Cultural Tourism In Tanzania: Should You Try?
By Ian Williamson
There is a problem with spontaneous cultural tourism; that is it must be organized and as soon as this is done…well, sadly the cultural visit is no longer worth doing. To experience true culture; to have that genuine experience; it should be done slowly over a day or maybe two. It cannot be done in a morning or squeezed into a couple of hours one afternoon before you race off to the Serengeti.
So, should you as a tourist just not bother with the Cultural addition to the safari? I would say an emphatic yes, just don’t bother; it is not worth the effort! Especially so if your cultural visit is rushed, half hearted, over organized and created for the tourist.
However, I think if you come all the way to East Africa, you need to see more than the animals. Tanzania is about so much more. Tanzania cannot be rushed. To rush involves missing what is hidden just under the surface; you will experience Tanzania in black and white only. You would be better served visiting the local zoo; it would be a lot cheaper too.
If you don’t have time to spend living in a village; or maybe you fear your constitution is not quite up to eating fried chicken feet and boiled grass; or you just don’t have the time; I would suggest you go for a short expeditionary sojourn around the village or town. Take a local person with you, the hotel or lodge or tour operator will provide someone. Explain you want to see village life and not the tourist attractions. This may not be as easy as it sounds. Your guide may not perceive at first that you want to see Tanzania in all its unattractive poverty.
Walking around the village in Tengeru or on Kilimanjaro or a suburb of Dar, Mbeya or Arusha can be done in half a day and you can meet real Tanzanian people and see how people live. This is as long as you stay away from the ‘traditional blacksmith” in fact as a general rule of thumb it may be a good idea to stay away from the contrived traditional anything.
Another, less strenuous, way of receiving a good condensed slice of culture is to visit a local bar for lunch. Choose an attractive open plan bar with a thatch roof – so you are able to watch life pass by. Get your recently acquired guide to order some roast goat, some roast beef and some roast banana’s and enjoy soaking in the culture whilst you wait for the meal to arrive. Don’t eat any salad or fruit that may accompany the meal in respect for your stomach. If you are not so hungry order chips mayai [chips my-eye] which is a chip omelet – and very nice it is too!
Even better would be to take a day or more to walk in a remote village accompanied by your guide. Take it slowly and stop to talk with the local community. Some of the locals may know a little English and they will want to try it out and practice with you. Those who don’t will appreciate and encourage you [sometimes with great hoots of laughter] any attempts you make to communicate in Swahili. Your meals and overnight can be spent with a local family.
The cultural safari adds another dimension to your visit. You will now be on your way to becoming to know Tanzania just a little. Africa is a wonderful place and Tanzania is a most peaceful destination. Many agents claim that various countries and peoples are warm and welcoming; however this is true of Tanzania. I have lived in may countries in Sub-Sahara Africa and Tanzania’s truly love to receive visitors. So… welcome to Tanzania and above all relax and enjoy this vast and special land.
About the Author: For more information on Culture and Tanzania see http://www.betheladventure.co.uk Bethel Adventures uses tourism to improve the lives of the poorest communities in Tanzania. Using tourism to improve lives.
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Business Tourism In Johannesburg
By Sarah Manners
Johannesburg: The City of Gold
The discovery of gold in what is now known as the city of Johannesburg sparked off one of the fastest South African urban developments. Johannesburg or the ‘city of gold’ as it is fondly referred to, is one of the most diverse areas in South Africa. It is South Africa’s premier business destination and is as rich as the cultures and heritages made up by its 5 million inhabitants.
South Africa’s business hub
South Africa’s premier business destination, Johannesburg, is the most powerful commercial centre on the African continent. 74% of South African companies’ headquarters are located in this business hub. It is also home to the Johannesburg Securities Exchange, the biggest stock exchange in Africa and the 16th biggest in the world. Though Johannesburg has financial, municipal, transport and telecommunications infrastructure that rival leading first world cities the cost of living is so much lower, making it the ideal location for business tourism.
Business Tourism
Johannesburg has become the premier destination for domestic and international business tourists. 36% of domestic and 32% of international tourists to Johannesburg come solely for business purposes. It makes financial sense for international business travellers to come to Johannesburg as it will cost two to three times less than when travelling to London, New York or Paris for the same purpose. Johannesburg has become a magnet for international conventions such as the ‘World Summit on Sustainable Development’. It is the cities world class venues, such as the Sandton Convention Centre, and infrastructure that have enabled it to become a much sought after destination for international business tourists.
Johannesburg international Airport
The busiest and most business friendly airport in Africa is located in Johannesburg. The Johannesburg international airport accommodates approximately 13 million passengers a year and about 1.2 million of these are business travellers. The airport is located approximately 30 minutes away from Johannesburg’s business. There are various car rental companies that operate from the airport and there are a variety of taxi services that can take business tourists to their hotels.
Accommodation
There is no shortage of accommodation in Johannesburg and its surrounding areas. Whilst some business tourists like to stay in the business hub itself, others prefer to stay at the hotels a short drive away where they can have the feeling that they are also on holiday. There is a huge amount of variety when it comes to accommodation in Johannesburg and business travellers will always find the perfect location to suite all of their needs. Many of the hotels offer conference facilities which companies can hire, making the commute from hotel room to boardroom that much more seemless. Many businesses chose to hold their conferences in hotels such as this as it is more practical for the company. The hotel will usually set up the room, provide the technological assistance and the catering.
Tourist attractions in the surrounding areas
Whilst on business to Johannesburg most travellers try and fit in some time to see the very worthwhile tourist attractions in the area. There are a multitude of museums, parks, botanical gardens and historical sites in and around Johannesburg. The casinos in and around the area provide fun-filled evenings after a long days work. There are a variety of fantastic golf courses in the area as well, some of which are world ranked and often frequented by business tourists. Travelling around Johannesburg taking in the sights and sounds of its different suburbs, sampling local as well as international cuisine and the impressive nightlife are but a few of the things to do whilst on business in this cosmopolitan city.
For those who want to explore Johannesburg on a grater scale a 50 minute drive will take them straight to the ‘Cradle of Humankind’. A world heritage site consisting of over 200 caves in which 13 fossil sites have been found, the oldest of which is an estimated 2, 5 million years old.
The Hartebeespoort dam located not too far out of the business hub is an excellent venue for water sports such as boating, fishing and water skiing. There is also a snake park, fresh-water aquarium and a 2 km cableway taking visitors to a viewing site on the Magaliesberg.
Choose Johannesburg
Johannesburg, South Africa’s major business destination is home to world class venues and infrastructure. There is so much to do and see in this city of gold that business tourists are afforded the opportunity of being leisure tourists as well.
About the Author: The Fabz Estate luxury hotel http://www.fabz.co.za is located in the suburb of Lonehill which is extremely close to the Sandton business district in Johannesburg. The hotel is geared towards business travellers and is equipped with the infrastructure to meet their needs whilst offering them hospitality, tranquillity and luxury.
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Travel And Tourism: Like Never Before And Never After
By [KengIsm]
With the latest mount in communication and transportation, traveling, both internationally and domestically has become absolutely trouble free. Whether the reason for your traveling is vacation, business or just an adventure, the large numbers of people involved in travel and tourism industry makes the experience absolutely trouble free.
The travel and tourism industry is one of the biggest foreign exchange earners as every year large number of tourists travel all around the world for some reason or another. While traveling, one can discover variety of people, tradition, culture, climate, landscapes, cuisines, lifestyle, language, costumes, religion and many other unknown facts. This world’s diversity magnetizes people from every genre to visit favorite tourist destinations from all over the world.
There are umpteen numbers of places where one can easily discover a range of tourism options, with various mesmerizing travel and tourism options which varies from adventure, beaches, lush green landscapes, hills, monuments, deserts, mountain peaks, and to diverse flora and fauna. No matter, what are you interested in, travel and tourism opportunity offer you something extra at every step and certainly visiting different places will fulfill your desire.
However, the travel and tourism industry makes it simple to travel all around the world as it provides various traveling agents, travel agencies, tour operators, holiday consultants, airlines, road transport, as well as various hotels to make your stay comfortable. Travel agents or traveling agencies: The travel agent plays a very significant role in the world of travel, as they offer travel and various other services for the individuals who want to travel for business or vacation purposes. Moreover, the travel agencies provides detail information regarding the destination, hotel accommodations, the fastest and the cheapest mode of transport, visas and many more.
The travel agencies are further divided into four main departments i.e. the accounts, travel, tours and cargo. Umpteen numbers of travel agencies are available all over the world to make your travel convenient and easy.
Tour operators: the tour operators manage and organize stay and travel of the travelers, also they conduct various tours to unknown tourist destinations and moreover some tour operators assist them to partake in adventure sports such as rock climbing and river rafting. Holiday consultants: the holiday consultants books the tickets, makes the travel plan, and plan the itinerary and also provide all other details regarding traveling which is required.
Hotels: there are umpteen numbers of hotels that are available all over the world catering the basic requirement of food and accommodation while traveling. These hotels can be booked before going on the trip as well as on the spot. These hotels are available at all range which varies from the most expensive hotels and from least costly hotels according to your affordability.
Banks: there are various banks which are specially affiliated for the travel and tourism industry, the banks provides loans and financial help to the travelers to afford your travel expenditure. Apart there are various guides available which can be hired before going to the destination or can take along with you, which can make your travel easier and can make you familiar about the places and the tourist spots of that place and make your travel easier.
About the Author: http://www.mrmachotel.com
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Tourism And Education
By Peter Wilson
Education is extremely important in a child’s life as it can really help to shape them when they enter adulthood and they want to pursue a career. When it comes to the summer holidays at school, you will know only too well that education is the last thing on their minds. However, there are things that you can do in order to incorporate education into your summer vacation with the kids.
Education and Vacation
You may be wondering how you can really add education to your holiday, but it is actually quite easy as there are many vacations where you can go that are packed full of learning. However, you also have to offer fun and excitement with it in order to stop your children from getting bored.
In order to get a fun packed educational holiday, you will need to plan it well in advance and you will also have to find a location where you can go. As well as this, you will also want to find a place that offers good accommodation at the same time. You will want to consider the lodging arrangements and decide whether you want to be near all of the amenities and attractions. That way the children can get the most out of their learning experience.
Tourism is a big industry and everyone who visits another country is a tourist in some way. If you are struggling for ways to make your vacation educational, then there are more things to do than just going to a museum. Although there is a great selection of museums everywhere, you should not just limit the child’s education to just this for the whole holiday. However, saying that; museum tours can be a great way to learn things about absolutely anything. So if you are considering going to a museum then you should make sure that you know which ones are available near to where you are staying on holiday.
Theme Parks and Education
Theme parks remain an extremely popular family choice for summer vacations and they all concentrate on a different theme. One location that a lot of people enjoy going to is Sea World because it is fun, educational and everyone can enjoy it. The problem with a lot of educational tourist attractions is that their popularity has declined due to more fun packed attractions being opened. It can be a good thing in one way for some people, as it then gives them more privacy due to the fact that there aren’t as many people around. An educational vacation does not mean that it has to ruin your holiday because a lot of the top vacation destinations have educational places near to them. This means that you could spend some time relaxing and doing what you want, and some time visiting the educational places so that you get a good balance.
So if you want to take your children for an educational vacation, there are many places that you can take them to and you can have a great time too.
About the Author: Peter Wilson is writing most often for http://www.alicante-spain.com , an online publication on the topic of Costa Calida . You might discover his writings on costa blanca tourist info on his site.
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travel and tourism industry
Tourists
The origin of the word “tourist” date back to 1292 AD. It has come from the word ?€?tour?€™. A number of experts have defined the term:
“Tourists are the voluntary temporary travelers, traveling in the expectations of pleasure from the novelty and change experienced on a relatively and non-current round-trip”.
“Tourist is a person who makes a journey for the sake of curiosity for the fun of traveling”.
Tourists are:
-Persons traveling for pleasure, health and domestic reason.
-Persons arriving in the sea of sea cruise.
-Persons traveling for convention.
Tourism ?€“ the first commercial venture.
A religious Englishman called Thomas Cook in 1841 arranged, for a fee, a one ?€“day rail excursion from Leicester to Loughborough for 540 members of a temperance league. Thus the first bona fide travel agent was Thomas Cook.
While Cook himself did not make a profit on this first venture, he was a man of vision and was convinced that there was a need for a skilled “travel arranger”. So by 1845 he had become the first full-time travel agent, operating train excursions from Leicester. The next year he chartered a train and steamer for an excursion to Scotland for 330 people. In 1851 Cook arranged ocean steamship travel and accommodations for more than 1,50,000 visitors to the World Exposition in London and in 1856 he operated the first escorted “grand tour” of Europe. Tours to Europe and Middle East were also conducted and, in 1872, the first around the world tour was conducted.
Tourism as a Service Industry
Tourism as a service industry comprises of several allied activities which together produce the tourism product. Involved in the tourism product are three major sub-industries. They are: -
1. Tour operators and travel agents.
2. Accommodation sector (hoteling and catering) and
3. Passenger accommodation.
According to international estimates, a tourist spends 35% of his total expenditure on transportation, about 40% on lodging and food and the balance 25% on entertainment, shopping and incidentals.
The product in this case is not confirmed to travel and accommodation but includes a large array of auxiliary services ranging from insurance and entertainment and shopping, demand generation, in addition to the consumer motivation, is also heavily dependent upon powerful persuasive communication both at the macro (country) level and the micro (enterprise) level. The participants in the process of this service business can be illustrated by the figure below.
Some of the pointers to nature of tourism as a Service Industry
1. Tourism accounts for nearly 6% of world trade.
2. Bulk of tourism business is located in Europe and North America., with 1/8 of the market being shared between the other regions.
3. The highest growth rate in tourism in recent years has been in the third world.
4. Tourism, like most pure services, because of the character of inseparability, exemplifies a product, which cannot be sampled before purchase; the prospective consumers have to travel to a foreign destination in order to consume the product.
5. The major players in the tourism market include a number of intermediary companies. Some of them transnational in character, some of them exhibit
vertical integration, both backward and forward, acquiring interests in all major sectors of this service industry.
The Tourism Product- Factors Governing Demand.
Because of the unique nature of the nature of tourism product- it being an amalgam of the characteristics of a destination and the infrastructural as well as managerial efforts of the promoter, the determinants of tourists demand emanate from both individual tourist motivations and the economic, social, technological factors. Some of these are:
?€? Income Levels
In the last 30 years, disposable incomes around the world have shown upward trends, thus allowing more money for activities like leisure travel. Smaller families have meant higher allocations per person in the family. More and more women are entering the workforce and in real terms the cost of travel has fallen. The dramatic rise of tourism in the last 50 years can be attributed in a large measure to the combined effect of more leisure time and rise in both real and disposable incomes.
?€? More Leisure time:
Increasing unionization of labour right from 1930 onwards has reduced the number of working hours per week. Changing managerial orientations towards human resources have increased the levels of pay and paid vacation time in most developed countries. Now people have longer periods of leisure, which could be allocated to travel.
?€? Mobility
Better transportation and communication services have made the world a smaller place, and have brought both exposure and awareness of distant lands to larger sections of potential tourists across the world. Faster modes of transport have cut down on travel time, making it easier for people to economically plan and execute trips abroad.
?€? Growth in Government Security Programmes and Employment Benefits:
The growth in government security programmes and well entrenched policies of employee benefits mean that quite a large number of families may have long term financial security and may be more willing to spend money for vacations.
Tourist Classification:-
Tourists can be classified into the following seven demand categories:-
1. Explorer: – Very limited in number, these tourists are looking for discovery and involvement with local people.
2. Elite: – People who favour special, individually trips to exotic places.
3. Offbeat: – These are filled with a desire to get away from the usual humdrum life.
4. Unusual: – Visitors who are looking forward to trips with peculiar objectives such as physical danger or isolation.
5. Incipient mass: – A steady flow, traveling alone or in small-organized groups using some shared services.
6. Mass: – The general packaged tour market, leading to tourist enclaves abroad.
7. Charter: – Mass travel to relaxation destinations, which incorporate as many as standardized, developed world facilities as possible.
The Travel Decision:-
The average tourist is faced with considerable uncertainty regarding the decision and may have only scanty ideas about distant destinations. His evaluation of alternatives is also limited to the extent of this awareness about possible destinations. The stages of travel decision can be described as: -
1. Travel Desire:-
The first step where the need to travel is felt and the pros and cons are thought about.
2. Information Collection and Evaluation:-
This stage involves the process of finding out the trip from travel agents, books and acquaintances .information so collected is evaluated against criteria of cost and time constraints, alternative possibilities, relative attractiveness of destinations, perceived ?€?safety?€™ o the alternative destinations etc.
3. Travel Decision:-
This is the decision phase involving selection of destination, travel, mode of accommodation and activities to be undertaken.
4. Travel Preparation and Experience:-
This involves tickets, bookings, travel, money and documents arrangement, clothing and undertaking of the travel.
5. Travel Satisfaction Evaluation:-
The whole tourism expenditure is constantly evaluated before, during and after the experience is used to influence future decisions.
The marketing concept for the travel and tourism industry is profit driven and customer centric (unlike sales which are volume driven and target centric).
Service Marketing Triangle
Service marketing is unique in many ways in the travel and tourism industry. There are 3 players in the transaction process:-
- Company: A travel and tourism company listens to the customers and evolves/develops the travel/tour package and it communicates the attractiveness and the utility of that very tour package directly to the customers. Here it (the company) performs external marketing. The company makes promises to the customers.
- Providers: They are a travel company?€™s internal customers constituting employees and agents. The company does internal marketing with the providers educating and motivating them about the idea of the particular tour package which they can offer to their customers. This is done to enable the providers to effectively carry out the service transaction process. The providers make provisions for office space, accessibility and connectivity. The company enables promises to be kept by this infrastructural association.
- Customers (Travelers): The customers are the reasons that the travel company exists and for whom the company has designed the traveling and touring package as well as set up the infrastructural facilities and spent money on employee development programmes. Here the providers are the only ones who interact with the customers, like the travel agents interact with the customers and not the company. The agents perform interactive marketing which is on-time, all-time, every-time. This is the most crucial aspect of service marketing in the travel and tourism sector. Those agents have the responsibility of ?€?keeping promises?€™ made and enabled by the company. The providers (agents) are responsible for the perceived quality level of the service transaction. This underlines the uniqueness of service marketing.
Tourism Products:
1. Accommodation
?€? Hotels
?€? Motels
?€? Boatels
?€? Flotels
2. Destination
?€? Natural Scenes
?€? Historic Excellence
?€? Artificial Beauties
?€? Social Cultural Excellence
3. Transportation
?€? Infrastructural
i. Airways
ii. Railways
iii. Roadways
iv. Waterways
?€? Local
i. Local transport
4. Tour operators
?€? Travel companies
?€? Travel agents
?€? Guides
5. Shopping
?€? Handicrafts
?€? Handloom
?€? Books
Marketing mix for tourism product:
The designing of the marketing mix variables in case of tourism is significant as it helps the marketer in conceiving the right ideas, particularly to raise the acceptability of the tourist product by stimulating and penetrating the demand. Framing of a proper marketing mix is significant because it helps the tourist organization in accomplishing the objective and projecting a fair image.
Product Mix:
Tourism is a composite product with components like attraction facilities and transportation. Attraction deserves an intensive care. It includes natural site, places of historic interest, events and cultural attraction.
The facilities compliment attraction. The facilities include accommodation, food, transportation and recreational facilities. The transportation component includes the vehicles and infrastructure. Innovation in the tourism product helps raising the sensitivity. The users of the service are looking forward to better and improved product.
The provider of the tourist is a travel agent or the package tour. A well conceived and designed package tour, covering a wide range of tourist attraction at an economic price, helps in attracting the potential tourist.
The travel agent performs numerous activities such as hotel arrangement and accommodation, site seeing arrangement, domestic transport arrangement, air travel arrangement etc.
In a true sense the tour agents and the travel agents are the vehicles who can give a fillip to the tourism industry, provided they are well trained.
Pricing:
Pricing of the tourist product is complex. Geographical location of the destination, seasonality and varying demand affects the pricing decision.
In India the pricing strategies become important for promoting or contracting the tourism industry, since more than 40% of the total population are below the poverty line. In order to develop the tourism industry more and more potential users are to be transformed into actual users.
When a tourist proposes to visit a particular place, the total cost of his traveling also include the expenses incurred on transportation, accommodation and communication.
Liberal pricing strategy is found to be a productive pricing decision, particularly in case of tourism industry. The pricing strategy which includes low income group people, student and retired persons can be more effective. This is possible if the government concessional and subsidized infrastructural facilities to the potential tourist below the average income.
The different pricing methods generally used are cost based pricing, demand based pricing and competition based pricing.
Promotions:
The promotion mix includes advertising, publicity, sales support and public relations.
The purpose of promotion is to make available the information to the user. Advertising the sales promotion can be effective when supplemented by publicity and personal selling.
Radio, TV, newspapers, cinema and printings are some of the important vehicles for traveling of messages. Effective slogans raises the effectiveness of advertisement.
Another important component of the promotion mix is public relation. It helps in projecting the image of an organization. Public relation and publicity include regular articles and photographs of tour attraction, use of TV and travel journalists to promote editorial comment.
Public relation officer plays an important role. He should be efficient, active, impressive, intelligent and well-behaved.
Good image projection can be made if the PRO manages the affair like a professional. It is said that word of mouth is the best form of publicity. The word of mouth promotion is an important tool in tourism marketing.
Place:
The tourist centers should be located at suitable points if the tourists spots are natural there is no question of selection. In a vast country like India with a divergent socioeconomic and cultural patterns, the promotion of domestic tourism encourages unity in diversity.
Infrastructural facilities, transport and communication are important for development of tourist centres. The site selected should have natural surroundings, increased accessibility and improved amenities. At the same time it is also important that the ecological balance is not disturbed. Since growing ecological imbalances leads to pollution, some important steps like promoting afforestation, promotion and beautification may be undertaken in countering the side effects of atmospheric pollution and maintaining ecological balance.
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