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ISSN 0856-9135; No. 00247 |
ON THE WEB |
November 23 - 29, 2002 |
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Arusha goes to the WTM ... Amen!By Valentine Marc Nkwame
The statue apparently, is probably the only red giraffe in the world ... That is, if you don’t count the blood soaked ones, being killed in Loliondo. Never mind, but a giraffe is supposed to be the national symbol of Tanzania, a country which also claims to be very much valuing its wild animals as a source of income through tourism .... Yet at the same time, we are licencing companies to launch great animal carnage .... All in the name of; "Hunting!" About two weeks ago, Tanzania, for some reason, went to the annual; World Tourism Market (WTM) 2002, in London, under the excuse of ; "Promoting the country’s tourism potential .... The oldest of all lies. Suffice to say that, the Tanzanian delegation had nothing new to offer there either, apart from the usual, time-worn, old malarkey, medley of; "The Land of Kilimanjaro... Ngorongoro Crater... Serengeti animals... Michael Grzimek ...!" Blah! Blah! (Sick) About 40 Tanzanian tour operators, most being from Arusha, are reported to have taken part in the WTM 2002, which had over 5,000 participants, from 183 countries. Forget the fact that the 23 years old, WTM circus, is just a genius money making scheme, devised by the; Reed Travel Exhibitions, Outfit of the UK ... God save the Queen! Anyway, out of the 40 tour companies from Tanzania, only one: Ranger Safaris, bothered to post some information on the WTM Website .... God save the rest. As usual, local politicians also somehow forced their way to the WTM show in London and as usual some rather very hilarious episodes ensued especially when interviewed by the press. The local politicians expressed their fear that if many tourists come down here, then "We wouldn’t be able to handle them!" .... Why try to promote tourism then? Mh! Indeed. We are getting less than 0.05 percent, of the total world tourists and we can’t even handle that .... God save the Industry! But WTM, a single event, can handle the ever increasing number of gullible participants without so much of a complaint but with a more serene and better coordination of activities. What the organizers did, was simply change venues by moving onto larger ones and since 1980, the circus has shifted three times. From Olympia, to Earls Court and finally to the current venue: The state of Art; Ex Cel. Floor space occupations for the exhibitors stalls at Ex Cell should also teach us some lessons. Europe and Mediterranean, occupied the largest space, being followed by America, then Asia and finally; Africa .... As an afterthought I presume. In fact, even the information department of WTM, had a much bigger space than the entire area occupied by all exhibitors from Africa. I mean, we don’t exactly need much space, for simply to tell people that; Professor Bernard Grzimek, wrote a book about Serengeti. Do we? Even the local politicians blurted out that, judging by the vast attractions found in Europe and America, they were quite surprised as to why foreign tourists, even bothered to visit Africa ....Mh! they were supposed to be promoting this country. Mind you. Wake up Arusha, the capital of Tanzanian tourism! The old days of sick inducing, mushy, sentimental, corny, shop talks, about Kilimanjaro, Manyara or Tarangire, are over! Come up with new, selling ideas, or kiss Tourism (and WTM). Goodbye! Mind you, things like Olduvai Gorge, that were once popular among Atheists who believes in the old; "Big-Bang" theory, may later sound absurd, as many people are now turning back into their religions .... And ready to kill for them too! Maybe we could start with a different approach: Attracting different types of tourists. Those with macabre sense of humor. So that they may come to enjoy the sight of animal carnage of Loliondo .... This apparently, will also help the Red giraffe statue at Tengeru, Make sense! |
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Last modified:
November 21, 2002. Webmaster: WDJMallya |
Along Moshi-Arusha
road, somewhere near Tengeru, towers this rather large, red, giraffe statue,
which seems to have been standing there since time in memorial .... God save the
statue.