Israeli Business Executives set for Tourism agenda Forum in Tanzania

Israeli business executives are set to participate a two-day forum in Tanzania this week to chart out cooperation areas for investment in which Tanzania and the State of Israel would venture. Scheduled to take place in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam on Monday and Tuesday next week, the Tanzania Israel Business and Investment Forum (TIBIF) will attract investments in tourism which Israel companies have been looking to capture since the past two years.

The forum is expected to bring together more than 50 investors, prominent business owners, entrepreneurs, government officials and private sector executives from both Tanzania and Israel. The Israeli delegation will be led by Mr. Ayelet Shaked, the Minister for Justice of the State of Israel, the Forum organizers said.

Tanzania and Israel are seeking to boost bilateral relations, seeking to attract more Israeli tourists and business people to visit and invest in this African safari country.

Tanzania Tourist Board had launched marketing campaigns targeting Israeli tourists in large numbers, while a number of Tanzanians were looking to travel to Israel on religious pilgrimages. Already, there are tourist charter planes from Israel landing in Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.

The number of pilgrims from Tanzanians planning to visit the Holy Land, are expected to increase after positive campaigns to market tourism and travel between the two countries launched the last two years.

Israel’s historical sites are the Christian Holy places of on the Mediterranean coast, the City of Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, the Sea of Galilee and the healing water and mud of the Dead Sea.

Tanzania has been among African countries attracting Israeli tourists who mostly prefer touring wildlife parks and Zanzibar. The number of Israel tourists to Tanzania had increased from 3,007 in 2011 to 14,754 in 2015, according to data available from the Tanzania Tourist Board.

Tanzania National Parks: Heavy Rainfalls have Destroyed some key Infrastructures

Lake Manyara National Park in northern Tanzania tourism circuit is temporarily inaccessible, thanks to ripple effects of the heavy rainfalls.

Located on the edge of Great Rift Valley, about 126 km west of Arusha city, Lake Manyara National Park, is probably a small, but the most stunning park, save for Serengeti. Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) says the last night’s heavy rainfalls have destroyed some key infrastructures leading to the national park, making the tourist attraction site inaccessible.

“The drift for crossing Marera River, nearly a kilometer from Lake Manyara National Park’s main gate, has been swept away by water, temporarily making the tourist attractions out of reach” TANAPA’s Corporate Communication Manager, Mr Pascal Shelutete said.

Mr Shelutete, however, allayed tourists’ fears that TANAPA’s engineers have already deployed on site, taking all means necessary to restore the drift in order to resume the services within a day.

“As we speak our engineers are on site, working extra time to ensure the drift is restored so that we can resume our services to our dearest tourists within a day” he explains. Commenting, drivers and tour guides told NCA that Tanzania National Park engineers are doing extra efforts to restore the crossing drift.

“I’ve no doubt that the services would resume soon as my tour guide on site told me that the TANAPA engineers are really working overtime to restore the swept drift” .

Covering about 330 kms, of which two-thirds is underwater, Lake Manyara National Park is a small park but very beautiful and contains tremendous diversity of habitats, animals and especially birds. The Park is located beneath the cliffs of the Manyara Escarpment, on the edge of the Rift Valley, and offers excellent game viewing and bird life.

The landscape is so diverse that its mammal and bird lists are some of the most impressive in Tanzania.

The park includes a significant portion of the lake and its shores and also large areas of ground water forest with fig and mahogany trees alternating with acacia woodland and open swampland's. Lake Manyara National Park offers varied ecosystems, breathtaking views and incredible ecological variety in a small area, rich in wildlife and amazing numbers of birds.

Lake Manyara game includes Buffalo and Wildebeest, Giraffe, Zebra, Warthog, Impala, Kirk’s Dik Dik, Waterbuck near some of the springs, and Klipspringer on the slopes of the escarpment.

The Park has a large Elephant population and is most famous for its tree-climbing Lion.

Very obvious are the huge troops of baboons – which often number in several hundred and are widely regarded as Africa’s largest.

The park provides the perfect introduction to Tanzania’s birdlife.

The alkaline soda of Lake Manyara is home to an incredible array of bird life; more than 400 species have been recorded. These include thousands of pink-hued flamingos as well as other large water birds such as pelicans, cormorants, herons, egrets, stilts, stalks, spoonbills and yellow-billed storks.

Tanzania: Government Set to Step Up Fight Against Poaching, Trafficking

Dodoma — The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Dr Hamis Kigwangalla, says his office will continue fighting poachers, smuggling of forestry products and taking legal measures on civil servants behind such illegal trades.

Speaking at the 25th workers meeting planned to draw new ideas and deliberate on issues facing the ministry, the minister said reports now show that some dishonest staff were conniving with criminals to commit such crimes.

"It ranges from smuggling of logs to poaching ... we've information some officials within the ministry are helping criminals commit the offences," the minister said, adding, "... we will clean up the place ... of all those working with criminals.

" The minister says such offences were already causing huge losses in government revenues, but could not provide estimates monies lost, but stressed that only commitment to observing rules and procedures by officials in the ministry would help end poaching, smuggling and wildlife trafficking - and begin positive contribution to increased tourist arrivals and hence more revenue collection. Tanzania recorded 1.2 million arrivals in 2016, which brought in $2.1 billion, which had gone up to 1.3 million by last month, with a total of some $2.2 billion.

The minister reminded ministry officials of the need to ensure they raised revenue collection, saying "... it's through more revenue (collection) that we can improve tourism services within the country." Permanent Secretary Maj Gen.

Gaudence Malinzi has meanwhile said that his ministry was considering setting up a 'specially trained' army to beef up the fight against poaching, smuggling and trafficking. He said that, effective next September, the ministry would be holding a national heritage and tourism festival to promote the country's culture and tourism sectors.