Geza Ulole
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 31, 2009
- 59,194
- 79,427
To any economist will agree with me that the much talked about one border one visa for tourists plying to EA can not be in the best interest to the growth of Tanzania's tourism out of a vivid factual that it will deprive Tanzania of revenues it gets from visa fees. But more than that there are other facts that are equally strong to not speak them out and one can get some understandings on them after looking at the following not so spoken factors:
First, the difference between tourism and conservation policies among member states! Tanzania advocates for "fewer but highly paying tourists" that have minimal ecological impacts to Tanzania's pristine ecosystems found in her parks.
Its upon these values most of the daily conservation efforts for Parks within Tanzania are supervised using the Environmental Management Plans that clearly state the ecological directives that the GOT has partial managed to follow but striving hard to adhere to.
Contrarily neither Masai Mara nor Amboseli is having an EMP to know a thing about conservation undertakings there! As for Kenya, mass tourism is their priority. It is within these principles that the Tanzania Tourism Board does not see a reason for a neighbor country to be fighting for tourists to pay less for the services of an ecosystem that they have paid no penny to preserve but looking for a chance to benefit on them.
Moreover, out of the same principles TTB imposed a charge on each vehicle plying to its parks from abroad as a way to discourage traffic and minimize the stamping effect emanating from many tour vehicles that go to the parks. I advice the charge to extend to domestic tour vehicles though price should be compatible to set balance between job creation and environment conservation.
It has to be understood it is within this same principle the Bolongoja gate was closed and it is out of this same principle Tanzania gave in to the global external pressure to not construct the highway across the Serengeti. So when Balala makes noises he should make sure that he maintains his loud voice but at least within the universal acceptable moral standards! Things like pushing for the Bolongoja gate opening and one visa to increase traffic within the Serengeti are naive and contradicting to the same principles his oneself, his country's media and Environmental NGOs were fighting for to save the Serengeti.
Secondly, if the one visa thing is to be implemented then to device a formula and modalities under which the distribution and transfer of revenues will be carried out, is a hard thing to come with. And for Tanzania that depends on foreign support on its budget to the tune of 33% will be not doing any favor to its attempt to free her economy from donors' dependence if it is to scrap the visa fee.
Whereas for Kenya their reason for pushing for one visa thing emanates mainly from them being best positioned to rip big if their demands are to be accommodated, this is partly due to the fact that Kenya is aware that is having a more advanced interconnection from the overseas markets with a carrier that is seeking to use the other member states' market to benefit via a surge of passengers posed to use their airline if the one visa thing come to mature.
Interestingly being blind on the fundamentals of economic principles that they can still attract more tourists destined to other member states by being competitive enough against other international flights established in the region. For instance by lowering the price for flight ticket they charge when one boards KQ flight, if at all the country is that sympathetic to the so claimed unnecessarily overcharged tourists plying to the region.
I serious doubt if that can be possible since we read and hear cheap and negative accusations against Tanzania and it's God given resources more often than an offer of genuine generosity e.g. allowing other member states' Governments inject capital and be stakeholders in that KQ to make it a truly East African carrier just like the former disbanded East African Airways, in exchange of free access to the market while squarely competing with huge airlines from outside the region (some heavily supported by oil money) plying the EA routes.
I know this is a bitter pill to swallow to our neighbors but could have meant your seriousness to the region prospects and not opportunism.
At the moment, KQ has one of the highest price rates for any trip plying within or out of Kenya be it to regional, continental or overseas that could have easily been offset if the airline would have a regional ownership since a sense of ownership would have triggered an influx of East African passengers and as a result significantly raised the revenues to surpass running costs and accelerate growth.
If that can't go well with Kenyans then instead of holding Tanzania at ransom to remove visa fees, they should try business common senses and at least meet the charges of that US$50+ visa fee by lowering their ticket costs and attract the traffic to Nairobi. BTW Nairobi still ferries tourists to other destination within the region anyway, so i simply don't see why all the noises!?
With the amount of negativity displayed in their assumed "big brother" media status be it on their recklessness (on part of the GOK) to control the hunger situation, the blame fell on the part of GOT on their failure to have excess maize to offer Kenyans though both countries faced serious drought and there is no official bilateral pact that exists to give assurance of maize supply to them to cast such unfounded accusations.
The accusations also extend to the part of Tanzania's customs on a supposed retaliation of overcharging by our neighbors on those many non-tariffs barriers at our borders that end up into full blown rows. All these keep me wondering if at all Kenya will be ready to play a goodwill role and step in the shoes of a true regional powerhouse and bail out Tanzania if a Greece' situation is to happen within the block or they gonna disband the boat and leave it behind sinking just like the way history tells us.
Thirdly, Tanzania is endowed with all the sort of tourism products that belong to the other EA members states with an exception of Mountain gorillas tourism that Rwanda and Uganda offer (though Jane Goodall's Chimpanzees can substitute them) as a diversity but the other members lack what Tanzania offers.
Economically, one visa idea won't benefit Tanzania on return under this modality as most of these tourism initiatives come in packages where countries with more unique breath-taking diverse products sells most to technically render the one visa idea a flaw.
If we are to go for one visa thing then let it be with a market that is not "a rival sort of" but a complementary to ours e.g. SA that doesn't have "Mt Kilimanjaro or Zanzibar Island" and they have "superior city tourism in addition to casino and gambling spots and leisure parks", an advantage to us to rip since the products complement to each other and the same is to them also; a win-win situation.
Or with Morocco or Egypt since they don't have wildlife in Savannah (the big five) and we don't have sandy deserts and pyramids (plus camels, oasis). Unfortunately with Kenya there is nothing to exchange with them but competing for the same tourists since Kenya is a substitute market to Tanzania.
Both Kenya and Tanzania have wildlife (the big five) in Savannah and therefore posed to compete for time and resources from those wildlife loving tourists that wish to spend in respective parks though as for Kenya an added advantage to its touristic package offer as has no exotic islands (a plus to them, considering the existing little and less appealing Lamu Island is about to be destroyed to pave a way for LAPSSET project).
Since Kenya has an efficient air carrier to fly all the tourists to- and fro- the region, that upper-hand on lucrative travelling industry poses a danger of crippling chances of ours (Tanzanian) to grow under the one visa deal. This alert is not to be mistaken with Protectionism since even in the EU, market fair competition bodies' intervention is permitted on this sort of incidences.
For instance EU's Fair competition body had to overrule a VW merger with Volvo since would have wiped off smaller Automobile companies like Opel a potential retrenchment scenario. For the EA one visa for tourists a more advantage to Kenya (since we are a complimentary market to them) though disadvantage to us in term of lost revenues when we remove the visa fees; a win-loss situation.
Above all that Tanzania has not fully exploited its touristic potentials and it will be a gross mistake to accept that one visa thing since we will never know our true potentials as a stand alone market esp. in those unexploited places like Mahale and Gombe Island Park in lake Tanganyika, Selous reserve in the South. Apart from the parks in the mainland, pristine Marine Parks and diving spots in places like Mafia Island are lying idle not fully discovered.
Moreover by refusing the one visa thing for tourists coming to Tanzania will put the country in a best position to repel all sort of economically harmful free-rider and deceitful gimmicks that are to emanate out of opportunistic marketing capitalization tricks from the block members as to deliberately fend off any knowledge transfer as where the resources are located and to whom are belonged, a catastrophic contentious scenario as recognition is concerned.
Marketing stunts like "Zanzibar is in Kenya" or "Come to Kenya to climb Mt Kilimanjaro" will be more common scenes and at the end of the day having detrimental effects on the country hosting those resources as far as royalties and the misuse of those resources by the neighbor that her aim is to unfairly exploit them.
Last but not least, i am more than impressed for the creativity TATO came with on the online booking concept. Since upon launching that online tour booking portal revenues will surge to the Tanzania coffers and eat significant the money others get for tourists that come to our land as there will be no need of doing booking via tour agents. i for one, foresee Arusha's economy boom with that portal since it will force that $250 per booking to be injected directed to our economy via other means be it on souvenirs or nyama choma or beer drinking.
Long live the tangible East Africa Integration process....
CC: Dhuks mwitaz livefire Nairoberry Smatta Koborer CattleRustler Ab-Titchaz Askari Kanzu lawmaina78 mwathai Koba
First, the difference between tourism and conservation policies among member states! Tanzania advocates for "fewer but highly paying tourists" that have minimal ecological impacts to Tanzania's pristine ecosystems found in her parks.
Its upon these values most of the daily conservation efforts for Parks within Tanzania are supervised using the Environmental Management Plans that clearly state the ecological directives that the GOT has partial managed to follow but striving hard to adhere to.
Contrarily neither Masai Mara nor Amboseli is having an EMP to know a thing about conservation undertakings there! As for Kenya, mass tourism is their priority. It is within these principles that the Tanzania Tourism Board does not see a reason for a neighbor country to be fighting for tourists to pay less for the services of an ecosystem that they have paid no penny to preserve but looking for a chance to benefit on them.
Moreover, out of the same principles TTB imposed a charge on each vehicle plying to its parks from abroad as a way to discourage traffic and minimize the stamping effect emanating from many tour vehicles that go to the parks. I advice the charge to extend to domestic tour vehicles though price should be compatible to set balance between job creation and environment conservation.
It has to be understood it is within this same principle the Bolongoja gate was closed and it is out of this same principle Tanzania gave in to the global external pressure to not construct the highway across the Serengeti. So when Balala makes noises he should make sure that he maintains his loud voice but at least within the universal acceptable moral standards! Things like pushing for the Bolongoja gate opening and one visa to increase traffic within the Serengeti are naive and contradicting to the same principles his oneself, his country's media and Environmental NGOs were fighting for to save the Serengeti.
Secondly, if the one visa thing is to be implemented then to device a formula and modalities under which the distribution and transfer of revenues will be carried out, is a hard thing to come with. And for Tanzania that depends on foreign support on its budget to the tune of 33% will be not doing any favor to its attempt to free her economy from donors' dependence if it is to scrap the visa fee.
Whereas for Kenya their reason for pushing for one visa thing emanates mainly from them being best positioned to rip big if their demands are to be accommodated, this is partly due to the fact that Kenya is aware that is having a more advanced interconnection from the overseas markets with a carrier that is seeking to use the other member states' market to benefit via a surge of passengers posed to use their airline if the one visa thing come to mature.
Interestingly being blind on the fundamentals of economic principles that they can still attract more tourists destined to other member states by being competitive enough against other international flights established in the region. For instance by lowering the price for flight ticket they charge when one boards KQ flight, if at all the country is that sympathetic to the so claimed unnecessarily overcharged tourists plying to the region.
I serious doubt if that can be possible since we read and hear cheap and negative accusations against Tanzania and it's God given resources more often than an offer of genuine generosity e.g. allowing other member states' Governments inject capital and be stakeholders in that KQ to make it a truly East African carrier just like the former disbanded East African Airways, in exchange of free access to the market while squarely competing with huge airlines from outside the region (some heavily supported by oil money) plying the EA routes.
I know this is a bitter pill to swallow to our neighbors but could have meant your seriousness to the region prospects and not opportunism.
At the moment, KQ has one of the highest price rates for any trip plying within or out of Kenya be it to regional, continental or overseas that could have easily been offset if the airline would have a regional ownership since a sense of ownership would have triggered an influx of East African passengers and as a result significantly raised the revenues to surpass running costs and accelerate growth.
If that can't go well with Kenyans then instead of holding Tanzania at ransom to remove visa fees, they should try business common senses and at least meet the charges of that US$50+ visa fee by lowering their ticket costs and attract the traffic to Nairobi. BTW Nairobi still ferries tourists to other destination within the region anyway, so i simply don't see why all the noises!?
With the amount of negativity displayed in their assumed "big brother" media status be it on their recklessness (on part of the GOK) to control the hunger situation, the blame fell on the part of GOT on their failure to have excess maize to offer Kenyans though both countries faced serious drought and there is no official bilateral pact that exists to give assurance of maize supply to them to cast such unfounded accusations.
The accusations also extend to the part of Tanzania's customs on a supposed retaliation of overcharging by our neighbors on those many non-tariffs barriers at our borders that end up into full blown rows. All these keep me wondering if at all Kenya will be ready to play a goodwill role and step in the shoes of a true regional powerhouse and bail out Tanzania if a Greece' situation is to happen within the block or they gonna disband the boat and leave it behind sinking just like the way history tells us.
Thirdly, Tanzania is endowed with all the sort of tourism products that belong to the other EA members states with an exception of Mountain gorillas tourism that Rwanda and Uganda offer (though Jane Goodall's Chimpanzees can substitute them) as a diversity but the other members lack what Tanzania offers.
Economically, one visa idea won't benefit Tanzania on return under this modality as most of these tourism initiatives come in packages where countries with more unique breath-taking diverse products sells most to technically render the one visa idea a flaw.
If we are to go for one visa thing then let it be with a market that is not "a rival sort of" but a complementary to ours e.g. SA that doesn't have "Mt Kilimanjaro or Zanzibar Island" and they have "superior city tourism in addition to casino and gambling spots and leisure parks", an advantage to us to rip since the products complement to each other and the same is to them also; a win-win situation.
Or with Morocco or Egypt since they don't have wildlife in Savannah (the big five) and we don't have sandy deserts and pyramids (plus camels, oasis). Unfortunately with Kenya there is nothing to exchange with them but competing for the same tourists since Kenya is a substitute market to Tanzania.
Both Kenya and Tanzania have wildlife (the big five) in Savannah and therefore posed to compete for time and resources from those wildlife loving tourists that wish to spend in respective parks though as for Kenya an added advantage to its touristic package offer as has no exotic islands (a plus to them, considering the existing little and less appealing Lamu Island is about to be destroyed to pave a way for LAPSSET project).
Since Kenya has an efficient air carrier to fly all the tourists to- and fro- the region, that upper-hand on lucrative travelling industry poses a danger of crippling chances of ours (Tanzanian) to grow under the one visa deal. This alert is not to be mistaken with Protectionism since even in the EU, market fair competition bodies' intervention is permitted on this sort of incidences.
For instance EU's Fair competition body had to overrule a VW merger with Volvo since would have wiped off smaller Automobile companies like Opel a potential retrenchment scenario. For the EA one visa for tourists a more advantage to Kenya (since we are a complimentary market to them) though disadvantage to us in term of lost revenues when we remove the visa fees; a win-loss situation.
Above all that Tanzania has not fully exploited its touristic potentials and it will be a gross mistake to accept that one visa thing since we will never know our true potentials as a stand alone market esp. in those unexploited places like Mahale and Gombe Island Park in lake Tanganyika, Selous reserve in the South. Apart from the parks in the mainland, pristine Marine Parks and diving spots in places like Mafia Island are lying idle not fully discovered.
Moreover by refusing the one visa thing for tourists coming to Tanzania will put the country in a best position to repel all sort of economically harmful free-rider and deceitful gimmicks that are to emanate out of opportunistic marketing capitalization tricks from the block members as to deliberately fend off any knowledge transfer as where the resources are located and to whom are belonged, a catastrophic contentious scenario as recognition is concerned.
Marketing stunts like "Zanzibar is in Kenya" or "Come to Kenya to climb Mt Kilimanjaro" will be more common scenes and at the end of the day having detrimental effects on the country hosting those resources as far as royalties and the misuse of those resources by the neighbor that her aim is to unfairly exploit them.
Last but not least, i am more than impressed for the creativity TATO came with on the online booking concept. Since upon launching that online tour booking portal revenues will surge to the Tanzania coffers and eat significant the money others get for tourists that come to our land as there will be no need of doing booking via tour agents. i for one, foresee Arusha's economy boom with that portal since it will force that $250 per booking to be injected directed to our economy via other means be it on souvenirs or nyama choma or beer drinking.
Long live the tangible East Africa Integration process....
CC: Dhuks mwitaz livefire Nairoberry Smatta Koborer CattleRustler Ab-Titchaz Askari Kanzu lawmaina78 mwathai Koba
