign visitors.

There are a lot of advantages the region can realise if it comes up with a coordinated policy in some or all the aspects connected with the industry. One of these is having a single visa for all the five countries – Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

As the region forges closer ties, having a common market, joint tourism promotion is the way to go. And a single visa will go a long way in easing travel arrangements for those intending to visit one or all of the member countries of the East African Community (EAC).

We are, therefore, happy to learn that consultations are going on to have a single tourist visa for all EAC member countries. We are told this will be the first step in efforts to harmonise tourist policies and laws.

Efforts to boost the tourism in the region should be encouraged. A single visa will save potential tourists time and the agony of having to hop from one embassy to another to apply for different visas to come to East Africa.

They should be able to obtain this one document and visit and sample the diverse tourism attractions in the five countries.

Such an arrangement will definitely lead to an increase in the number of tourists to the region. This effort should be speeded up so that the benefits can be realised as soon as possible.

Source: eTurbo News (http://www.eturbonews.com/14464/tanzania-single-east-africa-tourist-visa-great-idea)

President Jakaya Kikwete over the weekend led thousands of Tanzanians in the launch of a nationwide campaign against malaria called �Malaria Haikubaliki, Zinduka,� at Leaders Club, Dar es Salaam.

In his address to the large audience that turned up for inauguration, the president said Tanzanians have every reason to defeat malaria since it is preventable and treatable.

�This is a campaign that we must win because we have the will, cause and the ability to do it,� said the president.

To ensure the objective of the campaign is achieved the President urged the public to use mosquito nets and to seek treatment each time they are ill.

The drive focuses on prevention of mosquitoes and distribution of treated bed nets to families and spraying of breeding grounds.
The launch featured great performances by various Bongo Flava artistes including Banana Zorro, Prof Jay, Joh Makini, Mwasiti, veteran Bi Kidude, Lady and Jay Dee among others.

The artistes led by the campaign�s spokesperson Lady Jay Dee have composed called Zinduka which was also performed for the first time.

If successful, Zinduka (wakeup) campaign will make Tanzania the first African country to achieve universal access to mosquito nets and affordable treatment to all its citizens.

The national campaign is anchored at the community and house hold level by community mobilization activities implemented by PSI-Tanzania, John Hopkins University and District Advocacy activities led by Voices II.

The new effort follows an earlier campaign which was launched in 2008 during US President George Bush�s visit to Tanzania called the Roll Back Campaign.

During this campaign, the American government pledged to aid the Tanzanian health sector with 5.2 million nets which were to be manufactured locally by A to Z textile mills.

This campaign comes in the wake of statistics that indicate that 93.7 per cent of the population is at risk of being infected by malaria.

The statistics also note that malaria cases per year now ranges between 14 and 18 million people accounting for over 100,000 deaths countrywide (1.2 million in Africa) with pregnant women and children under five being the most vulnerable.

A similar awareness and community mobilisation programmes was conducted three years ago codenamed “KATAA Malaria” campaign, supported by the United States Agency for International Development, USAID.

According to available statistics, sustained control campaigns, malaria parasite diagnosis and the use of mosquito nets has almost rid Zanzibar of malaria.

The IRS (Indoor Residual Spraying) took two months, targeting Unguja and Pemba, the two main islands that make up Zanzibar, along with nine other smaller islands.

Health officials in Zanzibar predict a drastic drop in the number of malaria cases on the island after a successful mosquito control campaign. This is after the Zanzibar’s Malaria Control Programme (ZMCP), met the 90-percent coverage of the area targeted for residual spraying in the 54-day programme.

During the campaign over 199,344 households out of an initial estimated target of 216,876 were sprayed with the lambda-cyhalothrin chemical during the Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) effort to control mosquito breeding.

Malaria Haikubaliki is a Ministry of Health project supported by Roll Back Malaria Partnership, Malaria No More, Tanzania Red Cross United against Malaria, Meda and World Vision and the US president�s Malaria initiative.

Source: The Citizen (http://thecitizen.co.tz/newe.php?id=17381)