UGANDA: Bird Flu To Affect AviTourism

Tests carried out on dead birds found on the shores of Lake Victoria between the capital Kampala and Entebbe, the location of the international airport, but also in Masaka District, have proved positive of avian flu, government officials confirmed late yesterday and earlier today.

A formal press conference at the Uganda Media Centre where Minister of State of Agriculture, Hon. Kibazanga, has confirmed the presence of the disease in East Africa.

Neighbouring countries also bordering Lake Victoria are said to have instituted prompt measures to raise surveillance and monitoring on local and migratory bird populations to determine if the disease has also spread to their own shores.

Lutembe Bay, a major migratory bird route waypoint into and out of Africa, is one of the locations where dead birds were found.

Global organizations are also said to be preparing emergency support measures for Uganda to contain the outbreak and fight the further spread of the disease.

According to information received from sources close to government is the type of avian flu is unknown to spread to humans but nevertheless have officials called to be careful not to handle domestic chicken and other poultry and in particular not to touch any birds found dead to avoid any possibility of the virus crossing over to humans.

Alerts have been raised before in Uganda mainly because the country is part of the migratory bird corridor into Africa and past training will come in handy now to tackle the outbreak here in Uganda.

Tourists heading to Uganda have been reassured that they are most unlikely to come into contact with infected birds and need not fear or resort to cancelling their safari vacations in Uganda or anywhere else in East Africa for that matter.

ZANZIBAR: Turkish Airlines Launches Istanbul - Kilimanjaro - Zanzibar Route

Turkish Airlines has launched flights to Zanzibar in anticipation of a flood of visitors during the festive season to the spice island of zanzibar.

The new service will route from Istanbul via Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar and back from there to Istanbul and operate initially three times a week using a Boeing B737-900NG.

Zanzibar has subsequently become Turkish Airlines' 50th African destination making it the leading non African airline offering flights into the continent. Other destinations served in East Africa are Entebbe, Kigali, Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilimanjaro, Dar es Salaam while in the wider region does Turkish fly to Mogadishu, Asmara, Djibouti and Addis Ababa.

Zanzibar has in recent years seen several new five star resorts launched while long time crowd favourites like Blue Bay Hotels have upgraded and modernized to stay in the top game of attracting tourists from around the world.

The Turkish Airlines service via Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar is clearly geared towards capturing the global tourism traffic which in this case can offer travelers the experience of both safaris and a sun and sand vacation all wrapped into one.

Serena Hotels Declare Losses In First Half Of 2016

Hospitality firm TPS East Africa narrowed her losses by 41 per cent in the six months through June 2016 compared to the same period last year, but sales remained subdued.

The company which owns and operates hotel and lodge facilities in Eastern Africa saw its net loss drop from Sh97m in the first six months of 2015 to Sh57 million in the same period this year.

Sales dropped slightly to Sh2.65 billion from Sh2.67 billion the previous period on what the company attributed to slow recovery after travel advisories were lifted in 2015 adding that the second half of the year looks encouraging.

“Given the seasonal nature of tourism in East Africa, the results for the first half cannot be used as basis for forecasting full-year earnings,” TPS said in a statement to the bourse.

Interest costs dropped sharply from Sh108 million to Sh54.7 million in the period under review.

SOUTH SUDAN: Free Visa Entry To South Sudan

President Salva Kirr of South Sudan has declared free travel entry into his country for all persons holding Rwandan and East African passports as part of the integration plan.

“I declare that those with Rwandan passport and whole of East Africa will no longer need visas to travel to South Sudan” Kirr said in a tweet this December 28.

The move is expected to spur the involvement and transactions between South Sudan and other five EAC member states that are already pushing for major integration and development projects under the Northern Corridor region, of which South Sudan is one of the latest entrants.

Other EAC member states have not been charging visa fees for any of the community members and the travel documents and requirements have been made easy with only one needing to present their national ID, to travel in the EAC region.

“That is the way to go full-fledged federation in infrastructure and then political” Pastor Samuel N. Kimani of Kenya.

At the ninth 9th Northern Corridor Integration Projects Summit East African Heads of State have commended achievements made under the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP) initiative and advocated for faster integration of the region to bring about prosperity.

“The Heads of State noted with appreciation the progress in the implementation of the various projects under the Northern Corridor Initiative, and reiterated their collective resolve to continuously work together in pursuit of the set vision and goals of fast-tracking the integration process, for the benefit of the citizenry of the Northern Corridor Region,” the Presidents said in a final communiqué issued after the summit.

ZIMBABWE: 3 SA Men Arrested Smuggling Sable Antelopes Accross Zimbabwean Border

The men have reportedly been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle sable antelope across the border.

Three South African men have reportedly been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle sable antelope across the border.

The men were apparently intercepted after their trucks carrying the animals got stuck in the mud near the Beitbridge Border.

The three men, all in their 40’s, were trying to smuggle 29 sable out of Zimbabwe.

They’d reportedly entered through a small and legal crossing on the Zimbabwe/Botswana border, but were arrested near Beitbridge.

It is said the animals were worth USD$348,000 and were being moved from a private game conservancy in South-Eastern Zimbabwe.

A National Parks official told the paper that the trio had a permit to move animals, but not to capture or export them.

The sable antelope is an antelope that inhabits wooded savannah in East Africa, south of Kenya, and in Southern Africa.