It Is Faster For Passenger To Fly Through Europe Than Use An African Airport, Why?

Sub-Saharan Africa remains, on aggregate, the region where Travel & Tourism competitiveness is the least developed. Although regional performance has increased, it has improved less compared to other parts of the world.

Southern Africa remains the strongest sub-region, followed by Eastern Africa and then Western Africa. Yet, on average, Eastern Africa is the most improved region, while Southern Africa has experienced a slight decline.

Considering the size and the rich cultural and natural resources, the 29 million tourists visiting the continent in 2015 is low. From a business perspective, the untapped potential of the region could be an opportunity with expected returns potentially higher than other already mature destinations.

Still, a number of conditions need to be in place to grow tourism, including the expansion of an African middle class. Despite sustained economic growth in the past decade, Africa has not seen the same kind of income increases enjoyed by Asian households. As a consequence, only a fraction of African people can afford to travel.

While tourism in Europe and, more recently, Asia has been fuelled by intra-regional travel, data reveals that, on average, African tourists spend a tenth of what an overseas tourist would spend.

Air connectivity and travel cost are challenges linked to the regulatory framework. Although most African nations have signed onto the 1988 Yamoussoukro Declaration in an effort to reach a multilateral “open skies” agreement, almost thirty years later, air travel remains inefficient throughout the region.

Stifled by concerns about different levels of development, protectionist fears linked to their national carriers, conflicts with competition regulations and lack of dispute settlement mechanism, mean that, to date, it is still difficult for any company to fly to new destinations.

Airlines regularly need to lobby their governments to negotiate a bilateral treaty with the destination country, which can be a lengthy process. As a result, there is little competition and little connectivity. In fact, in some cases, it is faster for a passenger to fly through Europe rather than use an African hub.

The lack of competition in turn impacts the costs of tickets and airport and landing charges. Twenty of the 30 Sub-Saharan countries covered by the Report apply ticket taxes and airport charges above the world average.

The countries that have been more active in signing bilateral agreements Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa have been able to create strong state owned carriers. Some countries in West Africa rely on privately owned companies, while all other African countries still maintain unprofitable, inefficient and insecure publicly owned national companies.

Recently, the five countries with strong national carriers, private operators and small state-owned operators committed to a Single African Air Transport Market that should enter into force by the end of 2017. Air transport in particular, and transport infrastructure generally, remain, to date, the biggest challenges for travel & tourism development in Africa.

The lack in significant improvement in the use of natural resources is also hindering Africa’s T&T competitiveness. While tourism in the region is mainly driven by natural tourism, there is ample room for improvement in protecting, valuing and communicating cultural richness.

In several African countries, there are numerous cultural sites and intangible expressions that could be better leveraged and combined with the rich natural capital available; only South Africa performs above the world average. Natural resources are also unevenly protected, despite the importance of protecting the environment for African economies.

On average, environmental performance is positive, but deforestation and habitat loss are becoming problematic in some countries. Ten African countries have lost at least 7% of their forests compared to 2000.

Lack of international openness is a further area that requires policy attention at the regional level. In addition to open-skies policies, in many cases visa policies are still very restrictive, especially in West Africa.

While regional analysis highlights some of the common trends, shared strengths and weaknesses, there are, as always, large variations at the country level. Compared to the 2015 edition of the TTCI, Tanzania, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon and Mozambique have all achieved a stronger performance, while Namibia and South Africa have lost some ground.

South Africa still leads the regional ranking, taking the 53rd place globally, though the country slipped 5 places since 2015. It continues to rely on cultural resources (19th), strong natural resources (23rd), and a conducive business environment (21st), characterized by minimal red tape and modest administrative burden.

Although the labour market remains inefficient (118th), there has been some progress in this area: it ranked 135th two years ago. The country has also improved price competitiveness (43rd) by reducing tickets charges, taxes and hotel prices. Despite these improvements, South Africa’s tourism competitiveness has deteriorated on two elements—safety and security (120th) and environmental sustainability (117th).

Fears of terrorism and an increased sense of insecurity related to crime make tourists less light-hearted about travelling in the country. With 33 homicides per 100,000 people, South Africa has one of the worst homicide rates in the index, ranking 131st.

With respect to environmental sustainability, deforestation and loss of habitat have proceeded at a rapid rate since 2000. The global interest and demand for South Africa’s natural resources is increasing, but insufficient habitat preservation could prevent the country from benefitting from this growing source of tourist attraction.

Another aspect that has contributed to a lower performance for South Africa this year is the reduced efforts made by the government to support the sector (59th). Although spending has remained unchanged, marketing campaigns have been perceived as effective (40th). To foster its tourism sector, South Africa could also implement more open visa policies (71st) and service trade agreements (91st).

Namibia is the 4th most T&T competitive nation in Sub-Saharan Africa, taking the 82nd place globally. Namibia’s natural resources (40th), its business environment (38th), air transportation (58th) and price competitiveness (30th) sustain Namibia’s competitiveness as the country slowly continues to increase international arrivals.

Nonetheless, Namibia loses 12 positions this year, resulting partially from statistical adjustments such as the inclusion of previously unavailable deforestation figures, which have significantly reduced the sustainability performance of the country.

Despite these adjustments, which make comparison more challenging, Namibia has lost a considerable portion of its forest since the early 2000s (127th) and its water resources have deteriorated.

Similarly, the re-assessment of car rental services (72nd) and the diffusion of ATMs have resulted in a lower performance of Namibia’s tourism service infrastructure (73rd). Beyond these changes, Namibia still needs to improve its health and hygiene (117th) and under-appreciated cultural resources (127th), and renew focus on its inadequately qualified human resources (106th), which remain the main bottlenecks toward a faster development of the T&T sector in the country.

Tanzania ranks 91st in 2017. It is home to one of the most impressive concentration of natural resources (8th) and wildlife globally, with its rich variety of landscapes, ranging from Mt. Kilimanjaro to its coastline and Zanzibar.

Yet international arrivals have flattened since 2012, when the country welcomed 1 million international visitors. Tanzania is a price-competitive destination (34th) where the government plays an active role in promoting the T&T sector (45th). Still, there is enormous untapped potential.

Cultural resources (86th) could be nurtured to better complement the natural and safari tourism offer. While there has been some progress in the country’s infrastructure, particularly air (106th, up 10 places) and ground transport (102nd, up 18 places), it remains largely underdeveloped.

Tourism service infrastructure (103rd) and, specifically, the hotel reception capacity, remain low (119th). Despite some improvements, Tanzania’s business environment (102nd) is still characterized by slow and costly processes to start a business or obtain construction permits.

Health and hygiene conditions (125th) are also improving very slowly. Similarly, the uptake of ICTs technologies is proceeding at a slower pace than in other countries (121st), with a particularly low increase in mobile broadband subscriptions. Despite its immense potential, Tanzania still has important gaps to fill to fully leverage the T&T sector as a mean to increase its living conditions.

Côte d’Ivoire ranks 109th on the index, rising eight places, which is an increase of almost 4%. International tourists’ arrivals increased from 380,000 in 2013 to 1.4 million in 2015, and the country has bettered its scores on nine of the 14 pillars, with a remarkable improvement in international openness (94th) since implementing a visa liberalization policy.

Although starting from a low level, Côte d’Ivoire has increased the level of its qualified labour force (122nd, up 16 places), and improved its safety and security (96th) as well as its ICT readiness (104th). Despite this directional improvement, the T&T sector is not yet very well developed.

Air transportation is still sub-optimal (91st), the offer of tourism services remains limited (101st) and the cultural resources, despite a significant influx of business tourism, are not strongly valued (120th). Health and hygiene conditions also contribute to the lower appeal of the country (134th), with a high incidence of malaria and HIV.

To continue attracting more tourists, the country needs to develop a better offer, and should try to improve on health and hygiene, infrastructure and human resources. Price competitiveness should also be monitored; Côte d’Ivoire has become more expensive to visit this year due to increased airport and taxes charges.

Mozambique improves considerably, rising 8 places, and ranking 122nd. The strengths of Mozambique’s T&T competitiveness continue to be its natural resources and its very open visa policy (8th). This year, the country rose in the rankings through improvements in ICT readiness (123rd, up 11 places), resulting from increased mobile phone usage, by reducing taxes and charges on air transport, and by placing more value on its natural resources.

Although there is still no natural site on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, Mozambique has slightly increased the surface of protected areas and has managed to improve the awareness of its outstanding natural resources (73rd), ranging from safari parks to pristine beaches and islands.

The country’s environmental sustainability is positive (64th) and the amount of threatened species is low. However, there are looming sustainability risks, including the lack of water treatment systems and deforestation, resulting from illegal logging.

Despite the climb in the ranking this year, the tourism potential in Mozambique remains largely untapped. Infrastructure (121st), human resources (129th), and health and hygiene conditions (136th) are all factors that require significant investments and would generate substantial returns for the tourism sector, but also for the country’s overall competitiveness and productivity.

TANZANIA: Why Visit Tanzania

The following are some of the reasons in brief:

• Magnificent Wildlife – Tanzania is the best country in the world in terms of high quality Game, numbers and variety.

• Wonderful scenic beauty ranging from the Great Rift Valley to the seemingly endless plains of the Serengeti.

• The biggest unbroken crater in the world – Ngorongoro Crater.

• The tallest free-standing mountain in the world – Mt. Kilimanjaro .

• The Biggest fresh-water lake in Africa and the third biggest in the world. It is also the source of River Nile – Lake Victoria .

• The longest and deepest Lake in the world – Lake Tanganyika

• The biggest Game Reserve in the world – Selous Game Reserve.

• Rich culture including some of the proudest people in Africa – Maasai. Hunter-gatherers near Lake Eyasi and the countless farming communities.

• A haven for Bird watchers with over 500 different species. Terrestrial, flying and migrant birds are in abundance. Some migrate from as far as Europe to Tanzania during different seasons.

• Wilderness Trekking through areas of amazing natural beauty accompanied by local guides lasting between 1 to 7 days.

• Mountain climbing to the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro .

• Sun-bathing on the white beaches of the Spice Island of Zanzibar.

• Aquatic activities including snorkeling and diving in some of the most beautiful diving sites in the world off the coast of Zanzibar , Mafia & Pemba Islands .

• Tanzania is a Peaceful country admired by everyone for its moderate policies and a stable form of governance.

• Humble smiling people always happy to welcome visitors.

• Easily accessed by various International Airlines. These airlines are:

Kenya Airways – Daily Flights,
KLM- Daily Flights,
British Airways – 4 times a week,
Ethiopian Airlines – Daily Flights, etc

Campi ya Kanzi

Much has been written here in the past about the concept of Campi ya Kanzi, which is located in the Chyulu Hills and offers spectacular views across the plains below all the way to Mt. Kilimanjaro.

A pioneering community-owned safari camp is working to protect both wild animals and the Maasai way of life.

Campi ya Kanzi is an award-winning boutique ecolodge in the Chyulu Hills of southern Kenya. This “Camp of the Hidden Treasure” is the only safari lodge on a Maasai-owned reserve spanning 283,000 acres of pristine wilderness.

Mount Kilimanjaro and Ernest Hemingway’s “Green Hills of Africa” form a stunning backdrop for inspiring and sustainable safari experiences. Campi ya Kanzi offers luxurious comfort, thrilling outdoor adventure, memorable wildlife encounters, and authentic connection to the Maasai people.

Moreover, it leverages the benefits of tourism to protect the local environment and to preserve the Maasai culture. This is where safari dreams come true.

Pashiet Lakina was a young warrior of 22 when he speared the lioness. Although it is a quarter of a century ago now, he can still taste the fear and the exultation. He raises his spear to re-enact the scene. “The lion was this close,” he says, lunging within a

his spear to re-enact the scene. “The lion was this close,” he says, lunging within a few feet of an imaginary predator in the waist-high, sun-yellowed grassland. “The spear went through the shoulder, then through the belly.”

With his muscular arms and trunk-like torso, Pashiet, now 47, still cuts an impressive figure in his beaded jewellery and red Maasai robes. Even now he carries a spear, which he slams into the earth with a dull thud each time we stop to take in the views of the vast savannah, with Kilimanjaro, an imposing wall of mountain, rearing up to the south. Closer by are the gentler Chyulu Hills, moulded by a volcanic eruption a few hundred years ago and now a forested retreat for elephants. Insects thrum and ants scuttle over the blackened thorns of the whistling acacia bushes.

Twenty-five years before, the wounded lioness had lurched off into these same grasslands. “I followed it with my brother and eventually we found it dead, bleeding,” says Pashiet. “People celebrated. We cut off the tail and went to each village so everyone could see you were a strong, brave man.”

Why did he kill the lion, I ask of a man who now spends much of his time persuading fellow Maasai to forgo that ultimate test of manhood. “The lion tried to charge my cows,” he says. “It is shameful for a Maasai if you lose a cow. I was angry.”

For the Maasai, cattle are more or less everything. A greeting in the Maa language from which the Maasai take their name, is, “I hope your cows are well.” Traditionally, they believed that all the world’s cattle belonged to them, a conviction that inevitably led to conflict with neighbouring tribes.

The Maasai once occupied all the Great Rift Valley from modern-day central Kenya to northern Tanzania. In the early 20th century, they were evicted from swaths of territory to make way for British settler ranches. Still, Maasai self-belief is unshaken. They retain much of their culture and their numbers are rising, putting pressure on the land. For them, the world is divided into the Maasai and the Meeki — the Maasai and everybody else. Naturally, to be a Meeki is not something to shout about.

Pashiet works for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, founded by Luca Belpietro, an Italian who gave up a career in financial consultancy to move here, and who is, like Pashiet, a hunter-turned-gamekeeper. Brought up in Lombardy, from the age of 10 Luca accompanied his father on African hunting expeditions. He still keeps a framed photograph of Belpietro senior, rifle in hand, sat astride a majestically tusked, decidedly dead, elephant.

Luca and Pashiet met some 20 years ago when the Italian, now a naturalised Kenyan, embarked on a project to build a luxury safari camp in the middle of the Kuku Group Ranch, a 280,000-acre tract of land owned since Kenya’s independence by the Maasai who live there. Pashiet was one of the young warriors employed to dig the foundations.

After two years camping on site with no facilities beyond a pit latrine, Luca and his partner Antonella Bonomi opened Campi Ya Kanzi, a beautiful ecolodge where they now live and where tourists can stay in one of eight exquisitely appointed tented cottages. When you roll up the blinds in the morning it is to views of animals at the nearby watering hole and Kilimanjaro rising magnificently behind. The sole sounds at night are the chattering of birds and the occasional growling of lions. The camp is the only tourist lodge on the vast ranch, home to an estimated 17,000 Maasai (though you can drive all day and not meet any of them). For most of my stay, I am the only guest.

There are many luxury safari camps in Africa, and most make some kind of charitable contribution and nod towards helping the environment. Campi Ya Kanzi’s ethical credentials go way beyond that. It runs entirely off harvested rainwater and solar power, and though Luca funded its construction, the land and the lodge are owned by the Maasai community. Luca runs it as a commercial operation but pays $101 per guest per night to MWCT, a non-profit body whose diverse board ranges from Titus Naikuni, a Maasai who is former chief executive of Kenya Airways, to Edward Norton, the US actor.

The trust employs 265 people to run education, health and conservation programmes, but the camp’s $101 contributions specifically fund a scheme called Wildlife Pays, designed to discourage the hunting of lions. Dozens of Maasai are employed as rangers, known as “Simba Scouts”, who warn fellow Maasai when lions are in the vicinity so they can graze their cattle elsewhere. If cattle are killed, the owners are fully compensated. It is an example of what the environmental industry calls Payment for Ecosystem Services; another set up by the trust is a carbon-credit scheme, under which the Maasai will be paid to leave forests on the Chyulu Hills intact.

It is, says Pashiet, an odd thing for a Maasai to be paid for allowing lions to go about their slaughter. “At first, it was very hard to explain to people, don’t kill a lion,” he says. “If young warriors are told they can’t kill a lion, they are not very happy.” Still, he says, warriors get pride from their role as Simba Scouts and the programme is gaining traction. The number of lions speared has dropped to one or two a year and lion numbers have recovered.

The trust has also helped set up the “Maasai Olympics” as an alternative to spearing lions. (Ladling soup for wealthy tourists at the lodge, where Maasai are hired as waiters and guards, is hardly a substitute.) For the winners — in running, spear-Pashiet giving a tour

throwing, and jumping — there are prizes: a chance to run in the New York Marathon, for example, and, of course, gifts of cattle.

Luca concedes that attempts to tweak a culture are morally ambiguous. “I feel uncomfortable that, with my conservation work, I am stopping the Maasai from expressing their culture by going out and killing a lion,” he says. “The Maasai are a very proud tribe, if you want to use that word. In Kenya, there were more than 50 tribes, yet there are just three or four that have maintained their language properly and their law and their traditions.”

Another practice the trust is seeking to end is female genital mutilation (FGM), outlawed by the Kenyan government in 2011. Samson Parashina, the trust’s Maasai president and manager of Campi Ya Kanzi, is a strong opponent but says many mothers remain adamant that their daughters undergo the procedure before marriage. He hopes to introduce a right-of-passage ceremony to replace the celebrations that accompany “female cutting”.

The view from Campi ya Kanzi towards Mt. Kilimanjaro, one of the greatest sights for visiting tourists.

“Change is inevitable,” says Luca. “The role of the trust is to give Maasai the chance to maintain whatever they want of their culture. If we can give the Maasai a reason to use their land more sustainably and carry on with their pastoralist life, some Maasai will be comfortable with that, but some will go to the city and become urbanised.”

A stay at Campi Ya Kanzi is to glimpse these dilemmas at close hand. On daily forays into the bush with Pashiet, the conversation veers between wildlife and culture, between the mating habits of the tiny, monogamous dik-dik, the smallest of the antelope, and the merits of ending FGM. Pashiet has two daughters. His 19-year-old, who wants to be a doctor or a teacher, was circumcised in age-old style, but things are changing fast. Her younger sister is not having any of it. “My 13-year-old daughter says, ‘If you try, I will go to the police.’”

We set out on a walking safari and Pashiet strides ahead, pointing out every feature of the landscape, from tiny swivelling grass seeds to the glowering granite cliffs. Every hill, mountain and outcropping has a name. “We call that one ‘rock to sharpen your spear’,” he says, pointing to the distance.

One day we plunge into the rainforest of the Chyulu Hills. The next we scramble over blackened lava spewed out in the Shaitani eruption in 1856 (the word comes from the Arabic for “devil”) or climb a rocky lookout to watch storms flash across the valley. To be immersed in such surroundings, to be that dot on the landscape, is to be humbled in the face of beauty most profound.

There is plenty of wildlife, though the conservancy is less chock-full of animals than, say, the Maasai Mara. That makes each sighting a moment to savour. One evening we spot a herd of giraffe, gambolling as if in slow motion through the twilight. Another time, we come across a herd of buffalo. We watch as they inch imperceptibly closer in preparation to charge.

There are daily encounters with gazelles and hartebeest, warthogs and kudu, and countless birds of prey, magnificent in their “umbrella tree” perches. One trip to look for elephants is unfruitful, but we are compensated with breakfast under a baobab tree, where an improbable spread of homemade bread, honey, marmalade, passion fruit, mango, bacon and eggs and countless other delicacies has been prepared.

One evening, just as darkness is descending, Pashiet’s radio crackles into life. Lion have been spotted by a Simba Scout. We speed off in an open-air vehicle into the night. Nervous antelope flit into the bush. They too know that lion are about. After half an hour of bumping across the grasslands in the pitch black, we finally see them. Seven lions, tearing at the carcass of a warthog. Floodlit, they are too busy with their dinner to notice. Aside from the snarling and the growling, the only sound is the crunch of teeth against bone.

TANZANIA: Olduvai Gorge Is In Tanzania

Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) has been following up the ongoing discussions on social media following a video clip being posted on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iveX49WE7fw) which has been circulating through various media channels showing a person claiming that Oldupai Gorge, a site in Tanzania that holds evidence of the earliest existence of mankind is in Kenya.

This video clip has triggered a lot of discussions on the different social media among Tanzanians and other people who have good wishes for Tanzania tourism who know very well that Oldupai Gorge is in Tanzania and NOT in Kenya.

As a public institution, responsible for marketing and promotion of Tanzania tourist attractions, Tanzania Tourist Board is also dismayed by this misleading information which intends to distort the good work the Board has been doing in promoting Tanzania tourist attractions including the Oldupai Gorge.

The Board would like to take this opportunity to strongly refute this statement delivered by the said person from a neighboring country while addressing one of the sessions of the International Young Leaders Assembly (IYLA) in USA, August 2015.

We would like to inform the world that as it is the case for Mt. Kilimanjaro, Serengeti National Park, Zanzibar to mention just a few, Olduvai Gorge which is referred to as the Cradle of Mankind, where Dr. Louis and Mary Leakey discovered important hominid remains of the nutcracker ‘Australopithecus bosel’, who lived nearly two million years ago, is also in Tanzania and not elsewhere in the world. It is located in the eastern Serengeti Plains in the Arusha Region and about 45 km, from Laetoli, another important archaeological site of early human occupation.

The paleoanthropologist-archeologist team Mary and Louis Leakey established and developed the excavation and research programs at Olduvai Gorge which achieved great advances of human knowledge and world-renown status. Olduvai Gorge is one of the key tourist attractions for Tanzania.

We call upon Tanzanians and those with good wishes for Tanzania wherever they are to continue supporting the effort’s undertaken by TTB in marketing Tanzania and her all tourism attractions. We believe that it is the role of every single Tanzanian to promote Tanzania as Africa’s best destination and ask them to join and support Tanzania Tourist Board in its efforts to promote destination Tanzania.

We would like to applaud the reaction made by Tanzanians and non-Tanzanian within and out of Tanzania, who through this incident were able to stand up as ‘one voice’ and tell the world that OLDUPAI GORGE is INDEED IN TANZANIA!

Issued by:

Public Relations Office
TANZANIA TOURIST BOARD