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EDITOR'S NOTE: Tanzania's amazing Ngorongoro Crater is truly a photographer's paradise, and ideal for photo safaris. That is what our ATA delegates experienced during Host Country Day at the Africa Travel Association's 33rd Congress in Arusha. To prove my point, most of the wildlife images on this page were taken within a few hours by Muguette Goufrani, Africa Travel Magazine Associate Editor, who has lived and worked in several African countries. The group of ladies in their colorful Maasai tribal attire were photographed near the Serena Lodge, where we stopped on our return to Arusha. Our ATA party included Hon. Dhino Chingungi, Tourism Minister, Republic of Angola (second from left) next to Editor Jerry W. Bird). |
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Tanzania National Parks launches
new global tourism brochure The Tanzania Experience NATIONAL PARKS
Can any one mental snapshot encapsulate the Tanzanian experience? Thousands upon thousands of wildebeest that march in mindless unison on the annual migration through the Serengeti, perhaps? Or a family of elephants wading across the wide, muddy Rufiji/Tarangire River? What about a pride of well-fed lions sunbathing on the grassy floor of the majestic Ngorongoro Crater? Certainly, it is such images that tend to spring to mind when one thinks of Tanzania. And properly so! Tanzania, truly, is a safari destination without peer. The statistics speak for themselves: an unparalleled one-quarter of its surface area has been set aside for conservation purposes, with the world-renowned Serengeti National Park and incomprehensibly vast Selous Game Reserve heading a rich mosaic of protected areas that collectively harbour an estimated 20 percent of Africa's large mammal population. And yet there is more to Tanzania than just safaris. There is Mount Kilimanjaro and Meru, respectively the highest and fifth-highest peaks on the continent. And Lakes Victoria, Tanganyika and Nyasa, the three largest freshwater bodies in Africa. Then, of course, there is the magical 'spice island' of Zanzibar, the highlight of a vast Indian Ocean coastline studded with postcard-perfect beaches, stunning offshore diving sites, and mysterious mediaeval ruins. It doesn't stop there. So, how to define the experience offered by a country with highlights as unique and diverse as Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar, Lake Tanganyika, Serengeti and Selous? An experience that might for some entail long days hiking in sub-zero conditions on the upper slopes of Africa's most alluring peaks; for others a once-in-a-lifetime safari followed by a sojourn on an idyllic Indian Ocean beach; for others still the thrill of eyeballing habituated chimpanzees, or diving in the spectacular offshore reefs around Mafia, or backpacking through the time-warped ports and crumbling ruins of the half-forgotten south coast?
Well, the one thing that does bind Tanzania's diverse attractions is, of course, its people, who take justifiable pride in their deeply ingrained national mood of tolerance and peacefulness. Indeed, Tanzania, for all its ethnic diversity, is practically unique in Africa in having navigated a succession of modern political hurdles &endash; the transformation from colonial dependency to independent nation, from socialist state to free-market economy, from mono-partyism to fully-fledged democracy - without ever experiencing sustained civil or ethnic unrest.
How to define the Tanzanian experience? Surprisingly easy, really. It can be encapsulated in a single word, one that visitors will hear a dozen times daily, no matter where they travel in Tanzania, or how they go about it: the smiling, heartfelt Swahili greeting of "Karibu!" &endash;
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