Profielwerkstuk Worldschool
Tanzania sustainable tourism
Lisa van Leeuwen
Merel Scholman
Pieter Verweij
V6E
Contents
- Introduction
- Sustainable tourism
- Other organisations and their products
- Same products
- The Dutch market and our product
- Necessary tourist facilities and the impact on the environment and community
- What does a profitable business plan of the construction and exploitation for such a sustainable initiative look like?
- Future developments
- Conclusion
Introduction
Every person, in his last year of school, has to do a so-called ‘profielwerkstuk’. In groups of three, we have to make a report about a chosen topic. When we heard about Worldschool, all three of us were very enthusiastic.
Worldschool is an organisation that assembles several projects and lets teenagers work on these assignments. The projects come from small developmental organisations or local representatives from villages all around the world.
The projects are therefore real, and the results can be carried out, if they are sufficient. The idea that our work could make a difference for people, attracted us and that is why we have decided to work on a Worldschool assignment.
The next thing to do was to choose an assignment. We have chosen to design a plan for sustainable tourism, with which the Tanzaniaworkgroup Haren, our client, can work together with the inhabitants of the Same municipality. The Tanzaniaworkgroup Haren is looking for a way to offer Dutch tourists an interesting cultural experience for a few days in which ‘the experiencing of the Tanzanian community from inside out’ is the central topic.
Sustainable tourism
Everyday millions of people go on a holiday and global economist forecast an even bigger growth in international tourism. This enormous growth places an huge stress on the environment and the local inhabitants. Sustainable tourism tries to reduce this stress and protect the environment and inhabitants of these tourist destinations. Sustainable tourists can decline the impact that tourism has in many different ways including:
- Informing themselves about the culture, politics and economy of the community
- Respecting and anticipating on the local cultures expectations and assumptions
- Supporting the local community by supporting businesses which use cultural
heritage and traditional values.
- Supporting the economy of the district by purchasing local goods.
- Seeking out businesses that are environmentally conscious and use the least possible amount of non-renewable resources.
The number of travel organisations that use sustainable tourism is increasing gradually. However the bigger, well-know organisations are not contributing to this. Because of this, it is very hard to introduce sustainable tourism to the larger crowd. This explains why it is very difficult to position a sustainable trip on the Dutch market.
Other organisations and their products
There are several other organisations which organise tourism with the focuss on culture, such as Arke reizen, Koning Aap et cetera. However, these organisations are generally not sustainable. They are focussed on the country and its culture, but there is not enough focuss on the inhabitants. In our plan, the needs of the inhabitants will be more important.
We do realise that it is difficult to be sustainable, because the majority of the tourists are not actively thinking about the environment and their impact on it when they travel. It is easier for the travel-organisations to be commercial, and therefore operating on a larger scale, like Arke does. This is no reason for our project to become commercial rather than sustainable and that is why we chose not to work closely with the bigger travel organisations. Moreover, they were not very interested in a collaboration with us, and that has influenced our opinion as well.
Other organisations have organized several kinds of trips to Tanzania, it is quite a popular destination. Yet the Same municipality is not so popular, it seems. The organisations focuss mainly on the highlights; for example the Kilimanjaro mountain or the Ngorongoro crate.
We did notice that the culture-organisations organized travels which were with a fairly small group of people. Furthermore, the travels emphasized several aspects of the surroundings and culture. These are two positive things, which we will incorporate in our plan.
Our example is an organisation called Kali Mata. This is a womensupportgroup in Tanzania. They organize all kinds of things, such as courses to teach women in Tanzania how to sow and bake pots. They also deal with some small-scale tourism. Their project offers a glimpse into the life in a typical Tanzanian village. They feel it is easy for tourists to find their way to the attractive beaches and exciting wildlife, however it is not as easy to experience village life. We feel the same. Their cultural tourism program offers different possibilities as walking, bicycling or swimming.
Same products
Same district is one of the six districts of the Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. The area is rich of georgeous nature and culture. It is inhibited by two tribes; the Maasai en the WaPari. The WaPari tribe is relatively agricultural; the Maasai tribe is a nomad-tribe with live stock.
Near Same town, along the Dar-es-Salaam road; the Elephant Motel is situated, which is the ideal place for the tourists to stay during their holiday.
There apparently are limitless things to do, all in the surroundings of Same town. Here are a few highlights:
· Same town tour
The town tours give the tourists and opportunity to become acquaintanced with the lively market in Same. Sunday is traditionally the most important market day; a diverse range of articles is being sold at the market. Local produce, like the colorful Kangas and Kitenge (traditional women’s clothing) can be purchased.
· Maasai village at Marwa
Marwa is about 45 minutes away from Same town. In this village, one can experience the rich Masaai culture, which includes initiation and marriage rites and traditional dancing. The tourists can stay overnight in Masaai bomas, which are traditional Masaai houses, and they can purchase jewellery worn by the Masaai people.
· Cattle market in Mgagau
Cattle keeping is an important source of income for many locals. Every Friday, one can see the locals at the market buying and selling cattle throughout the day at the cattle market.
· Bwiko farm visit
Bwiko is 45 minutes away from Same town, where farmers use irrigation for their agriculture, which has transformed dry land into a beautiful green valley. The tourists can be guided and shown how different types of crop are grown: corn, beans, sugar cane, rice among others. One can experience how local farmers are trying to make the most out of their agricultural life.
· Mkomazi National Park
This park is about four miles away from Same town. It is about 3000 km2 and it borders the Kenya Tsavo National Park. Mkomazi has a diverse range of wildlife, representing species and ecosystems not commonly found in Tanzania. Especially early in the morning, this park gives a very impressive sight: a sunrise with giraffes, elephants, hartebeests, zebras, buffaloes, ostriches and a great number of birds. The park is actually known for its rare black rhino.
· South Pare mountains
Walking tours are organized to Ranzi Dam or the Ikongwe village tour. Before the dam is reached, the tourists will walk through Mkwakweni village, where they can learn about traditional healers and how to make local brew. After visiting the village, some local caves are explored, after which they can proceed to Heiganda for a view of Mkomazi Game Reserve. Alternatively, one could camp overnight in the tropical forest Shengena where you can see black monkeys, giraffes, antelopes, elephant foot prints and much more. One could then go on to climb Shengena Mountain, which at 2463m is the highest point of the Eastern Arc Mountains.
· A shorter hike: Vumuri village
This village is 20 kilometers from Same town. Here the local brew Deguara can be sampled, which is made from sugar cane and you have to drink out of a cow horn. Traditional dance can be observed, and one can be takled through the practive of traditional cures using roots from trees and plants. Also of interest here, are the setting ground where those suspected of witch craft were burned to death. Furthermore, the Mkumbarana rock is present, wich was used to kill children with disabilities until the early ninetheenhundreds.
The Dutch market and our product
To position our product in the right way on the Dutch market we fist have to know what our target group is going to be. To decide this we started taking a close look at our trip. The trip mostly focuses on the nature and culture of Tanzania. We are also dealing with sustainable tourism, so our target group has to fit this as well. There for we have chosen for a target group of adults who love to visit nature and experience a new culture. We think the trip isn’t really suitable for young children and young adults. They probably have different expectations of a vacation.
We want a certain amount of tourists that visits the Same district every year. To achieve this we have to position the product in a right way. We think we can do this by working together with certain organisations. We could also design our own website which has all the information about the trip on it. We want to work with tourist agencies, but not with the bigger once. They mostly focus on holidays in large resorts. We however have to take into account that it involves sustainable tourism and the tourist will have to sleep in local villages. Our product has to be positioned in such a way we reach the people who enjoy such a holiday. We could also go to markets that are focussed on holidays and promote our holiday over there.
We want to reach our target group in different ways, by using magazines, local products, information markets and the internet. There are different sorts of magazines that have a column that focuses on holidays. We could also use products that come from Tanzania and are sold in Holland. We could work together with those companies to promote our tour. Information markets based on holidays are very useful as well. There are many different sorts of tourist who visit those markets and some of them will fit our target group. The internet is a good option, because people can visit it from their own homes. We can easily spread it across the whole country in this way.
We want to work with organisations which contribute to sustainable tourism or that focuses on different sorts of holidays. We actually contacted a lot of organisations which are related to sustainable tourism, but they all told us they wouldn’t help us. They were either too busy or they only sold their own products and had no interest in our product. We also contacted “libelle” because they have a column on travelling each week in their magazine. They are still busy to see what they can do for us. The “wereld winkel” is also one of the organisations we have contacted. They are sell all sorts of products that originally come from Tanzania. We want to make a flyer of some sort to promote our trip and link it to the products from Tanzania.
Necessary tourist facilities
and the impact on the environment and community
Our goal is to minimize the effect of the trip on the environment. Therefore we will try to make the most out of the things that are already present. By doing this, a lot of construction work will spared. We will now look at some aspects of the trip and how we can minimize the impact on the environment and community
· A place to sleep
Luckily, there is a motel present which is sufficient. The elephant motel is situated close by Same town and the tourists can probably stay here during their holiday. The rooms are not expensive, about 30 dollars a night (approximately 28 euro’s). The motel also has a camping site, which costs 5 dollars per guest a night and the camping guests have acces to the toilet and shower facilities. This is a sustainable option, but the guests would have to bring or rent tents, which the motel does not seem to offer. Staying at the motel also offers some extra income for the locals, without the tourists being in the way of the community. Same town is within walking distance, and the tourists can get their souvenirs at the local market, which will benefit merchants.
The tourists can also stay with locals a few nights. We do not know if there is enough housing available, but there will only be 10 tourists present, so we think this will not be a problem. This gives the tourists and the locals a chance to become acquinted with new a new culture, from up close. We figure this will have a positive impact on the community.
· Travelling
The tourists will go to Tanzania by plane which is not very good for the environment. That is why we advise the future organisor to inform the tourists about the damage to the environment. We think that, because the tourists are probably interested in sustainability, they might be interested in compensating their trip by planting trees. The organisation Trees for Travel is encouraging companies, consumers and travelorganisations to compensate their travelling by making a donation and therefore plant trees. A trip to Tanzania causes 4.5 tons of CO2-equivalents per person to be discharged. For this amount of CO2-equivalents, one tree would have to grow 397 years in the tropics. Trees for Travel will plant or protect 13 trees, which will compensate the CO2-equivalents in a certain amount of years. The costs for this compensation will be €40.5 for each tourist. This amount could be obligatory or voluntarily paid by the tourists; the organisor can decide on this matter.