Renowned as the cradle of mankind, East Africa has always ranked among Africa’s top tourist destinations.

Combined, the five East African states — Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi — boast of rich and varied tourist attractions.

Talk of beach holidays at the Coast, the big five animals, cultural displays, the snow-capped peaks of Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya, mountain gorillas in Rwanda and magnificent waterfalls in Uganda. Even for lovers of dark tourism, the Gisozi Genocide Memorial Centre in Kigali now offers an opportunity for those who want to recall the events of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, Africa’s worst genocide in modern times.

Tourists at Maasai Mara. Photo: File/Standard

But it is ironical that despite the great endowment of all the tourism resources, East Africa continues to trail its continental counterparts in tourism earnings and tourism destination ranking.

Mauritius, Tunisia, South Africa and Egypt have a consistently remained at the top.

They have reputation as premier destinations for both business and pleasure-based tourism in Africa. South Africa currently hosts about 23 per cent of Africa’s business tourism meetings.

Most competitive

According to the 2009 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), only Kenya and Tanzania make it to the top 10 Africa’s most competitive countries for travel and tourism. The two are ranked ninth and tenth respectively. They trail Mauritius, Tunisia, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Botswana, Namibia and Gambia, in that order. The two were ranked 97th and 98th in the world respectively.

This begs the question: What is the missing link as far as the region’s tourism is concerned, and where does the solution lie?

Prof Mauri Yambo, a lecturer in Tourism at the University of Nairobi, says East Africa has a hill to climb before it closes in on the leading pack in African tourism.

“South Africa has become a leading destination because of high-profile marketing and its advanced infrastructure and facilities,” explains Yambo.

He says Egypt has also used proper marketing and state-of-the-art facilities to complement its famed pyramids, deserts and beaches.

“East African countries have failed to market themselves properly and put in place the desired infrastructure and services,” Yambo states.

But desperate for a solution, East African nations have agreed on a plan to jointly market the region as a single tourist destination. The move aims at maximising the benefits of tourism and wildlife in the region as stipulated in the treaty for the establishment of the East African Community.

Negotiations on a common market protocol are at an advanced stage and upon completion, the road map to adopt free movement of people, goods and services will be agreed upon. This will give the region clear the way for a common tourist visa.

Partner states will also have a common code of conduct for private and public tour and travel operators, and harmonise the professional standards of agents in the tourism and travel industry within the community.

Mobilise resources

East African Tourism and Wildlife Co-ordination Agency will be mandated to mobilise resources and co-ordinate tourism bodies of the partner states. It will harmonise required policies to brand the region as a powerful tourist destination.

Under the plan, classification of hotels and restaurants within the region will be standardised. A hotel that passes for a five-star in Burundi will from January have similar quality of service and facilities as any other under the same ranking in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania or Uganda.

Each country will operate under its own budget but when going for trade fairs abroad, they will operate under one roof. In this regard the countries will continue to compete and co-operate with each other, a move aimed at bringing out quality and efficiency.

According to Tourism Minister Najib Balala, this could be the start of a new era in the region’s tourism.

“Our determination to market EAC as a single tourist destination will help us to counter the immense global competition in the tourism industry,” the minister notes.

But Yambo is pessimistic about the idea. He says although it looks simple on paper, it is difficult to implement.

“It will be very hard to have a confederation of sovereign countries with different budgets and different tourist attractions. Unless we have one government with one Treasury, such things are not going to happen soon,” Yambo says.

The tourism expert says Kenya has been unable to adequately address Tanzanians’ concerns over its business dominance.

But he notes a common visa will no doubt increase the number of tourists to the region. The visa will allow a foreign tourist to tour attractions in two or more East African countries under one visa.

Currently, a foreigner has to apply for a visa at every entry point and this has financial constraints on tourists.

Mr Mwangi Gakunga, the public relations officer at the Ministry of Tourism, says immigration offices are already being opened within cross-border national parks to spare tourists the hustle of travelling all the way to administrative towns for travel documents.

Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, has abandoned an attempt to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro after collapsing more than 4,000ft from the summit.

The 43-year-old was carried to safety after experiencing breathing problems during a failed attempt to ascend the mountain in Tanzania last week.

He had invited a group of six friends to scale the 19,330ft summit, but the expedition had to be cancelled at 15,100ft.

In March, Cheryl Cole, the X Factor judge, Chris Moyles, the radio DJ, and other celebrities climbed the mountain and raised £1.4m for Comic Relief.

Mr Abramovich’s group tackled the western breach, which is the most difficult approach.

The party, who flew in on the oligarch’s private Boeing 767, took with them 113 porters, the Sunday Times reported.

It was reported that Guus Hiddink, Chelsea’s interim manager last season, was among the group.

Mr Abramovich succumbed to what appeared to have been symptoms of altitude sickness and needed medical attention.

Pascal Shelutete, a spokesman for the Tanzania National Parks Authority, told the newspaper: “We were not given a reason for his failure to reach the peak, but there are reports from his team that he developed some breathing problems.”

Source: Daily Telegraph