FJM read how your govt likes to talk, read the whole excerpt...all talk no show. Soon the next battle will be the ports and with that you stand no chance. Its aggressive economic reforms, lemmie not keep u waiting...furahia makala ya wolfgang.
Tanzania tourism news – Support Mwanza
and Lake Victoria tourism, stakeholders
ask government
MWANZA TOURISM STAKEHOLDERS DEMAND
BETTER INFRASTRUCTURE
According to a regular source from Arusha
did tourism stakeholders meet over the last
weekend in Mwanza, Tanzanias lakeside
port town on Lake Victoria, to discuss the
way forward of how to better promote
travel into this part of the country and have
a greater share of tourism receipts.
Members of the Tourism Development
Initiative and other groups came together to
map out how best this will be possible and
amongst the key issues mentioned to this
correspondent was the upgrading of
Mwanza airport. Said the source in an email
received yesterday: We heard that Kisumu
is now a big international airport with
more flights and more visitors. We in
Mwanza would also like to see such
efforts by our government. The plans to
build another international airport near
the Serengeti are rubbish really. We have
Mwanza already in place and with some
upgrading it can go a long way to serve
our part of Tanzania. From here it is two
hours drive to the Serengeti, or with the
smaller aircraft even less than half an
hour to some of the park airfields. From
Arusha it is a long way by road and takes
a longer time to fly into the park. But from
Mwanza it is so much easier and as an
extra attraction we have Lake Victoria
right here. Most tourists to Tanzania never
see the biggest lake in Africa. We are
losing visitors and revenues and TTB and
others must now shape up and promote
us as much as they promote the parks.
Lake Victoria gets very little promotion
from the tourist board and yet there is
fishing, bird watching, sunset cruises,
island visits. We should also try to have
more airlines from Uganda and Kenya
come here with extra flights to bring
passengers. Lets work together to achieve
better results here for us .
Another periodic source from Arusha
added: Government could do a lot for us
here. Instead of talking about a new
railway to Musoma they should fix up and
modernize the rail link from Arusha to
Mwanza. That way tourists could even use
the train which right now is too slow. That
would be a better option and much
cheaper too. And at the same breath I add
our opposition to the highway plans
through Serengeti. They should build the
road around the south part of Serengeti
as a good highway and then link Mwanza
too. That way the road used now through
Ngorongoro and Serengeti can be relieved
of heavy traffic. This government should
stop making so much noise about things
which are not happening anyway and
concentrate to develop and modernize
what we already have and what they
have let go into disrepair for too long. And
they should also stop listening to pressure
from KADCO (Kilimanjaro Airport
Development Company) and allow more
flights from Arusha airport which is easier
for people to reach than driving so far out
almost to Moshi. Sentiments often heard
yes seemingly so far fallen on rather deaf
ears.
Precision Air is operating several flights a
day between Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro
International and Mwanza and a source
close to the airline made it known that they
would support any initiative to promote
greater travel to the Lake Victoria town
should the tourist board roll out a campaign.
Watch this space.
There is a railway network between Dar - Mwanza and then Dar- Kigoma. But it needs overhauling/upgrading and it is only a matter of time that work will start. Road between Dar - Mwanza is done but it is a long drive.
Trust me Tanzania is going places -now you've been warned! (moyo?)
