THE trouble with Tanzania’s tourism industry is that it is 80 per cent based on wildlife gazing game drives in the parks.
Even activities such as Mountain Climbing in this case scaling Kilimanjaro are usually treated as additional attraction after satisfactory trips to the Serengeti National Park or into the Ngorongoro Crater; “Next time we may return to climb Africa’s highest peak,” tourists are often quoted when bidding their guides, hosts or travel agents farewell at airports, shortly before departure.
Tanzania, of late, has been trying, with little success, to venture into other alternative attractions including cultural tourism based on the country’s 120 different ethnic communities, historical excursions (Bagamoyo, Kilwa and Zanzibar stone town) as well as beach safaris (Dar-es-Salaam, Zanzibar and Pemba).
Despite the attempts, Tourism sector keeps rolling back into ‘wildlife focused adventures’ usually pivoted up in the Northern circuit which boasts the magnificent Serengeti, spellbinding Ngorongoro, Tarangire as well as Lake Manyara (throw in Mount Kilimanjaro bonus for maximum effect).
Most wildlife Safaris are done in vehicles, precisely the all-terrain mechanical monsters, which means Japan’s leading automobile manufacturer, Toyota, through its Land-Cruiser marque is capitalizing heavily on the industry by selling fleets of Four-Wheel-Drive trucks to Tanzanian tour operators.
It has become an unwritten mandatory for all tour operators in Tanzania to deploy Four-Wheel Drive vehicles into the world on that many of the tracks criss-crossing the local game parks are unpaved, thus requiring more torque traction when the surfaces get either muddy or dusty.
The management of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area for instance, decided to make it a rule that no car will be allowed to venture into the crater unless it has the Four-Wheel Drivetrain for the required pull while ascending the steep walls of the caldera.
In short, driving a tour vehicle in Tanzania is one of the most challenging survival tasks in the country. Manoeuvring a heavy, elongated Land-Cruisers, Land-Rovers or Nissan-Safaris, along non-existent roads sometimes in claustrophobic fog and pounding rains is nothing short of driving a battle tank in war zone.
In fact, tour drivers have even renamed their working vehicles ‘War Buses,’ reflecting how daunting the job can be. Yet, as it turns out, these people are supposed to undertake the tough driving duty while at the same time playing safari guides to their tourist passengers.
So far, the drivers feel the arrangement is not fair to them. Fighting with both hands to keep the trucks on tracks while at the same time attempting to lift one arm pointing to an animal, tree or bird for the tourists to see, is hard enough and trying to shout so that the ones seated at back can hear is another herculean task.
It is also unfair to tourists on that they get half the value of their journeys, which entails sight-seeing as well as full length explanation about the fauna and flora along the safari, but the driver will be too busy wrestling with the wheel in front or not having loud enough voice to reach those seated in the rear.
When asked about this arrangement in which a driver also gets to serve as tour guide, the Vice-Chairman of the Tanzania Tour Guides Association (TTGA), Mr Halifa Msangi, was on view that this was ‘very wrong.’
“Not only that, serving two purposes is a heavy burden to drivers, but as it seems, tour operators only pay them for the driving task not for guiding,” he said adding that, even tourists will never get the value for their money in this way.
But when one is in dire need for a job, the last thing he will ever attempt to do is ask to be paid twice for the two tasks; in fact, investigations conducted around Arusha City, revealed that, there are some tour drivers (guides) who after being out of work for years, are even prepared to work for free, knowing tourists will eventually ‘tip’ them handsomely.
Mr Sirili Akko is the executive for Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO) who pointed out that the situation is the same worldwide; “Even in developed countries, like UK, the London City Tour bus driver also serves as guide.
“Tour operators in Tanzania only need to introduce tiny loudspeakers in their vehicle set-ups so that the driver many not strain to speak and visitors, regardless of their positions in the car, can still hear what is going on,” stated Mr Akko.
But as far as he is concerned, the arrangement on how an expedition is to be conducted, remains the mutual agreement between company owners and their respective drivers (guides).
There are over 5,000 tour companies operating in Tanzania, the majority are based in either Arusha or Kilimanjaro regions, making up the Northern Tourism Circuit which essentially gets over 80 per cent of the total tourists arrivals.
