News from 'Uganda- Gifted by Nature'   ARCHIVES   ANZANIAN PARLIAMENTARIAN SPEAKS OUT ON LANDING FEES Questions were raised in parliament about the exorbitant charges levied on airlines by the Kilimanjaro Airport Development Company 'KADCO', which is managing the international airport between Arusha and Moshi, Tanzania's main safari gateway for visitors from near and far. Already in the past were complaints lodged against the company, when they were alleged to have conspired in moving domestic and regional traffic from the Arusha Municipal Aerodrome to JRO at the expense of such airlines like Precision Air and other air operators dealing in air safari flights. The Tanzania Airport Authority since then has to maintain the airfield with little revenue to show for while the privately owned KADCO is taking cream and milk from their 'monopoly' at Kilimanjaro International Airport with little return for the government. While no specific figures were tabled in parliament, the government minister responsible for aviation acknowledged that he was aware of the complaints and was keen to get to the bottom of the long lasting and ever more urgent opposition to the situation. The initial contract signed for a duration of 25 years in 1998 was also found to be detrimental to the Government of Tanzania and nearly 50 clauses were identified by a specially formed committee, which needed urgent re-negotiations. The key issue of 'exclusivity' however remains contentious as KADCO seems unwilling to yield on this point, which may eventually result in the deal being revoked by the Tanzanian authorities. Air operators using the Kilimanjaro International Airport are expected to join the protest and lobby for a reduction in charges to be more comparable to what airport in the rest of the region are charging. GRUMETI LUXURY LODGE TELLS PARLIAMENTARIANS 'NO ENTRY' The management of a much acclaimed luxury tented lodge in the Grumeti sector of the Serengeti National Park appears to have told members of the Tanzanian parliamentary public accounts committee to &endash; literally speaking &endash; 'get lost', when they recently sought a poorly coordinated and for staff at the gate unannounced entry to the facility for an 'impromptu inspection'. The award winning Sasaskwa lodge was built with private funds and operates under a concession by TANAPA. Sources close to the management confirmed that entrance to the property is only possible with prior confirmed bookings and 'casual visits' are discouraged. The question was also raised with this columnist by other tourism operators what purpose the public accounts committee would possible have to 'inspect' the facility, which is privately owned and has not used any public funds nor appears in any default of their financial obligations towards TANAPA or other public offices. It is understood that past visits by relevant governmental officials dealing for instance with licensing, were however always facilitated once coordinated with the owners and the lodge in advance. While the MP's considered the refusal as 'rude' and demanded unspecified action against the investors, a former Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Professor Maghembe, defended the safari resort saying that the nature of their top end visitors 'required absolute privacy and security' and this fine balance should not be disturbed by many people coming there unannounced and creating a disturbance for the VVIP clientele. Well spoken Professor Maghembe, since &endash; what appears clearly driven by private curiosity beyond the mandate of the public accounts committee in parliament &endash; there is no apparent reason to nose about private property. The situation will be watched with hawk eyes to see if the MP's involved will now try to vent a personal vendetta against the property and its owners and use their connections to hassle the resort, which would of course amount to a gross abuse of their office and mandate. Meanwhile however the owners decided to eat some preventative humble pie and offer some public grovelling, trying to explain why the situation developed as it did and citing 'miscommunication' with the Serengeti District Council, which apparently organised the trip. This development comes likely with the foresight that indeed in this part of the world politicians can make the life of investors a living hell no matter what investment authorities otherwise preach around the world when trying to attract foreign investments to their respective countries. RWANDA AGAIN AT THE FOREFRONT OF PROGRESS The Rwandan government has approved plans to transform the capital city Kigali into a modern metropolis in coming years, able to sustain growth for the next decades. The blueprints include a complete overhaul of the water and sewerage systems, creation of by-passes to have long distance traffic avoid coming into the city itself, road improvements and new construction, provisions for social services and planned new estates to avoid any up-springing of slum areas as so often seen around the continent. The plans were reportedly drawn up by a US based consultancy firm and once implemented the city will shine in a new light. Already, in comparison, Kigali is a very clean city &endash; Rwanda has banned all types of polythene bags to protect their environment &endash; and the new measures will surely keep Kigali at the top of their class of African capital cities.   RWANDA SPENDS REVENUE SHARE MONEY ON COMMUNITY PROJECTS Ahead of the gorilla naming festival starting this weekend on 21st of June 'Kwita Izina' has the ORTPN, Rwanda's Office for Tourism and National Parks, inaugurated several community facilities worth over 400 million Rwandese Francs. The health centres, class rooms, water storage tanks and a community lodge were all paid for by a revenue share scheme, aimed to benefit communities neighbouring national parks. This concept strengthens 'ownership' sentiments and percolates tourism income directly to those in most need around the parks. ORTPN Director General Rosette Rugamba also announced at the handover that a further 140 million Rwandese Francs will be spent in coming months to create yet more such facilities, underscoring government's commitment to improve their partnership with the villages and parishes bordering parks. Twenty gorilla babies born over the last year are due to be named in this fourth edition of Kwita Izina. FLY 540 UGANDA READIES FOR FLIGHT OPERATIONS After the now locally incorporated low cost carrier has received an air services licence a few weeks ago, they are now processing requirements for the air operators certificate &endash; AOC, which is a prerequisite by the Uganda CAA to commence flight operations and obtain the status of a designated airline. The latter is a prerequisite to be assigned domestic, regional and international routes from Entebbe. This requirement has come under increased scrutiny however, as it is in direct violation of the spirit of the Yamoussoukro agreement, COMESA aviation rules and most important the spirit of the East African Community. It is often said, justly or unjustly, that the 5 separate aviation authorities are loath to give up any level of oversight and delegate responsibilities to their equally competent partner authorities, which already have licensed the same airlines and subjected them to the same scrutiny and process to get certified. The five aviation regulators too have done little to dispel such murmurs, when they could in fact openly address these issues and seek the support of the private sector to help in faster and deeper integration towards a single authority once again, unless they are opposed to this concept, which they should equally state in the public arena and then risk the wrath of their political masters. These anomalies have angered the aviation fraternity to no small extent as it prevents any airline already operating in one of the 5 memberstates to operate domestically (cabotage rights) in the other 4 memberstates of the EAC. This makes flying more expensive &endash; with a large portion of the overall ticket cost already resulting from regulatory charges and fees in any case &endash; and limits consumer friendly competition across the region. It is also thought to be designed to protect other locally incorporated and licensed airlines using aviation stone-age aircraft from being exposed to market mechanisms, again at the expense of the consumer who has to pay for it with every ticket one purchases. It is predicted that eventually this anomaly will need to be corrected by a Head of State resolution and directive, so that the bureaucrats can fall into line with the spirit of the agreements now in place, rather than hiding behind a rigid outdated regulatory regime. That said, Fly 540 Uganda is expected to commence operations with their own Ugandan registered fleet of up to 3 ATR turboprop aircraft within about 3 months, after they have gone through the (duplicated) AOC process and having to re-register their aircraft on the Ugandan registry, the extra cost of which will be borne ultimately by the passengers via air fares. Meanwhile, Fly 540 Kenya already operates two daily frequencies between Nairobi and Entebbe, which could in due course be expanded to three or more, following the instant success of their flights between the two countries. Once the airline begins to operate from Entebbe, other regional destinations in Tanzania, Rwanda, Eastern Congo and Southern Sudan will then also be within their reach, offering travellers better fares and greater choices. Happy Landings.   NKURINGO SILVERBACK DIES OF OLD AGE The alpha male of the 18 member strong Nkuringo gorilla group, estimated to be around 50 years old, was at the end of last week found dead by UWA rangers inside Bwindi National Park. Gorillas have a maximum life expectancy of about 60 years, but the animal in question apparently already suffered of poor health. The animal, aptly named Nkuringo was buried in the area after veterinary tests had been carried out. Meanwhile however a new birth was reported for the group, restoring its numbers to 18. The Nkuringo area was of late subject to a hate campaign against sections of the community and their chosen developer of a high class eco tourism lodge, when a small but vocal group from the tourism sector, overcome by greed and envy, began to argue against a contract signed by UWA some years ago with the community over the use of 6 of the overall 8 gorilla tracking permits in compensation for giving up large tracts of their communal land for the gorillas to forage for food. The same disgruntled elements also at the time attacked Asian lodge owners for allegedly 'dominating the sector' and 'managing the parks', which is of course a gross distortion of the reality and also thought to be born out of envy coupled with a splash of racism attitude. See related articles in previous editions of the column.   'THE EYE' INTRODUCES REMOVABLE KAMPALA MAP Uganda's premier entertainment and reference guide, published every two months and distributed through travel agents, hotels and airline offices for free, has just introduced a separate map of Kampala, which can be removed from the booklet and carried as a street and location guide by visitors. Inside the publication is also a map of Uganda, as well as maps of Entebbe and Jinja municipalities, two of the most visited places in the country. For would be visitors to Uganda 'The Eye' is also available on the Internet via www.theeye.co.ug, where valuable information can be sourced ahead of an actual trip to Uganda. For more details contact theeye@theprinthouse.co.ug. MONEY TALKS LOUDEST French multinational Lafarge's local company Hima Cement has now managed to persuade members of the parliamentary select committee on natural resources to give them the green light for mining of lime stone inside protected areas. Environmental pressure groups without equally deep pockets to counter Lafarge's PR offensive with their own research, studies and PR activities were exasperated to learn of the decision to cut yet another piece from Uganda's protected areas. It is also feared that this success of Lafarge will set a precedent for further assaults on the environment and biodiversity in Uganda. Part of the affected area is a designated 'Ramsar' site and the consequences of this action will likely only show in time to come, when global environmental and eco bodies will put Uganda into their respective black books for failing to protect our priceless natural resources. A reaction from the World Bank is also expected soon, as the bank had financed a nearly 40 million US Dollars programme for wildlife conservation and park protection under the PAMSU project (protected areas and sustainable use). Queen Elizabeth National Park, where the open mining for limestone is to take place, was a major beneficiary of this programme. Meanwhile, in a twist of reality, Hima Cement &endash; according to a press report &endash; has blamed Umeme, Uganda's power distributor, for 'pollution' in the plant area near Kasese, which Hima says is due to power outages. Oooops.   CHIMP 4X4 CHALLENGE SUCCESSFUL The fundraising activity at Ssissa Club last week, in support of the chimpanzee sanctuary on Ngamba Island, proved to be an overwhelming success. Nearly 10 million Uganda Shillings were raised through participation fees, donations and pledges, all going towards the sanctuary's kitty. Well done!   FUEL SHORTAGE PERSISTS The previously mentioned shortage of diesel, due to a failed delivery at the Mombasa port, has intensified and prices for the commodity have now substantially exceeded the cost of petrol. Sources from fuel companies have admitted the supply problems and expect the crunch to ease within a matter of days, after another tanker carrying diesel has been landed in Mombasa and began to discharge its cargo. This is of little comfort however to owners of diesel propelled vehicles and has began to impact on both cargo and passenger traffic across the country. Diesel driven thermal electricity plants are also said to be affected and loadshedding has once more increased, as the plants are faced with the diesel shortage too.   BRIDGE REPORT SHOCKS PUBLIC Newspaper reports have emerged that the bridge across the river Nile in Jinja, leading across the Owen Falls dam, has developed cracks and 'is surviving on borrowed time'. Before the parliamentary committee for budget, where the matter was raised, it was also mentioned that the cost of a partial rehabilitation, starting at the next financial year, would immediately require 9 billion Uganda Shillings, while the Ministry of Finance had only set aside about half of that amount. The bridge is the sole lifeline for all road traffic to the Western part of Uganda beyond the Nile but also for the hinterland countries of Rwanda, Burundi, Eastern Congo and Southern Sudan, all of which depend almost entirely on import and export commodities crossing this bridge by truck. While there is a railway bridge a few hundred metres upstream from the dam, this is not a feasible alternative to bring the massive tonnages hauled by road across the river. There is now some speculation, that the Bujagali dam, now under construction, would require to have a bridge incorporated to offer some feasible alternative way and allow for a full rehabilitation of the existing bridge to eventually have two crossing points available in case of an emergency. However, the new dam is not due to be ready before about late 2010 or early 2011, until which the country, as well as the hinterland nations, will have an anxious wait ahead of them. Efforts are continuing in the meantime to lobby government to set aside sufficient funds for repairs and safe the nation from a possible disaster, should the bridge indeed become impassable. The private sector and business community in particular are said to be worried about the implications of the reports and are pushing for a formal statement from government and inclusion of the repair bill in the next budget.   AKON STANDS UP UGANDA Ugandans were left furious when American music star Akon failed to show up in time for his much hyped concert, which was due to be held on the evening of 02nd May. The show had previously been postponed twice already to the disgust of Ugandan music fans, raising further suspicions about the singer's intent. Telecom giant Celtel was subsequently at a loss to explain to the tens of thousands of people who bought tickets, why, inspite of all warnings in advance about Akon's past ehaviour in Kenya, they were so overly confident of the singer's appearance and spent billions of Shillings on preparations, a huge promotion and prepayments. Meanwhile, Akon's management tried to explain the star's failure to show up with an 'illness' which had caused him a sore throat and apparently assured the sponsors that AKON would show up a week later. The singer's manager, during a teleconference shown at the Celtel Headoffice in Kampala for the benefit of the media, however got angry and nearly out of control when pressed on the Kenya' concerts, which were repeatedly cancelled at the last moment, similar to the one in Uganda. However, it was also learned that Celtel had immediately employed the services of high priced lawyers to either enforce contractual compliance or else get a refund for expenses so far incurred and damages to their reputation, while dispatching a delegation to the singer's home in the US. Damages could run into the 2+ million US Dollar range, taking into account the loss of reputation, the promotional expenses incurred by Celtel for special customer events building up to the concert and related costs like bringing in other bands to perform before the main act. The cost for Celtel to stage the performance at another date has also risen sharply and it is expected that the company will try to legally recover theses expenses from the singer and his management. In any case, this development is an unmitigated PR disaster for Celtel, especially when compared with the success of the MTN sponsored UB40 concert a few months ago, which took place at the same venue, the Lugogo Cricket Ground, and is bound to reflect on Celtel's market standing for some time to come. AKON had in past months several times been mentioned to perform in Kenya, but each and every 'concert' bounced and the same now seems to have taken place here in Uganda, where the sponsors had in advance paid huge sums to prepare for the hotel stay and upkeep of AKON and his entourage and the concert and there was some glee in Kenyan circles who had sounded warnings to the Ugandan promoters. Thousands of disappointed music fans were turned away from the venue as they had not learned of the cancellation in time, causing a potentially explosive situation for public safety. However, this was well handled by the police guarding the venue, the access roads and the parking in the area. Visitors who had come from across the region were not choosy about their language to express their anger and most comments are therefore not fit to be repeated here. Many young people from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and even Southern Sudan had spent considerable amounts of money to travel to Kampala for the event, with one of them telling this correspondent 'a con indeed', while others asked how they were to pay for their upkeep for a week to wait for the next weekend, with no guarantees at all at this moment in time that Akon would in fact turn up. It is left to be seen if the singer does finally appear for the re-scheduled show, now advertised for May 09th, or if this is just another giant con job to which Celtel and the Ugandan public have fallen.   JAKE GRIEVES-COOK GETS SECOND TERM AS KTB CHAIRMAN News are about to break in Nairobi, that the Minister of Tourism has re-appointed Mr. Jake Grieves-Cook as Chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board for a second term of office. Jake has enjoyed a long distinguished career in the Kenyan tourism industry, spanning over 3 ? decades, during which he served in top management positions before starting his own company, Gamewatchers Kenya and Porini Safari Camps. He founded the Eco Tourism Society of Kenya in the 1990's, which he chaired for some years, before being elected as Chairman of the Kenya Tourism Federation. KTF is the Kenyan tourism private sector apex body, counterpart to the Uganda Tourism Association and the Tourism Confederation of Tanzania. Jake served as KTB chairman for three years previously and with him at the helm Kenya made substantial progress in tourism developments and visitors arrivals, which topped 2 million last year. The post election violence however swept away much of the achievements made in recent years and Jake will need all his considerable skills and connections across the world to restore Kenya tourism to its former glory. During the months of January, February and March Jake also served as official spokesperson for KTF and personally ensured that accurate and timely reports on the real situation on the ground reached the relevant media houses in Eastern Africa and the rest of the world on a daily basis and that any misreporting was promptly responded to with correct facts. Not one tourist did come to harm over those fateful months in Kenya which will help rebuild the tourism industry in coming months. This was largely due to the tremendous efforts of KTF's emergency response team, in conjunction with the country's security forces, which kept taps on all developments and advised tour and safari operators as well as lodges, resorts and hotels on the changing situations. Jake wrote to this correspondent in an exchange of emails about his renewed appointment: "It will be an honour to take on the position of KTB Chairman again and to work closely with the government and other stakeholders for the recovery of our tourism industry which was hard hit as a result of the civil unrest and violence during the recent post-election crisis. Kenya's new Grand Coalition government has stated that its key priorities are re-housing the internally displaced Kenyans currently living in refugee camps; ensuring that the economy gets back on track to achieve the projected rates of growth and to create jobs, particularly for unemployed youth; as well as focussing attention on agriculture at a time when food prices have recently increased and there are concerns over possible short-term food shortages. If we can achieve the recovery of tourism as soon as possible then this will greatly assist in boosting the economy and creating thousands of additional jobs and livelihoods for Kenyans. We will need to focus on an immediate intensive marketing campaign in those of our key source markets which have the capacity quickly to produce increasing tourist arrivals for our hotels in the second half of this year. This means an emphasis on advertising in the international media and joint promotions with the overseas travel trade as well as offering incentives to encourage the support of airlines and major international tour operators." Well done Jake and all the best in coming months and years for you and the entire KTB team.   KENYA AIRWAYS PLANS TO RESTORE PARIS ROUTE With traffic figures steadily growing once again, the Kenyan flag carrier is now considering to restore the Paris route, which was suspended earlier in the year, when passenger numbers plummeted. Airline sources preferring anonymity gave June as the month when flights to France will resume. The suspended Mombasa &endash; Johannesburg service is also due to be restored later in the year, when the tourist high season starts again. The airline has also given indication of widening their Africa network by adding Antananarivo / Madagascar later this year. Frequency increases to West Africa and China are also said to be considered by the airline as well as into the Middle East. Kenya Airways is the region's primary carrier connecting Nairobi with the entire region and the rest of Africa on a regular basis. During a press briefing earlier in the week the airline's CEO Mr. Titus Naikuni also explained KQ's market approach and their safety measures and the airline's Technical Director added that KQ had an annual budget of nearly 200 million US Dollars for maintenance of their combined fleet.   KENYA WILDLIFE SERVICES SEEK 'NOVEL' WAY FOR FUNDING A recent proposal by KWS, to add a levy on water and electricity bills in favour of funding KWS' operations met with cynical laughter and derision from the general public. Revenues for KWS have of course reduced sharply since the outbreak of politically inspired violence, following the end December elections in Kenya, forcing the organisation to tighten their belts. In 2007 they however recorded an all time high in gate receipts, but they were clearly ill prepared for the downturn in their earnings. Not satisfied however to wait, as the entire tourism sector is compelled to do until tourism has revived and reached its previous high occupancy levels again, the wildlife managers tried to dig the pockets of their fellow citizens with little regard of already high tax levels, leave alone sharply rising inflation rates and wide spread unemployment as a result of the post election violence. Hence, scorn was poured by the general public over KWS' attempt of persuading legislators to grant them this extra source of income. KWS is no stranger to controversy and has once again lived up to this billing.   AIR TANZANIA TAKES OVER ENTEBBE ROUTE A belated code share agreement, likely pushed upon Ugandan upstart Air Uganda by their poor financial and load factor performance of their own flights from Entebbe via Kilimanjaro to Dar es Salaam, has now vested all the flight operations on the route to Air Tanzania. The codeshared flights will now all be operated exclusively with Air Tanzania aircraft while the Ugandan airline will be allowed to sell tickets on these flights. The Tanzanian flag carrier is presently engaged in a substantive fleet overhaul and new aircraft have started to arrive and been put into service, bringing the airline &endash; which suffered sharp losses when under South African Airways management &endash; back to financial viability. In contrast, Air Uganda is rumoured to have burned substantial money on the Tanzanian route and in order to stop the financial bleed may have been compelled to opt for a codeshare, rather than withdrawing from the route altogether, as their performance would have suggested. Air Uganda continues to operate two daily flights to Nairobi against the four daily flights by regional giant Kenya Airways, but of late faces yet more competitive pressure since Fly540, the regions first true low cost carrier, has entered the route with two daily flights between Nairobi and Entebbe. Fly540 is now also incorporated in Uganda and was recently granted a licence by the Civil Aviation Authority. Air Uganda is expected to feel the financial heat some more in coming months in particular in view of their operating expenses, as they continue to use comparably aged and fuel inefficient aircraft versus KQ's modern jets and Fly540's fuel saving ATR turboprops. Part of Air Uganda's explanation was 'opening new services without inflating the market with unnecessary capacity', a belated recognition of what exactly they have been doing so far on the Dar es Salaam route. (Also see the first column item on Fly540's Ugandan venture.) Watch this space.       PRECISION AIR EXPANDS THEIR DAR ES SALAAM BASE Tanzania's main privately owned airline has now invited expressions of interest towards the eventual construction of a new maintenance hangar and adjoining offices at Dar es Salaam's Julius Nyerere International Airport. The new maintenance (MRO) facility became necessary as a result of fleet expansion and IOSA inspired safety demands. Construction is expected to commence towards the later part of 2008 and likely to be completed by late 2009. Precision Air has a pending order for several brand new ATR aircraft worth over 100 million US Dollars and is also due to receive jet aircraft in the near future to permit for network and capacity expansion and additional frequencies on their main routes. Major shareholder in Precision Air is Kenya Airways, holding 49 percent of the shares, while 51 percent of the shares are held by a Tanzanian citizen. This share split is living up to aviation nationality rules unlike some other airlines in the region which are totally foreign owned and yet claim to be a 'national airline'.   SOUTHERN SUDAN AIR CRASH CLAIMS PROMINENT LIVES The 'Southern Sudan Air Connection' operated Beech 1900 aircraft crash last weekend has claimed the lives of all 19 passengers and their 3 Kenyan crew, when reportedly both engines failed during an internal flight between Wau and Southern Sudan's capital city of Juba. On board were the Minister of Defence, Government of Southern Sudan Mr. Dominic Deng and his wife, high ranking officials and a Senior Advisor to Southern Sudan's President Salva Kiir. Having known the couple for quite some time this correspondent extends condolences and sympathy to the family and the people of Southern Sudan for their untimely loss. Information received from reliable sources at Juba airport indicates that the pilots did radio air traffic control over problems with the plane's engines not long after take off and requested for an emergency landing in near by Rumbek, before going off the radar when the plane crashed, killing all on board. The plane was apparently registered in Kenya but was leased out to a local Juba based airline for flights across the autonomous region of Southern Sudan. Southern Sudan's liberation hero John Garang also died in an air crash in July 2005 when returning home on the Ugandan presidential helicopter, coming from a consultative visit to President Museveni's upcountry home in Rwakitura near Mbarara. That accident investigation's official report ultimately blamed pilot error for the crash, when the crew flew into one of the extreme thunderstorms this region can produce. A full investigation has been opened by the Juba and Khartoum aviation administrations into the causes of this latest crash. The Juba government has also advised the public to desist from speculation over the crash causes until a full technical report from aviation experts, including specialists from the manufacturers and friendly aviation authorities has been submitted to GoSS. It was mentioned though that nothing would be ruled out or ruled in at this early stage of the investigation. The UN mission in Juba sent a helicopter from their Juba airbase to the accident site to assist in the recovery mission and the air accident investigation.   MORE CONGO BORDER MISCHIEF Congolese officials and their regime soldiers last weekend intruded into the demarcated 'no man's land' along the common frontier separating Uganda's West Nile area from the DR Congo and began to erect signs, fencing and other contraptions only a few metres from the Ugandan border point installations. While diplomatic activities to resolve the matter kicked in promptly early this week from the Ugandan side the Congolese officials withdrew from the consultative mechanism without explanation, after 'receiving orders from Kinshasa'. The natural, and internationally recognised, border in the area is the River Ofu, several hundred metres behind the newly created installations, where Congo is trying to create facts on the ground as done previously, when their regime tried to claim Ugandan territory as theirs. The most ludicrous such claim was created last year, when Congo officials tried to grab the Rwenzori mountain peaks as 'theirs', followed by a dispute over an island in the oil rich waters of Lake Albert. It is these circumstances which makes for extra cautious handling from the Ugandan side, to avoid another round of armed clashes as witnessed last year on the island and on Lake Albert, when the Congolese rogues shot dead in cold blood a British member of the oil exploration team. It was later proven by GPS readings that the exploration boats were well inside Ugandan waters and a considerable distance off the maritime border. It is therefore no coincidence, that the oil concessions held so far by Tullow Oil and Heritage Oil in Eastern Congo were recently cancelled in apparent retaliation, when the regime embarked on the slippery road of 'repossessing oil and mining contracts' so that they could be re-allocated to what is generally thought to be companies from politically more friendly countries in a suspected exchange of favours for the regime. The local and regional media promptly heaped blame on the Kinshasa regime, which increasingly now assumes the role of a destabilising rogue element in the region, much similar to the well known activities previously played out by the Khartoum regime in Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda during the height of the Kony / LRA rebellion. As the Congo regime already harbours for many years rebel groups fighting neighbouring countries it would come as no surprise, if the newly found 'friends' would not open the doors to infiltrate even more dangerous terror outfits into the largely lawless jungles of Eastern Congo, turning into a threat of more global proportions. There is in fact this growing suspicion in political circles and with political analysts that Congo is now increasingly aligning itself with the same political and commercial godfathers who sponsor the Khartoum regime which is responsible for many past crimes against humanity in Southern Sudan and now in Darfur, besides other destabilising activities. China has generously turned two blind eyes to the activities of the Khartoum regime and continued profitable trade exchanges with them, regardless of the human rights record of their trade partners. Watch this space.   REFLECTIONS The recent column item 'lake stinks to heaven' has apparently triggered a swift entry of the local media into the fray, with editorials at last recognizing that there is a serious problem brewing, while our local journalists too have now started digging deeper, trying to expose the causes of the algae bloom and pin pointing the main contributors to the pollution of the lake, which has become 'visible' in recent months with little if anything being done so far. Having distributed the column item to Uganda's leading print publications and media houses, it seems to have served the purpose to train the investigative spotlight on the smelly and bad looking mess. Across the border in Kenya a certain Mr. Odinga is ever predictable in his hunger for power and public recognition, when he first blatantly ignored protocol recently and conveniently ignored the presence of the Vice President, one of his erstwhile polls rivals. Not satisfied with this he then went on to claim that he, the Prime Minister, ranks second in protocol after President Kibaki … before the self delusion takes further hold it is worth pointing out, that Kenyan protocol clearly puts the VP directly after the President in ranking order and that for instance the German Chancellor only ranks 4th in protocol in Germany (Federal President &endash; non executive, Speaker of Parliament, Speaker of the upper House, Chancellor), although the post is at the centre of the political power in the old country. In any case, my many earlier warnings stand, that the man must be watched like a hawk unless his unabated hunger and greed for power eat up the reconciliation achieved in Kenya and bring the coalition crashing down. PRESIDENT BLASTS ENCROACHERS During a visit last week to the Bunyoro Kingdom as part of a national poverty alleviation tour, President Museveni once again made it clear, that human encroachment into national parks or forest reserves and grazing of cattle in protected areas will no longer be tolerated. He as much instructed the Uganda Wildlife Authority and the NFA (National Forest Authority) to evict encroachers and prosecute them, while also directing that cattle herds must move out of the parks and find pasture elsewhere. Only recently did wildlife experts express their concern to this correspondent over their experience while visiting some of the national parks, where cattle were outnumbering game and the President's remarks are both timely as well as to the point. The President's remarks echoed the sentiments of many conservationists and much of the tourism fraternity, which for quite a while now had lobbied government for a more decisive approach to this problem in order to protect the long term future of wildlife based tourism in Uganda. ROYAL DAISY AIRLINES MOVES TOWN OFFICES The Kampala sales and reservation offices of this privately owned airline has now shifted to 'Daisy Arcade' along Buganda Road, next to the main Kampala Magistrate's Court, from its previous location near the Ministry of Finance on Colville Street. All P.O. Box and phone / fax contacts remain the same, according to airline sources. The fully Ugandan owned airline operates daily flights between Entebbe and Juba as well as wet lease arrangements for Nairobi's 'African' airline, and flies also regularly a coach service into Eastern Congo destinations besides charters across the region. The airline owns and operates an Embraer 120 turboprop aircraft and emerged some two years ago from the former Dairo Air. The addition of 'Royal' incidentally arises from the airline's owner, Mrs. Daisy Roy, being of direct royal descent from the Bunyoro Kingdom in North Western Uganda. GERMAN SPEAKING BUSINESS ASSOCIATION 'GBA' HOLDS AGM The Austrian, German and Swiss business owners in Uganda and Ugandans holding representations and franchises from companies in those countries held their inaugural annual general meeting last week at the Metropole Hotel in Kampala and elected their association leadership. After being in the making for some two years, with ongoing support from the Austrian trade mission in Uganda, the Swiss Consulate and the German Embassy, the association is now formally incorporated and able to work with an elected board. The GBA Uganda will in the future liaise closely with the Uganda government on investment, tourism and trade issues concerning the German speaking countries (Austria, parts of Belgium, Germany, parts of Holland, parts of Luxemburg and Switzerland) in the heart of Europe, cooperate with their home governments, their home chambers of commerce and industry, as well as related bodies in those German speaking countries. GBA is also due to work in unison with their counterparts in Kenya and Tanzania, to promote improved business, trade and tourism ties between the 5 East African Community nations and the German speaking countries of Europe. This correspondent was elected as Chairperson, pledging to use his considerable connections across the region, as well as in the 'old country' to further the aims and objectives of the newly founded association. METROPOLE HOTEL TOPS ITS MARKET SEGMENT Just six months after opening in time for the Commonwealth Summit, the Metropole Hotel in Kololo has moved to the top of its class of newly constructed business hotels. With occupancies in average ranging in the 80 percent margin, the 60 room property has left other such hotels trailing in its wake. While all of the air-conditioned 60 rooms are of almost equal size and layout, the equipment levels vary between the three room categories. In-room computers with high speed internet connection are available in the top bracket, which goes for an internationally very affordable 120 US Dollars a night. The 'basic' room sells at 90 US Dollars a night, inclusive of free wireless internet access, daily mineral water supplies, in-room coffee/tea facilities and of course a full breakfast, all taxes and the service charge. Half of the rooms face the 18th hole and club house of the Uganda Golf Union's course in the heart of the city, while the other rooms face the fashionable Kololo suburb. Airport transfers are available for guests with the hotel's own shuttle bus. One of the hotel's popular features for Kampaleans and resident guests is 'The Oriental' which serves authentic Thai cuisine for lunch and dinner. In the business arcade of the hotel guests find a car hire and travel office, a small but well stocked boutique and a unisex beauty parlour. Visitors intending to come to Kampala should check out the hotel's website under www.metropolekampala.com for more information and bookings. EMIRATES ADDS MORE US DESTINATIONS The local Kampala office of Emirates, Dubai's award winning airline, has just released information that from late October onwards they will connect Ugandan passengers in Dubai also to San Francisco, after Los Angeles the second West Coast destination of the fast growing airline. The carrier intends to use B777-200LR aircraft on the route in their usual three class configuration for the daily flights. Travel agents contacted by this correspondent confirmed, that in view of the present woes of British Airways and in particular the bodged opening of Terminal 5 in Heathrow has driven scores of passengers away from the former 'world's favourite airline' and Emirates, flying daily into Entebbe from Dubai, is benefiting from this shift of loyalty and patronage. BA, in contrast, for many years now is flying only three times a week from London to Entebbe and has obviously ignored the growing passenger and cargo potential of Uganda and hence lost market share in the overall passenger numbers travelling to and from Entebbe. Problems of obtaining transit Visa and Entry Visa for the UK, incidentally a source of constant acid commentaries and letters in the local media, have also done little to keep travellers on BA, when other transit points like Dubai do not require transit Visa as long as the final destination country has granted one. In fact, for stopovers in Dubai Emirates does process tourist visitor Visa with greater ease for passengers &endash; contrary to the UK's consular mission's rigid approach where applicants have to negotiate a proverbial minefield &endash; to encourage passengers break their journey and stop in the UAE. Only recently has the UK High Commission mooted the idea of banning applicants for up to 10 years, if they are found to use details in their documentation which do not stand further scrutiny. Although Dubai has become more expensive in recent years it still offers an attractive range of stopover packages to sample their world renowned tourism attractions or simply enjoy an amazingly wide range of shopping options, albeit now at nearly European prices. In a further innovation, Emirates is now also offering travel insurance, another 'must have' item besides tickets and a multitude of other criteria when Ugandans apply for Visa to Europe (Schengen area), becoming a one stop centre for would be travellers using the airline. LION INTERNATIONAL MULTI DISTRICT MEETING IN KAMPALA The Eastern African and Indian Ocean districts of the Lion International movement are due to hold their 5th convention from 01st to 04th of May at Kampala's fancied Commonwealth Resort and the Speke Resort and Conference Centre on the shores of Lake Victoria. President Museveni will officially open the convention on Saturday, 03rd of May. Up to a thousand 'Lions' and accompanying spouses are expected to descend on Kampala, supporting the local hospitality industry while 'doing good'. The Lions have in the past excelled to provide needy Ugandans with free treatment for eye disorders and eye diseases and have earned the admiration, thanks and respect of tens of thousands of beneficiaries from many parts of the Africa. MEET THE MEAT Friday and Saturday night are now meat nights at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel, as the revival of its culinary fortunes continues to make inroads amongst Kampala's socialites. Barbequed meat skewers and prime steaks and ribs are on offer at the Paradise Terrace, accompanied by the sounds of the hotel's resident band. Added this correspondent after a rare evening out visit from the lake shores back into the city: 'bring your partner and your appetite, the Sheraton will do the rest'. CITY TYRES SUPPORTS CHIMP CONSERVATION Kampala's leading tyre centre has confirmed that on 03rd May they will sponsor a cross country challenge for 4x4's in favour of the Chimpanzee Sanctuary at Ngamba Island. The event will take place just outside Kampala, along Entebbe Road, at the Ssissa Club and interested parties can contact the coordinator of the event Dr. Lawrence Mugisha at sanctuarymanager@ngambaisland.org. The event also marks the 10th anniversary of Ngamba Island's establishment in 1998. All proceeds will go towards budgetary support of the sanctuary. Visit www.ngambaisland.org for more information on their conservation work and achievements over the past years. Daily half day and full day trips from the Entebbe pier to Ngamba Island are organized exclusively by G&C Tours / Wild Frontiers in Entebbe. Overnight stays at the Ngamba Island tented camp, owned and operated by Wild Frontiers Uganda, can also be booked through G&C Tours via Jane Goldring at jane@wildfrontiers.co.ug. LAKE VICTORIA HOTEL FINALLY ENDS REFURBISHMENT The once upon a time 'grand old dame' of hospitality in Entebbe, the Lake Victoria Hotel, now owned by LAICO, the Libyan Arab Investment Company, has at last finished a near decade long exercise of refurbishing and modernizing the hotel. Locate near the Entebbe Golf Course it is just a few kilometres from the international airport and therefore conveniently located for travellers to and from Uganda as a first or last stopover. The hotel was partly divested from the former Uganda Hotels Corporation in the mid 90's and eventually bought out completely by the new owners, who however dilly-dallied with the renovation and took overtime to finish the work. The hotel also underwent several managerial changes over the past decade but at last now seems to have gotten its act together. The Lake Vic, as it is normally referred to by Ugandans, however now has stiff competition from the Imperial Hotel Group, which operates the Imperial Resort Beach and the Imperial Botanical Beach, both strategically located on the lake shore and adjoining to Entebbe's botanical gardens and the wildlife education centre. The Botanical Beach was incidentally twice the venue for hosting visiting American presidents Clinton and Bush, when they came to Uganda during previous African state visits. The Imperial Hotel properties in recent years dominated the upmarket in Entebbe and captured in particular the meeting and conference market very well. Watch this space. FINANCE MINISTRY ACCUSED OF 'FRUSTRATING TOURISM' A recent meeting between the Minister of Finance and the parliamentary sessional committee on budget brought sharply different opinions into the public domain. While over 650 billion Uganda Shillings of extra revenue seem to have been raised during the financial year, allocations to the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry were slashed from the budgeted nearly 42 billion Shillings to just under 25 billion Shillings, leaving the tourism sectors' main body, the Uganda Tourist Board, unable to fulfil its functions, leave along its home ministry able to live up to its various mandates. The chairperson of the parliamentary sessional committee on tourism, trade and industry subsequently accused unnamed officials in the Finance Ministry to 'frustrating President Museveni's industrialisation policy needed to create employment'. Tourism is indeed globally recognized to create jobs faster than other sectors of the economy and yet for years tourism has not received the financial support and economic ranking recognition it deserves. Yet, the tourism sector continued to grow in past years, but just to imagine how much further Uganda could be today, probably raking in a million visitors already now, if only government had in past years listened and acted upon proposals made by the tourism private sector as put forward to them by the Private Sector Foundation Uganda. Presently final touches are being put towards the 2008/9 budget, expected to be read to parliament in early June this year, but from inside information it already seems clear that the trend of institutional neglect towards the tourism ministry will continue unabated. THE LAKE STINKS TO HEAVEN An immediate result of wet land encroachment and unabated littering, contamination, toxic illegal discharges and a catalogue of other environmental 'sins' is now emerging along some of the Lake Victoria shores. The Murchisons Bay and its funnel into the open lake, is a primary victim of a huge, ballooning algae build up, in particular on the Port Bell side of the bay (Kampala's lake harbour and link for the railway ferries to the Mwanza/Tanzania and other Lake Victoria ports), where also the notorious 'Nakivubo channel' enters the lake. This cannel is carrying run off water from across the city in a single channel towards the lake but also carries much of the city's waste, which at present cannot be fully filtered out due to the 'single outlet' channel design (World Bank funded project). Run off phosphates and nitrates from fertilisers used in agriculture but in particular in flower farms, most of which are located near the lake shores against advice from leading environmental specialists, too has contributed to the algae finding an enabling environment and growing massively in recent months. The city's water supply, coming from the Gaba water treatment plant, is now also said to be threatened and already requires more chemical inputs to keep the water quality within safe parameters. A Belgian owned leading Kampala laboratory, also used to ascertain for the EU the export quality of fish, flowers, fruits, vegetables and meat, has recently laid open their water sample findings, after the algae blooms began to threaten the livelihood of fishermen living along the lake shores and impacted on the air quality of residents living near the lake. The findings are a stern warning that the city council and central government need to act now to prevent a total ecosystem collapse in the future, safeguard the city's water supply and in particular ensure that fish caught from the affected part of the lake is safe to consume for the population depending on fish for their daily diet. A recent flight over the affected area allowed this correspondent to see the extent of the algae infestation and the subsequent colour changes (bright green) in the water and confirm directly what the newspapers and other local media are now slowly catching on to, after long neglecting complaints from conservationists and concerned members of the public over the development. KENYA AIRWAYS TO TAKE OVER KLM'S AMSTERDAM FLIGHTS For the next few weeks Kenya Airways will be operating the code shared flights between Nairobi and Amsterdam exclusively with its own B777 aircraft, after KLM's B747 are undergoing heavy maintenance over the coming weeks ahead of the busy European summer season. This will be a boost in aircraft utilisation by the Kenyan flag carrier, which has suffered load factor setbacks in January and February, caused by Kenya's post election violence. Passenger and cargo performance has since however stabilised and is steadily moving upwards again. The airline is also suffering of the sharply increased fuel prices for JetA1 and has already indicated a further increase in fuel surcharges on their tickets for flights across their network from June onwards. Airline sources however confirmed that while this is a matter of concern, like for the entire global aviation industry, the fundamentals of KQ's performance are sound, especially in view of using the latest fuel saving aircraft types. The same sources confirmed that the situation will receive close monitoring in coming weeks and months but as other competitors on long haul routes too will suffer of the same risen fuel cost any further fare rises would be equitably spread across the aviation industry. It is thought that smaller airlines in the East African region with old and ageing equipment will be the first to suffer any serious cash crunch while KQ with its financial reserves will be better equipped to weather the brewing storm. Airlines operating modern, fuel efficient turbo prop fleets, like Tanzania's Precision Air and Kenya's Fly540 too are expected to perform better than industry average. CONGO'S REGIME LEADER 'UPSET' Joseph Kabila, who followed in the footsteps of his assassinated father Laurent Kabila to head the Congo regime, has over the last weekend lambasted the Belgian government for questioning his human rights record and his economic activities like the &endash; what many feel illegal &endash; cancellation of long term mining and oil exploration concessions, supposedly due for 'redistribution' to Chinese companies and probably regime cronies. Strong words came out of Kinshasa, also taking a sweep at other European nations for daring to insist on the observance of human rights, portraying Belgium's and Europe's firm stand on these issues as a 'master &endash; slave relationship'. Quickly forgotten seems the fact that Europe and Belgium made major financial contributions to the Congo in the recent past, including sending a peace keeping force to supervise the eventually stolen elections, which only left when the paymasters after all realised that Kabila would not change his ilk. Paying for his upkeep however did not stop Kabila to take one swipe after another at the Europeans, and during the week went a step further and allegedly threatened future delegations from Europe to suffer 'an incident' if they would not change their agenda and tunes. Sounds much like the old egocentric and kleptocratic mega tyrant Mobutu, doesn't it. Millions of lives were lost in a liberation struggle to get rid of one of Africa's worst despots only to see him replaced with yet another one. MORE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST UN FORCES IN EASTERN CONGO Fresh fighting in the East of the Congo has again forced a halt to much needed food and medical aid reaching the poverty stricken people, as NGO'S were compelled to stop work, while 'government' troops and their friendly militias were rampaging through the affected areas. At the same time further allegations were made against UN forces in Eastern Congo by the BBC, something for long alleged by other usually well informed sources, that 'peace keepers' were engaged in supplying arms and ammunition to militias in league with the Kinshasa regime. This is of particular gravity, as those same militias are said to have been involved in the 1994 genocide against the Rwandese Tutsi and moderate Hutu populations and have since then engaged in a number of other terrorist activities against the new Rwanda, as well as Uganda, in cross border hit and run attacks. This column has often in the past been criticised over the forthright stand taken against the going on's in Eastern Congo but the latest allegations made by the BBC and their evidence offered as a result of their undercover investigation confirms all which has been said by this correspondent in the past. The BBC has singled out Indian UN troops for dealing and trading in gold and drugs with the Virunga based militias near the town of Goma. The 'peacekeepers' had allegedly even used UN helicopters to supply arms and ammunition to the terror militias at remote locations in exchange for illicit merchandise. The essence of the latest news reports from the BBC also largely exonerates General Nkunda, whose Tutsi self protection forces have long been a thorn in the side of the Kinshasa regime and have been subjected to harsh pursuit by the obviously biased UN forces, their genocide militia friends and the regime's own troops. The UN cover up now suggested by the BBC reminds this correspondent very much of the situation in 1994 in Rwanda, when the UN also played a very dubious role in the build up of the genocide, which eventually cost some 800.000 lives, after its forces failed to take decisive action to prevent one of the worst mass slaughters of innocents in human history. Then, as again now, the UN was prompt to go on the defensive and denied any wrong doings and pointed out that 'new managers' were now in place! However, like in the 'food for oil' and other scandals before, it will now not be long before the truth will be established for all to see. COMESA SUMMIT IN VICTORIA FALLS / ZIMBABWE CANCELLED The present chairman of COMESA &endash; The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa headquartered in Zambia's capital Lusaka &endash; Kenya's president Mwai Kibaki, has now reacted to the protracted election saga in Zimbabwe, where weeks after the elections still no results for the presidential race are made public. The Kenyan president, himself of course no stranger to recent poll disputes in his own country, has now in consultations with other key leaders in the COMESA region decided, that holding the summit meeting in Zimbabwe's resort town of Victoria Falls at this time was not possible, and neither was it advisable to pass on the leadership baton to Mr. Mugabe, who against world opinion seems determined to hang on to the presidential office while seeking ways to manipulate the poll results from some weeks ago in his favour. Government sources in Harare are trying to put a brave attitude to the development, which is a major slap in the face of Zimbabwe and its political establishment while there is growing evidence now, that African leaders are gradually putting some distance between themselves and the Mugabe regime. South African president in waiting Jacob Zuma was unusually outspoken and candid in media interviews over the situation in Zimbabwe, unlike the sitting South African president Thabo Mbeki, whose own reputation is now being dented over his 'Chamberlain' approach towards his neighbours in open disregard of the intense terror and suffering inflicted on the Zimbabwean people by its regime.   RHINO FUND UGANDA NEWS UPDATE Uganda's sole rhino sanctuary at Ziwa Ranch has now released details on their 2007 performance. Visitor numbers sharply increased once again and the trend for the first three months of 2008 too are well ahead of the 2007 count. The increase in gate donations will undoubtedly assist in meeting a portion of the recurrent expenditure, although the sanctuary still relies heavily on donor support and income from other sources, i.e. charity events like the forthcoming 4x4 'Rhino Charge' challenge. Sadly though, one of the three female rhinos gave birth to a still born baby rhino in February, which was considered the biggest set back yet for the RFU operation, although a second female is now thought to be pregnant too. Makerere University's vet department is presently evaluating the samples taken at the time in order to establish the exact cause of the pre-birth death, which occurred inspite of intense monitoring of the pregnant rhino by veterinary staff on the sanctuary. Major diseases have already been ruled out. Meanwhile, the Uganda Wildlife Authority has given several more rangers to Ziwa on attachment for the time being, while 5 of Ziwa's own rangers are undergoing further training, together with 2 askaris (Kiswahili word for 'watchman' or 'security guard'). It was also learned from Heidi Cragg, Executive Director of the Rhino Fund Uganda, that a couple of overseas tour operators have now included visits to the sanctuary in their fixed itineraries for Uganda safaris, either on the way to Murchisons Falls NP or on the way back, which will boost recognition of Ziwa as a major component for any safari across the country. Key sponsor Disney Animal Kingdom, which sent two rhinos from one of their wildlife parks in Florida to Uganda some time ago, also paid repeat visits to the sanctuary, and brought extra GPS units with them allowing the permanent monitoring of the prized animals on a 24/7 basis. More funding for operations throughout 2008 were also pledged by Disney, for which they deserve the thanks of the entire Ugandan tourism and conservation fraternity. Their second visit also coincided with an American Peace Corps outing to the sanctuary, where young volunteers working in Uganda on various projects learned more about Ziwa and the Rhino Fund and conservation in the country at large. Visit www.rhinofund.org for more information. The pictures added below show the six rhinos on the reserve and the Disney Animal Kingdom staff during their evaluation mission interacting with sanctuary staff. PRIVATISATION GONE BONKERS News are just coming out from Jinja that the municipality has allegedly given out the entire site of the 'Source of the River Nile' to a private investments consortium from Malaysia under a yet undisclosed deal. This will undoubtedly raise the debate heat once again over what can, what should and what should not ever be privatised and given away. The 'Source of the River Nile' is a global resource, a key segment in the treaty mechanisms for the Nile waters and a cultural and historical site of the greatest importance to the country and the region. Sites like this ought to be managed and maintained by a public museums and monuments body, aimed at preserving and promoting cultural and geographical points of interest to visitors and locals alike and any element of 'privatisation' ought to include the local community to bring employment and sustainable income to grass root levels. NEMA, Uganda's environmental watchdog agency, has also claimed to have no knowledge of any development plans on the site, which are understood to include a luxury hotel and golf course with substantial impact on the area's environmental circumstances. Undoubtedly this column will be able to report more about this ludicrous give away in coming weeks. The Mayor of Jinja, Mr. Mohammed Kezaala, in the meantime claimed that he and the council was following directives from President Museveni but it should be noted that the Mr. Kezaala belongs to the opposition FDC party, casting immediate doubts over the credibility of his claims. Uganda's opposition has for a while now been on the back foot, loosing one parliamentary by-election after the other and has been resorting to desperate claims while trying to win back their ebbing support base ahead of the next election campaign in early 2011. UGANDA CAA APPROVES NEW AIRLINES During the licensing meeting of the Civil Aviation Authority yesterday at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala, the CAA heard about a dozen applications for new licenses and renewals of existing ones. It is understood from usually reliable sources, that Fly540 has been granted an air services licence to operate as a Ugandan registered airline, besides operating already from Nairobi. The airline is likely to base at least one of their ATR aircraft in Entebbe once their air operators' certificate has been issued, bringing some movement into the aviation sector. Martinair of Holland is reported to have been granted a cargo license to operate cargo services in and out of Entebbe, which will bring relief to importers and exporters who have struggled for capacity since the market exit of Das Air Cargo, which for over 20 years was Uganda's main cargo airline. However, local airline analysts are not too pleased over this turn of events, as they long suspected Martinair may have allegedly been in league with the Dutch aviation authority when Das Air was grounded in Amsterdam in late 2006 and subsequently banned from Europe for several months, before resuming flights again. At that time however the damage was done and Das Air never recovered from that blow which ultimately pushed it out of business. Having gotten rid of a competitor they now have easy pickings from what was Das Air's home market, much to the disgust of many patriotic Ugandans. NO SIGHT OF KINGDOM HOTELS Full-mouthed public statements some months ago over the public controversy, caused by Kingdom Hotels not commencing construction, have been proved wrong once again. The 17 acre prime city centre 'Shimoni' site once upon a time housed a leading city primary school and teachers training college. The premises were demolished hastily to make way for a 5 star hotel construction, when the land was given for near free to Kingdom Hotels to build in time for the Commonwealth Summit. Many children, parents and teachers suffered great hardship in finding new schools and accommodation over the sudden eviction and much public argument has arisen since then. Soon it was becoming clear however, that the company, which had caused the destruction of the school, showed no sign of the promised building activity. As public pressure grew on the supporters of the deal, some quarters eventually made public promises that construction would commence by March this year &endash; but lo and behold, the month has come and gone and the site is still a major empty space with no evidence whatsoever, that anything would happen to it soon. The company is in the meantime however spending major money in Kenya, where it had acquired Lonrho Hotels some time ago and is engaged in a massive refurbishment for the group's properties. Kingdom Hotels is said to be interested in investments in Tanzania too, while all along sitting on their hands in Kampala. Mega barbs therefore for Kingdom Hotels and their owners for continuing to take Uganda for a ride. Watch this space for more news. UWA ADVERTISES MORE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES The Uganda Wildlife Authority has now invited proposals and bids for new and existing sites across the country's national parks and reserves. Amongst them is the Lake Mburo National Park for the Buffalo Tented Camp and Bandas, the Ntoroko campsite at the Semliki Game Reserve, the Gwara Fishing Concession at the Karuma Wildlife Reserve and joint collaborative management opportunities for Ajai Wildlife Reserve, Pian Upe Game Reserve and the Matheniko &endash; Bokora Wildlife Reserve. Contact uwa@uwa.or.ug for more details if interested to submit a proposal. Final deadline for submission of bids is the 04th June and bid forms are available as of April 15th at the UWA headquarters in Kampala, next to the National Museum along Kira Road at a cost of Uganda Shillings 50.000 or about 30 US Dollars. It is also worth pointing out, that UWA has now put a limit on the number of concessions to be held by a single company. Any applicant, already holding two or more concessions at the time of application, will be ruled out of the consideration and only a maximum of two concessions can be awarded to successful applicants. UGANDA GOVERNMENT WITHDRAWS FROM HOTEL INVESTMENT The somewhat controversial investment undertaken by government ahead of the CHOGM summit in the Munyonyo 'Commonwealth Resort' is to be withdrawn, the Minister of Finance assured the parliamentary select committee on CHOGM during the week. Competitors in particular and the business and development partner community in general had criticised government for injecting some 7.5 million US Dollars in the venture at the time, but government defended the move as being 'of strategic importance' to create the needed hotel and conference meeting room capacity ahead of the summit meeting. Once the withdrawal of government from the joint venture is complete, the opposition dominated public accounts committee and committee on CHOGM will have one less axe to grind, having anyway been taken by surprise by the government's move to divest voluntarily from the hospitality joint venture. EGYPT AIR SET TO JOIN STAR ALLIANCE IN JULY The Egyptian flag carrier Egypt Air, presently serving Uganda with passenger services twice a week, plus a separate dedicated cargo service, has given out information in Kampala last week that they will join Star Alliance by mid 2008. This will bring to two the number of Star's member airlines serving Entebbe International Airport, with South African Airways being the first one. Star Alliance is arguably the world's biggest airline alliance and their global linkages will undoubtedly assist in further promoting tourism and business visits to Uganda through increased connectivity via Cairo. It was also learned that the airline will progressively replace several of its 'older' A 320 and A 321 aircraft and their B 737-500's it has been operating for some time. The airline presently uses new A 330 wide body equipment on the Entebbe route and seems set to add more flights in the future, as demand for air travel to and from Uganda continues to grow. BA TERMINAL 5 TROUBLES ALSO AFFECT UGANDAN TRAVELLERS Several passengers connecting via London Heathrow's terminal 5 in recent days, both coming to Uganda but mainly connecting in London to European destinations, have reported to have been caught up in the massive flight cancellations, the baggage and handling chaos at the new landmark building, which was to become the pride of Britain and of British Airways and is now a source of shame to the entire UK. Comments received here &endash; most of them not fit to be repeated in this column &endash; indicate that BA is truly no longer 'the world's favourite airline' &endash; something it has probably not been for some time now and there was overwhelming consensus about avoiding London for future transiting and not flying BA any longer. Said one 'victim' known to this correspondent: 'I arrived in this phantastic building and then the nightmare started. My onward flight to Europe was cancelled and I was told to go to Gatwick. No explanation how, no funds for the cost of going there and no assistance. Staff was tense, their language sort of terse, I could see that they were lost. And hundreds of other people around me left to our own devices. I for one will from now on travel with other airlines directly to Europe and will even save the UK transit Visa. My travel agent also agrees with this. They are trying to get something from BA for me for the transit costs and my loss of time and extra expenses. They also told me they will only sell BA if the client really insists on them.' This will undoubtedly benefit airlines like Brussels Airlines, KLM, Emirates and even Ethiopian Airlines, when it comes to choosing a carrier to travel with from Uganda to destinations in Europe and beyond. All of them offer convenient connections from Uganda's Entebbe International Airport through their main home hubs every day (Emirates and Ethiopian daily, SN and KLM 4 times a week). This should be a cause of concern for BA, which already has a poor rapport with travel agents here in Kampala over their handling of the commission issue and their contentious office closure. Maybe it is time for heads to roll at the helm of the airline, and at BAA for that matter, for having so badly prepared for the shift of flight operations to the new terminal, which ended up in unprecedented chaos lasting for nearly three weeks. British Airways pilots too earlier this week poured scorn over their top management, but that is of little help to those passengers who lost their baggage and missed important connections to their final destination, while having to use BA's new terminal. WILDLIFE EXPERTS DECRY LOW GAME NUMBERS A recent safari experience to Queen Elizabeth national park by renowned wildlife experts, one resident in Uganda and one on a repeat visit to Uganda from Germany, was described as less than satisfactory upon their return to Kampala from a safari through some of the key national parks. They explained to this correspondent that sections of QENP were 'almost bare of wild animals' while also complaining about the number of cattle outnumbering game in Lake Mburo national park. It was also learned that the World Bank funded PAMSU project, benefitting the wildlife sector over the past 10 years or so, will be coming to an end soon, leaving Uganda without any major development partner funded projects for the tourism and wildlife sector. Upon further enquiries with the EU delegation office in Kampala it was learned from one staff speaking on condition of anonymity, that apparently the Government of Uganda has not made tourism and wildlife conservation a priority area when holding bilateral discussions on potential support areas. This is of course greatly disappointing and of major concern to the tourism fraternity at a time, when the Ebola fallout of late last year and the Kenya impact during the first two months of 2008 is still reverberating across the industry. Uganda has built substantial hotel and meeting capacities over the past years in preparation of the Commonwealth Summit in 2007 and now has to aggressively market its hospitality sector abroad to maintain reasonable occupancies and allow the hotel operators to repay their loans. However, Uganda's ITB performance was also far from optimum, when funds to pay for the stand rent and construction were only released on the very eve of the world's most important tourism trade show. In fact only 9 companies and organisations in the end participated directly with the Uganda Tourist Board, after other companies cancelled their attendance over the uncertainty lasting to the very day of the show opening. A wake-up call indeed if anyone has ears to hear the bell toll. Add this correspondent: 'Tourism in Uganda, while making major contributions in foreign exchange earnings and job creation, is still the most neglected sector of the economy when it comes to government funding, budgetary support and direct interventions. Our government needs to move from lip service to real concrete action, otherwise all the gains of past years are in danger of being eroded.'   KENYA AVIATION NEWS Kenya's Government, through the Ministry of Transport has now signed three additional bilateral air services agreements with their counterparts in Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Bangladesh. The new agreements will allow the national airlines of those three countries to commence flights to Nairobi at a time of their choosing while Kenya Airways could now also start flights to Tunis, Dhaka and Colombo. Meanwhile, aviation sources from within Kenya Airways have shared their concern with this correspondent over the fresh delays envisaged for the Boeing Dreamliner B787, of which KQ has several on order to eventually replace their B767 fleet. There is speculation now that the first delivery to Japan's All Nippon Airways may be up to two years delayed &endash; much longer than expected and admitted by Boeing's executives so far &endash; which would cause a ripple effect for all further deliveries too of course. Ethiopian Airlines too is amongst the launch customers for the new Boeing wide body long range jet, having succumbed to the overtures of Boeing at the time at the expense of opting for an Airbus fleet renewal, something the Ethiopian flag carrier may come to regret if the impact on their own fleet overhaul becomes to severe. Adds this correspondent: 'the erstwhile thinly concealed glee at Boeing over the massive problems, Airbus Industries encountered with their own two year delay of the A380 launch has now surely evaporated completely, underscoring the complexity involved nowadays with the launch of newly designed aircraft, especially in view of product liabilities in case of any incidents or accidents with such aircraft.' 'GOLDENBERG' HOTEL FALLS TO GOVERNMENT Nairobi's prestigious Grand Regency Hotel has this week reverted to government ownership after a more than a decade long battle in various courts. Previous, and ever disputed owner Mr. Kamlesh Pattni, finally decided to give up on further court action to regain his control of the hotel. The 5 star, 220 room and suites facility on Uhuru Highway at the edge of the Central Business District, built in the early 1990's, was long under receivership, as legal battles raged on. Mr. Pattni himself was repeatedly taken to court since then over allegations of being mastermind of one of Kenya's grandest corruption schemes, the 'Goldenberg Scandal', under which the Kenya Government paid mind boggling sums of money as 'export compensation' for gold exports, much if not all of which was later alleged to have been fictitious. Kenya's anti corruption tsar Justice Aaron Ringera hailed the development as a warning to others, stating that in at least another 120 cases the clock for repossession of corruptly owned properties was also ticking down. The hotel was some years ago already valued at over 2.1 billion Kenya Shillings and is today arguably worth a lot more, now that the ownership has at last been resolved. VIOLENCE FLARE UP NO CAUSE FOR MAJOR CONCERN, YET After reaching a landmark political agreement under the guidance of former UN supremo Kofi Annan, the two main protagonists in Kenyan politics seemed well on the way towards a joint government. However, presidential election looser, former detainee and alleged coup supporter of 1982, Raila Odinga, seems to have welshed on his consensus on the composition of a new government, reached some days ago after a meeting with President Kibaki. This appears to be due to complaints from his own camp for not being 'firm enough' &endash; yet this attitude, after the late December elections, had driven Kenya to the very brink of a major ethnically inspired civil war. Not getting further concessions from the President he swiftly brought his goons out again in one of the main Nairobi slums, a sharp reminder of his true ilk and the ongoing potential for incited violence. No tourists were affected however and international pressure is said to be piling up again on Odinga to get real, settle down and get on with rebuilding Kenya's economy and community relations hand in hand with the President. In a related development, rioters also damaged the main railway line to Uganda again, which passes through the slums, just weeks after it was repaired at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. This, and some sources say deliberate disruption of the railway, will again cause concern in Uganda and the African hinterland nations depending on the railway from the Mombasa harbour functioning at all times. Odinga supporters are said to be incensed about alleged support from the Uganda government to President Kibaki, a claim which however was never proven and for which no shred of evidence was found in the past, when the same Odinga loyalist crowds claimed that Ugandan security forces were deployed in Kenya against them. Meanwhile, the Ugandan tourism fraternity once again wishes their Kenyan brothers and sisters well along the way to recover from the post election violence business slump and hopes the latest round of opposition inflicted violence will not cause further problems for them. AIR TANZANIA FLEET UPDATE The two recently acquired Bombardier Dash 8-300Q have now commenced service, after having been repainted in the livery of Tanzania's national airline. The two aircraft will be deployed from Dar es Salaam on the routes to Kilimanjaro / Mwanza, Zanzibar, Kigoma, Mtwara and Dodoma as well as other domestic destinations. It is also understood that the Tanzania Government has now issued the guarantee to the lessor / owners of the new A320, which Air Tanzania is to receive shortly, fulfilling the last outstanding contractual element before delivery of the aircraft. Technical personnel and crew are already undergoing training and typerating on the aircraft, ready for delivery and deployment. Additional aircraft purchases are also at an advanced stage, underscoring the political will of the Tanzanian government to keep ATCL independent from snap up vultures hovering in the region and operationally capable to strongly compete in the East African aviation market and beyond. Well done indeed! CONGO BANDITS VIOLATE BORDER, AGAIN Suspected Interahamwe militias &endash; known for their gruesome genocide inflicted on the Tutsi (and to a lesser extend the moderate Hutu) population of Rwanda in 1994 &endash; have once again gone on rampage across the Uganda border from their safe havens in Congo. Reports received in Kampala indicate that a group of the free roaming militia stole household goods, supplies and life stock from innocent villagers along the common border before running away when Ugandan security forces were alerted. Congo's rogue regime has long been suspected to allow such terror groups to use Congolese territory for hide outs, from where they safely, and regularly, conduct hit and run attacks on Uganda and Rwanda. This most recent incident belies the assurances of the Kinshasa regime for peaceful cooperation and is an indicator that they only engage in military operations in the East of the country against groups of Tutsi ethnicity while leaving the true culprits largely alone. No comments could be received from the UN command in the area, which also speaks for itself and supports ongoing speculation about bias by the UN forces in Eastern Congo.   would comply with assembly requirements. However, UN envoy and former Mozambique President Joaquin Chissano has now confirmed that the group was not at the assembly point in time for the proposed signing date of 05th April. Confusing information given by the LRA team in Juba also introduced a new piece of information that Kony was ill in the bush and could therefore not make it to the signing &endash; as predicted in this column weeks ago. New provisional dates have now would comply with assembly requirements. However, UN envoy and former Mozambique President Joaquin Chissano has now confirmed that the group was not at the assembly point in time for the proposed signing date of 05th April. Confusing information given by the LRA team in Juba also introduced a new piece of information that Kony was ill in the bush and could therefore not make it to the signing &endash; as predicted in this column weeks ago. New provisional dates have now been set for the middle of April but as the ICC warrants continue to hang over Kony and his co-killers &endash; the ICC has not lifted the indictments inspite of Kony's threats &endash; a true signing may still be way off. However, with the LRA ranks decimated and its remaining core camped in the CAR, at least peace has returned to Northern Uganda for now even without a formal deal.   KENYA PEACE DEAL STUCK IN MORE ARGUMENTS While calm has returned to Kenya in recent weeks, following the Kofi Annan sponsored peace agreement between the main political foes and the amendment of the country's constitution to make way for the appointment of a Prime Minister, the final enactment still seems some time away. For the past weeks the two sides cannot seemingly agree on cabinet positions and distribution of jobs amongst their supporters, and Kofi Annan had to step in once again to get some movement back into the process. Outbreak of violence however is presently most unlikely and with Annan's efforts redoubled a positive outcome is expected in due course. Watch this space &endash; and visit Kenya now to take advantage of some extraordinary low season offers.         And just returned from her Easter break, here is Gill Staden again with some more tourism news from Zambia's side of the Victoria Falls &endash; Livingstone. Of particular interest here is the issue of the recently revised Visa fees for Zambia, which is already showing a severe impact on day visitor arrivals from across the border between Victoria Falls / Zimbabwe and Livingstone / Zambia and general tourist visits into Zambia. A comprehensive report compiled by the Tourism Council of Zambia is therefore featured here for the information of this column's readers. Equally, if not more important however is her Easter safari report into Zimbabwe &endash; just ahead of the general election in that country &endash; spiced up with some pictures to raise some taste amongst the readers to visit, after the Visa fees have been re-visited I should add:   The Implications of Zambia's Revised Visa Fees in the Tourism Sector Tourism Council of Zambia March, 2008     1. Background   Business success, whether at the industry level, or the level of the individual entity, depends on the quality and competitiveness of a combination of: product, location, service delivery and price. A survey of international tour agents conducted during research for this paper suggest that Zambia's tourism sector is performing well on at least the first three of these four criteria - Zambia is seen as an expensive destination - at the national level (see the summarised results of the questionnaire in Annex 1).   However, two conditional statements on Zambia's tourism pricing are required to place this statement in context:   firstly, Livingstone and the south-western tourism circuit and some elements of the Lower Zambezi and South Luangwa tourism areas, are linked into cross-border tourism circuits and the South African supply chain and are more price sensitive than internal tours and are subject to some market resistance from Zambia's rising prices. This is now being emphasised with the apparent re-emergence of Zimbabwean tourism; and   the cost of carbon taxes, departures taxes, fuel levies, visas and the like is increasing the ancillary cost component of holidays to southern Africa to a level where clients are now aware of and sensitive to these additions (see comments from tour agents in Annex 1).   Tourism is now recognised as an important contributor to the economy and has been formally placed as one of four key pillars of growth driving the Fifth National Development Plan. In spite of recent economic skewing created by the exceptional price of Zambia's base and precious metal exports and associated mining investments, the tourism sector is performing quite competitively with critical regional tourism markets &endash; especially Botswana, Tanzania, Namibia and even Zimbabwe (which it is now starting to show signs of recovery) (see Figure 1).   The medium term (1999 to 2006) moving average for total visitor arrivals has increased from 8.2% to 9.4% per annum; following a significant 13.2% increase in 2006 to 756,860 visitor arrivals (2007 data are not yet available). The 2006 growth rate exceeds the World Tourism Organisation data for both sub-Saharan Africa and Africa as a whole. Perhaps even more important is the exceptional 17.7% increase in holiday tourist arrivals in 2006 (over 2005 arrivals), to 242,358, or 32% of all arrivals.   These figures should be seen in context &endash; they are more than three times higher than growth rates in the early 2000's &endash; and confirm that Zambia is now on the tourist map. Current arrivals trends suggest that Zambia will achieve between 1.4 million and 2.0 million arrivals by 2015 (see Figure 2). This will probably generate between 450,000 and 650,000 holiday tourist a year by then.   But to put Zambia's progress in perspective it is worth noting that Zimbabwe achieved in excess of 2 million visitor arrivals in the 1990's.   Figure 1 Tourist Arrivals to RETOSA Countries                                           Source: RETOSA, 2005     Figure 2 Projected Visitor Arrivals to Zambia to 2015.   Source: Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources, 2006   Where do Zambia's tourists come from? In 2005 Southern Africa was the most important source area for holiday tourists, providing 38% of holiday arrivals, with Europe next with 31%, the Asia Pacific region providing 11%, the Americas 10%, and the rest of Africa another 10% (see Figure 3). This changed dramatically in 2006 with the share of European tourist arrivals increasing by 39% to 37% of the market; American arrivals by 66% (to 14%) and Asian/Pacific arrivals by 13% (to retain 11% of the market). Simultaneously, and significantly, the southern African market share has fallen from 38% to 31% (with a reduction in approximately 3,000 tourists). What has changed?   Figure 3 Source Regions for Zambia's Tourists (2006)                                         Source: Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources, 2008   These data all suggest that after many years of hard work Zambia's tourist industry is beginning to take off. It is at this critical point that the potentially damaging 2008 budget adjustments to the visa regime have been introduced.   2. Issues from the New Visa Measures   This paper examines the issues as an objective risk assessment of possible impacts on future tourist arrival patterns and revenue streams. And also possible constructive modifications to the visa measures. The paper is based on data from the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources, official publications from the Immigration Department and a Tourism Council of Zambia questionnaire that was circulated to principal tour agents around the world that serve the Zambian market.   The principal issues are threefold:   Zambia is on the brink of major tourism growth - and unnecessary regulatory, or other changes can interrupt, or even reverse, the momentum achieved; the introduced visa fee increases apply to and directly affect Zambia's principal off-shore source of tourists &endash; the United Kingdom; as well as a large and rapidly growing market source &endash; the United States (10.6%) &endash; as well as business visitors from these countries; and the removal of the visa waiver facility (that allowed bone fide tourists staying with licensed tourism operators to a waiver on visa fees), affects all non-African nationals visiting Zambia.   Table 1 shows the new Visa measures in a regional comparison.   Table 1 Zambian Visa Fees Compared with Regional Tourism Competitor Countries   Country Other single entry* Other multiple entry Canada single entry Canada multiple entry UK single entry UK multiple entry US single entry             US multiple entry                   Zambia US$ 50 US$ 160 US$ 55 US$ 160 US$ 140 US$ 442 US$ 135 US$ 135 Kenya US$ 50   US$ 50       US$ 50   US$ 50     Tanzania US$ 50   US$ 50       US$ 50             US$ 100 US$ 100               Mozambique US$ 20 US$ 40 US$ 20 US$ 40 US$ 80 US$ 140 US$ 20 US$ 40 Botswana 0   0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Malawi 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Namibia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0             0 South Africa 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Zimbabwe** US$ 30 US$ 55 US$ 30 US$ 55 US$ 55 US$ 70 US$ 30 US$ 55 Rates for visas in foreign countries obtained from embassies or websites for non-urgent delivery * Generally for non-African nationals ** Rates at port of entry   3. International Tourist Responses   Responses to this tour agent questionnaire that was circulated widely in the United States, the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe, Australia and southern Africa are unequivocal about two issues. The top-end tourist market (logically), will be less affected by the visa increases than other market sectors. These clients pay significant amounts for a 6- to 14-day holiday to Zambia and the region and an additional US$140 per person is unlikely to deter them (however, even these tourists will be deterred). This is reinforced by another finding of the questionnaire; that many tourists (23% of responses) see Zambia as a "must visit" destination, with a further 23% of responses seeing Zambia as a more interesting destination. In short Zambia is a "new" tourist destination and as such is beginning to draw high-cost tourists who have not visited before.   On the other hand, the questionnaire response was equally definite that some top-end, as well as mid-range and budget holiday clients from at least the UK and USA will be deterred by the new visa measures. These clients made up approximately 40% of the 2006 arrivals to Zambia and probably increased in 2007.   4. Reasons for the 2008 Visa Measures   The 2008 changes to the visa regime are understood to be mainly a rationalisation of reciprocal visa charges with Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. However, given Zambia's tourism sector objectives under the FNDP, the visa fee increases were presumably also introduced as a revenue-generating measure. It is also assumed that this was a calculated risk that increased fiscal contributions from the sector through the new visa fees would exceed any losses due to tourists diverting to other destinations. The validity of this assumption is discussed in section 7.   The United Kingdom contributes a full 14% of all holiday tourist arrivals to Zambia and the United States another 10.6% - the two largest tourist source countries after South Africa (22%) - who do not pay visas. Canada only contributes around 2% and is not significant to any arguments for or against visa changes. Thus if an increase in visa revenue is the overall objective, the countries chosen coincidentally also contribute a quarter of all holiday arrivals to Zambia &endash; and strongly support this government fiscal strategy.   As already noted, the 2008 visa schedule also removed the "visa waiver" facility, where tourists staying with a licensed tourism operation were not required to pay visa fees. Some argue that the visa waiver facility was ineffective as it was sometimes poorly administered &endash; leading to disgruntled tourists on day one of their holiday &endash; and was not readily accessible to those organising their own holidays.   5. 2008 Visa Fee Revenue Benefits   Assuming that 70% of all arriving holiday tourists were accessing the visa waiver facility, the 2008 visa measures overnight increased visa revenues by US$ 50 all "other national" tourists due to pay visas, possibly including Canadians, but otherwise US$ 55 for Canadian tourists, US$135 for United States tourists and US$ 140 for United Kingdom tourists &endash; a major windfall estimated at US$ 4.3 million from Canadian, UK and USA tourists alone (calculated on the basis of the available 2006 holiday tourist arrivals data).   6. Anticipated General Tourism Sector Impacts and Responses   Assuming this windfall tax revenue potential is sustained, are the medium-term financial and economic effects of the measures as beneficial as they look at first sight? And why does the tourism industry have major concerns about the new visa measures? The latter question is discussed first and falls into seven main categories.   Market Loyalty &endash; tour agent markets are reasonably robust, but events such as the Asian tsunami, the Zimbabwean situation (see further below) and recently Kenya, demonstrate that rapid re-orientations of tourist preference can happen in real time. Tour agents are now required to comply with significant international health and safety and holiday insurance requirements. Therefore, sudden shifts in their loyalties are understandable where factors increase their risk. The visa fee measures introduce two risks:   the visa fee increases were made practically immediately, thus forcing affected tourists who had already paid for their holidays to an unexpected increase of around US$ 280 per couple, or US$ 560 for a family of four. Our questionnaire indicates that 51% of all tourists to Zambia include other countries in the region in their packages. In many cases this requires a multiple-entry visa, so for a UK family of four an unexpected increase of US$ 1,768 has occurred where a visit to Botswana and or Namibia or Zimbabwe was included with a return through Zambia; and   Zambia is a relatively new destination, especially for USA and European tourists and sudden policy changes in this new market area is likely to have negative impacts on tour agents' confidence about the security of other issues;   Administrative Effectiveness &endash; regrettably the introduction of the new visa regime was made with immediate effect. As the tourism industry works a year ahead of actual arrivals (for brochure production, clarification on entry requirements, airline schedules and bookings and so on), and holidays are often booked at least 6 months in advance; this created an unnecessary negative impact. The Department of Immigration have recently reported the difference in visa fee collections for a 10-day period before the new measures and a 10-day period immediately following their introduction. Their report enthusiastically highlights a 200% increase in US$ visa fee receipts and a 1,000% plus increase in UK Sterling visa fees. It is of considerable concern that the report is numerically incorrect, but also that its authors are unaware that the obvious reason for the apparent absence of immediate resistance to the visa fee increases is that holidays are booked months in advance and late cancellations, or changes, result in significantly reduced refunds.   Of equal concern are four other issues: in this crucial period of regulatory change, the Immigration website, the official statements from the Immigration Department and the practical interpretation of the new visa regulations at different ports of entry all varied; it appears that tourists are now no longer unable to purchase multiple entry visas on arrival in Zambia; the third issue is that the US$ 10 "day visitor" visa for relevant nationals visiting from neighbouring countries for day activity purposes &endash; crucially important especially to activity providers in Livingstone &endash; was halted and remains an area of confusion; and the extreme cost (US$ 440) of the multiple entry visa for UK nationals introduces doubts that the reciprocity of this measure has been accurately applied &endash; and in any case when combined with application procedures is now a major deterrent to UK multiple entry tourists.   Visa Competitiveness &endash; although, as noted earlier, the new visa fees for UK and USA citizens are in themselves apparently insignificant in the context of a 10 to 14 day African holiday package, of more relevance to Zambian tourism is the cost in comparison to alternative regional destinations is big enough to create immediate consumer resistance. This is particularly so where tours are routed through South Africa, to Namibia and Botswana, with Zambia as a possible add-on destination. It is equally important for the rapidly growing American market where Zambia is not yet seen as a primary destination (see also Annex 1 for a cross section of brochure material from leading USA tour agents showing the absence of Zambian exposure);   Effects on Zambia's UK Tourist Base &endash; The UK has, since independence, been a main source area for Zambia's tourism industry &endash; its tourists often being more willing than most to explore new destinations and activity areas. At a personal level these tourists, many of whom are multiple-returning clients, or use the multiple-entry facility in planning their holiday, see being specifically penalised by a reciprocal immigration arrangement, however justified, as a holiday obstacle (see Annex 1). At the industry/tour agent level it is seen as strategically short-sighted in the context of probable negative impacts on the 14% of arrivals contributed by UK nationals and therefore also on future revenue streams; but also on the uninterrupted growth of tourism into Zambia;   Impacts on the Growing USA Market - In the 1980's USA clients represented a significant element of Zambia's foreign tourist traffic. This decreased with the economic decline of Zambia in the late 1980's and 1990's and culminated in the September 11th 2001 catastrophe. Since the mid-2000's the USA tourist numbers have slowly increased in spite of big global gains elsewhere (in part this reflects the ineffectiveness of Zambia's national marketing effort in that country - which is a separate but important issue). The 2006 data show that although many Americans are still woefully ignorant about Zambia's geographic location and tourism opportunities, the "new destination" driver has increased the number of USA tourists to nearly 11% of all arrivals. A sudden increase in visa fees to a client base that is often enticed into Zambia on the back of a South African, Namibian and Botswana tour, could immediately reverse these hard-won gains &endash; as many recent client and agent comments suggest;   Stimulus for the Recovering Zimbabwean Tourism Sector &endash; over the last five years Zambia has benefited from a notable diversion of tourism flows from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe to Livingstone (as well as a migration of other Zimbabwean tourist clients and tour operators). The resulting 50% decline in tourist arrivals to Zimbabwe (see Figure 1 above), is now being reversed by aggressive strategic responses from the Zimbabwean tourism industry. The recent significant increase in Zambian visa fees will very likely strengthen the diversion of US and UK (as well as South African and other) tourists from Livingstone to Victoria Falls; as well as budget tourists travelling in southern African;   Charter Pilot and Crew Visas - unfortunately the 2008 visa increases come in the wake of an equally sudden and dramatic increase in light aircraft aviation charges that were levied by the National Airports Corporation in 2006. They were only reversed after serious industry consultation, but also involved many of the same tourism agents and operators now being impacted. Charter pilots and crew bringing tourists into Zambia are still required to pay visa fees.   Perhaps most telling is the strength of response received to the foreign tour agent questionnaire sent out in late-February to assess responses to the new visa scenario. In 2006 a World Bank-funded Tourism Supply-Side Study sent out a similar questionnaire to tour agents around the world. Only 28 responses were received from 166 questionnaires that were distributed. On this occasion more than 147 responses have been received at very short notice and without undue soliciting; including more than 49 UK agents; more than 32 USA agents; 50 Southern African agents and 16 "other country" (mainly European and Australian) agents &endash; a reasonable representation of the contribution of Zambia's main tourist origin regions. The summarised results of the survey are attached as Annex 1.   7. Anticipated Financial and Economic Impacts on the Tourism Sector   Our research suggests that the likely financial and economic impacts of the new visa measures reflect the disquiet that the above comments create.   Visa Fee Revenues Analysis based on World Bank demand-side research of the Zambian tourism industry in 2006 (that calculated an average tourist spend in Zambia of US$ 1,100) and the disaggregated 2006 tourist arrival data, indicate that the 242,358 tourists that visited Zambia in 2006 will have contributed around US$ 269 million to the economy through payment for goods and services. If the 2008 visa regime had been applied at that time Zambia would have earned at around US$ 13 million in visa fees.   Sector Financial Losses On the basis of comments received from tourists and agents while researching this paper (please refer to Annex 1), it is assumed conservatively that 1% of top-end tourists, 3% of middle bracket holiday makers and 15% of budget holiday makers will be diverted from Zambia as a tourism destination; or not come to Zambia. The financial impact of this loss in tourist earnings using a weighted expenditure pattern (US$ 1,500 for top-end; US$ 1,000 for middle bracket; and US$ 500 for budget holidays) on the reduced arrivals will be an estimated US$ 29 million &endash; more than double the visa earnings from the increased visa fees.   Negative Sector Economic Impacts Placed in an economic context, and again referring to the 2006 World Bank tourism sector research that calculated a tourism sector economic multiplier of 2.1, the negative impact on GDP is conservatively estimated to be in the region of US$ 63 million.   Another important factor is that tourism earnings circulate within and contribute to the communities where they are spent. On the other hand fiscal revenues are returned to government accounts with limited returns to the tourism sector.   8. Conclusions - Big Picture Considerations   In calculating the financial and economic impacts of tourists being diverted to or remaining in alternative destinations by Zambia's new visa measures, one should not lose sight of the bigger picture. Four factors need consideration in an increasingly competitive world:   1) growth curves suggest that world tourist arrivals will grow to 1 billion by 2010 and that competition for a bigger slice will be intense in emerging markets such as Africa &endash; especially in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa; 2) the negative perception impact of the new visa fees is widespread, but particularly evident in the recently growing USA market and in the South African budget market that still supports Zimbabwean tourism &endash; and is a principal sources of tourists to Zambia (especially Livingstone); 3) between 21% and an estimated 30% of tourists to Zambia stay in budget accommodation of one sort or another. Many of these facilities are newly created investments by Zambian entrepreneurs and will be the most heavily impacted by the removal of the visa waiver facility and the tourist visa increases. It is precisely this sub-sector that government committed to supporting; and 4) while Botswana, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa are well prepared for the SADC Tourism Protocol Univisa (with zero visa status for all tourists and free flows between the countries), Zambia may be perceived to be taking a separate approach by increasing its visas.   In an overall context, unless addressed, these circumstances will do much to damage the tourism sector objectives of the FNDP, but more seriously, Zambia's image in the international tourism world. With the conservatism of international tour agents the image factor could have effects long after the FNDP ends in two years' time. More unfortunately, this damage is likely to have a double effect.   Initially it is expected that there will be losses through disruption to the impetus achieved by Zambian tourism operators, their agents, the Tourism Council of Zambia and the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources and its statutory bodies (National Heritage Conservation Commission; National Museums; ZAWA; and ZNTB &endash; now ZTB), over the last five to ten years; but secondly there will be the loss of a proportional share of the markets that Zambia could have diverted from neighbouring countries (particularly Botswana &endash; Zambia's chief competitor &endash; Malawi and Namibia; but also Kenya and Tanzania &endash; another of Zambia's chief competitors).   The hasty introduction of the 2008 revised visa schedule and subsequent events bring to the fore a number of issues:   the long-acknowledged absence of a practical, medium-term tourism strategy that government is able to work towards; the important implications that a tourism strategy would have for how tourism development could be nurtured in the cross-border Livingstone areas; compared with the centre and east of Zambia; and particularly Zambia's still undeveloped northern circuit; the lack of consultation between elements of the public service and between the public and private sectors (tourism has been acknowledged by government to be a private-sector driven industry &endash; so why not consult them, however difficult this may seem at times). Zambia's tourism sector and its selected offshore agents have invested heavily in developing Zambian tourism and the visa measures indicate an unnecessary and possibly unwarranted disregard for their efforts; that short-term, apparent financial windfalls are not always as real as they may seem and may have significant negative short-, and especially medium- and long-term financial and economic impacts; and that although conditions have improved, the administration of tourism arrivals (and particularly the administration of changed circumstances), still leaves much to be desired in coherence, consistency and simplicity &endash; key factors that impact immediately on tourists at point of entry and their desire to visit, and return.   Comments received from tourists and tour agents have indicated a high level of criticism for the new visa measures. This having been said, it is believed that a positive and innovative response to the situation could reverse the damage done - but the strategy needs to be carefully choreographed.   Comments received suggest that the following factors that may be worth considering are:   the Livingstone area is unique in the tourism sense that with the new regional flight opportunities provided by the lengthened Livingstone Airport runway, it stands to gain considerable incoming traffic that will benefit the "Four Corners" area (Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and also flows of tourists generated by the South African tourism supply chain. It also stands to lose significantly from two factors: a) the re-emergence of Zimbabwe as a significant and highly developed tourism destination; and b) the loss of traffic and revenue that will result from the high cost of single entry visas for UK and USA citizens and multiple-entry visas for UK citizens wishing to extend their Zambian stay with visits to neighbouring countries - and Zambia's non-competitive visa position relative to these neighbouring countries; also in Livingstone, the continuation of the day-visit visa is critically important to supporting Zambia's competitive edge in adventure tourism, by drawing visitors from Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia wishing to fly over the Victoria Falls, white-water raft, bunji jump, or partake of Livingstone's numerous other cultural and physical activities. These tourists contribute an estimated 30% to the turnover for these entities &endash; income which may be critically reduced if the day visitor facility is removed, and/or the new visa costs equal or exceed the cost of the activity itself &endash; and possible lead to business closures; the administration of visas would be infinitely simplified if a single visa fee was levied on non-African nationals and purchasable easily at the port of entry. In these circumstances standard visa application forms could be provided with arrivals forms on all incoming flights and at ports of entry; tour agents and tourists could be advised through the official web site to have a US$ bank note of the required denomination available to reduce the need for change and transaction time at entry points (poor port of entry facilities and management, particularly at Kazangula, are a common theme in complaints from tourists); the tour agent questionnaire indicated that 51% of responding tour agents provide east and southern African holidays that include more than one country. In these circumstances the easy availability of multiple-entry visas at ports of entry (not requiring prior application), would encourage visits to and longer stays in Zambia (the holiday stay length in Zambia is of the order to 6 days compared to around 14 in Namibia). The 2006 World Bank Tourism Demand-Side Survey has demonstrated the significant financial and economic benefits to Zambia of increasing tourist stay length; fixing the standard visa rate for all non-African nationals at reasonable levels would send a positive message to tourists that may wish to divert, or extend their holidays to Zambia from other regions. Zambia's main southern competitor countries have zero visa policies that Zambia could progressively work towards in the context of the SADC Tourism Protocol due for implementation by 2010. But most international tour agents indicated that a reasonable visa rate is not a present deterrent, even though Zambia's previous tourist visa waiver facility was generally seen as an innovative, if often inefficiently administered development; removing the current need for visas for pilots and crew of charter operations bringing tourists to Zambia would have very little fiscal impact; bring this sector in line with the treatment of aircrew of scheduled services, and particularly for multiple destination air-chartered holidays, would make Zambia procedurally more attractive;   Government's further consideration of the current visa measures could be scored around two issues: firstly an honest appreciation that Zambia was listening to its valued tourist clients and their agents and had recognised the need, not to reduce visa fees (revenue was needed to fund the continual improvement of immigration services), but in response to visitor and agent comments, to re-arrange them in a simplified and rationalised format; and secondly that appreciation was being given to Zambia's commitment to the SADC Tourism Protocol and the need to start an early move towards the Univisa concept.   A smooth and tourist-aware response to the current visa measures is likely to permit the growth in tourist arrivals from the key UK and USA markets to resume with limited negative impacts. It would also minimise the possible diverting effect to Zimbabwe for South African tourists.   However, most importantly, the early application of a raft of appropriate tourist arrival incentive measures will: 1) place Zambia in an excellent position to challenge Zimbabwe's return to its previous apex position in regional tourism north of South Africa; and 2) to position Zambia to gain a major market share from the 2010 World Cup.     Four Corners I have started researching for my book on travel in the region.  Some of you may remember that I used to print the Zambezi Wonderland.  It was an A5 publication which I printed at home.  Everyone liked it but wanted it to be in colour.  So I am biting the bullet and am going for commercial printing.  I have not worked out the cost of advertising yet - as soon as I do, I will let you know.  The area to be covered in the book will be: Zambia - Livingstone, Sinazongwe, southern section of Kafue National Park, Sesheke, Katima Mulilo and the west bank of the Zambezi to Sioma Falls. Zimbabwe - Victoria Falls Town, Hwange National Park, Kazuma National Park, Chizarira National Park, Binga and Lake Kariba. Botswana - Kasane, Nata, Chobe National Park, Makgadigadi and Sua Pans.  (I would like to get to the Okavango) Namibia - Katima Mulilo, Babwata National Park, Mamili National Park, Madumo National Park, Caprivi Strip to Popa Falls. There is a chance that some of Angola will open up ... if it does, I shall be there. I already have loads of stories ... but will be gathering more.  If you want me to visit your lodge/operation let me know and I will get a story in about it. As you know, last week I was away.  I went travelling ... here is the story ...     Mlibizi and Chizarira National Park   21st March was the day to get out of Livingstone for a break from work and dull routine. There aren't many places to go at this time of year &endash; the roads are bad after the rains and many of the game parks are still water-logged. We had decided to go to Lake Kariba on the Zimbabwe side. The roads, I was told, were tar. I had never been there before … so it was going to be a new experience for me.   The border crossing at Victoria Falls, over the bridge, is a nightmare … as most of us know. The bridge is the favoured crossing for hundreds of trucks travelling from South Africa to the north. But first we had to negotiate the Customs on the Zambian side. The Customs officer did not seem inclined to assist; he knew I was there clutching my vehicle documents but continued to serve the marketeers on the incoming side of the counter. Finally, after I had been joined by another five people queueing up to be served, I shouted across the room "Can we have some help, please." The man did not move a muscle, but a lady heard me and came over and got out the forms and the rubber stamp … and finally we were leaving Zambia.   The road over the bridge is another Zambian eyesore. Trucks on both sides of the road with a narrow alley through the middle for vehicles to pass. A hold-up at the bridge itself &endash; about 10 vehicles backed up waiting for the boom gate to be lifted so that we could pass. After a while we were allowed through to the Zimbabwe side and there we found loads more trucks, some stuck in the mud, listing to one side as they had come off the road and dropped about a foot onto a verge that had subsided.   Finally the Zimbabwe border … US$55 for me &endash; visa. US$30 for insurance for the car; US$10 for carbon tax and US$15 for Road Access. A performance, but at least we were attended to efficiently and without the surly attitude of the man on the Zambian side.   As we had taken about an hour to get over the border we drove up to Victoria Falls Safari Lodge and had a drink on their veranda and learned to relax before our journey to Mlibizi. We left Vic Falls at about 3pm … a late start … but, we were on holiday and time was not important.     The journey to Mlibizi is not too interesting. 163km to the Kamativi turnoff on the Bulawayo Road; another 30km to the Mlibizi turnoff and finally, after a journey of around 250km we were in Mlibizi. There is one section of the road which passes through a range of hills; the road twisted and was steep in places; the views are lovely and it took all my concentration to keep my eyes on the road.   We arrived in Mlibizi in the dark but found the house we were staying in quite easily &endash; Mlibizi is not a big place. Food, bed … tired. The following day was another lazy day which ended with a trip on a boat around the bay. There were quite a few people out &endash; mostly, Zimbos, I would guess, who had come for the weekend away. They were fishing, don't know if they were catching &endash; fishing is not my idea of fun. We just enjoyed some sundowners and watched the sunset.   The following day, we decided to leave the Lake behind and head towards Chizarira National Park. Before leaving Mlibizi we called in to see Mlibizi Hotel. It was quiet, run down and very sad. There were no guests; the cracked swimming pool was being filled with muddy water and the staff looked dejected. There were a number of boats moored along the lakeshore and had probably not been used for some time. The hotel reminded me of those days in Zambia when we had no tourists and hotels looked just the same … The hotel staff were friendly and helpful giving me all their details. I did not have a look at one of the rooms but I am sure they would be clean, if a bit lacking in maintenance. Unfortunately, this will be the way of things until Zimbabwe comes right …   On the way to Binga we called in at a lodge &endash; Masumu River Lodge. There we found a group of family and friends who had just finished lunch. One of them was the new owner of the lodge and we heard about his plans to renovate the place and make it available for conferences as well as fishing. He expects the renovations to take about 6-9 months. So, if you want to go for a break in Zim, this is a place to consider. The bar is high up on the bank, with a refreshing breeze, and great views over the lake. Contact Masumu Lodge on resilient@mweb.co.zw … a very apt email address. The owner's name is Mike McAllister from Bulawayo.   We didn't manage to get into Binga because time was short … we headed out towards the National Park. After turning off the Binga road to the north we came onto a dirt road. It was OK. As we travelled we had the Chizarira Escarpment off to our right and we followed this for a long way &endash; about 60km. Then we took a turn towards the escarpment. The road is good and winds its way up the escarpment in easy stages, alongside a mountain stream which was still flowing &endash; Muchene River. We arrived at the Park entrance and were given directions to Chizarira Lodge which was about 8km away.   We had arrived a day early and were hoping that there would be space … we shouldn't have worried … the lodge was empty. The staff were only too happy to have some company. Samson, the cook and main man, quickly ran around to organise the rooms as we relaxed in the lounge area. We then gave Samson some of our food supplies and off he went to prepare supper. We also gave him some diesel which he used for the generator, and when it got dark we had lights. This, I am afraid, is the way of things in Zim these days. Fortunately I had been warned and we were very well prepared.   The chalets are all perched on the edge of the escarpment overlooking communal land. We could hear cows, donkeys, the occasional human noise and odd drumming. And, in the morning, I woke up to this sight:       This next day was a day for driving around the park to see what it was all about. We headed for the Park Office about 15km away. There, Michael, the Game Scout in charge of the office was as helpful as he could be but he was young and did not have much idea about giving travel tips … He didn't have any change either so when I gave him US$50 and needed US$25 in change, he didn't have it. I think he thought that we would leave it for him, but we said that he must give it to the staff at Chizarira Lodge … I hope he did.   We took potluck in our choice of roads taking a road south. It was a bad choice. We ended up travelling on a rocky road, down the escarpment. The grass was high on either side of the road so we couldn't see far. Had there been an elephant just off the road, I think we would have missed it … As it was, we saw one mongoose and two guinea fowl who felt that they could entertain us tourists. Of course, now is not the time to travel in any National Park, and I don't think that we thought that we would see much game.   Having decided that this road was a complete waste of time, we back-tracked and took another road to the north. I saw some impala … wow …   Not far down the road we came to Muchene View. This is a scenic spot and was lovely. We sat and enjoyed the view for about half an hour feeling how lucky we were to be able to see such an amazing sight. It made the memory of the lack of game and the awful roads fade … the trip was worth it just for this wonderful view.       Having had our kidneys rattled by all the bumpy roads we decided to head back to the lodge and relax. We had been out for about 7 hours, so it had not been a short day. We enjoyed the sunset while Samson prepared another great meal.                                 We left Chizarira Lodge sadly &endash; I could have spent another day, but … that awful four-letter word 'WORK' was beckoning us home …   We left the staff at Chiz Lodge quite a lot of food from our boxes &endash; it would have been too terrible to take it home with us when we knew that their access to supplies was probably quite limited. We left them all grinning from ear to ear &endash; they were going to eat well that evening.   The journey home was completely uneventful &endash; just back the way we had come. The border was quiet as it had been Easter weekend and many of the trucks had disappeared for the holiday time. What a pleasure.   Would I recommend Zimbabwe for a holiday?? Yes, definitely. I know many people are saying that we should not support a regime that has impoverished its people. But, most of the money that we spend goes into the local pocket and we should not feel guilty about going there. Some people say that it is not safe. It is safe in the tourist areas. For us in the Southern African region we should not feel at all worried about travelling to Zimbabwe. In fact, I strongly feel that the Zimbabwean tour operators should be marketing a lot more within the region. They used to have international clients … it was easy … tourists used for flock there, more than anywhere else. Now, though, Zimbabweans have got to market themselves aggressively to people like us. OK, our income is not on a par with international clients but at least we keep the lodges going and help support the staff and other overheads … until, we hope, when things get better … maybe the elections today will mark a turning point … who knows …       LODGES REPORT 'FULL HOUSE' &endash; RAINS POUND THE COUNTRY AGAIN Ugandan safari lodges and tented camps reported booming business over the Easter Holiday, when many of the expatriate community and Kampala residents took time out to visit the national parks, game reserves, the upper Nile valley near Jinja and the Lake Victoria islands like Bulago Island. Ugandans too were reportedly travelling upcountry in large numbers to visit their rural homes to see their families, filling up the available hotels, motels and inns across the country. This travel boom unfolded inspite of the seasonal rains which started just at the same time with a vengeance, unleashing some of the most violent rain- and thunderstorms experienced in the recent past on Kampala, its environs and other parts of the country. In Kampala, the crucial entry point into the CBD at the Clock Tower junction was again several feet under water, cutting off traffic in and out of the city centre for much of Easter Day and causing hardship for worshippers wanting to reach the main city churches. The unusually wet and cool weather also prompted a number of outdoor concerts in Kampala and Entebbe planned for Easter Sunday and Monday to be cancelled or postponed, denying those Kampaleans who stayed in the city their post lent enjoyment. The failure of the events to take place also led to the potential loss of hundreds of millions of Shillings for the promoters. The extremely heavy rains also caused further havoc on main traffic arteries, when a culvert collapsed along the main highway from Kampala to the Kenyan border near Mukono. Half of the road needed to be closed, as a hole several metres deep and wide suddenly opened up during the Easter weekend. Fortunately any possible accidents were avoided when police was deployed immediately to secure the site and divert traffic. An alternative route to Jinja via Kayunga &endash; incidentally also a very scenic route &endash; is however available for traffic, should a full road closure ahead of or during repairs become necessary. The present rains have also raised the possibility again of renewed flooding in areas which already suffered last year extensively and bridges and roads are undergoing monitoring to allow swift counter action as and where required.   UWA SIGNS CONCESSIONS FOR BOAT AND LAUNCH SERVICES During the week UWA reached another milestone in privatisation, when they at last signed agreements with private operators to provide boat services. Hitherto UWA provided these services themselves in Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls National Park but were under pressure for long to divest of the business activity and allow private operators to bid for contracts. Adrift, one of the leading white-water rafting and adventure companies, will shortly commence boat and launch trips along the Kazinga channel in Queen Elizabeth National Park, and G&C Tours &endash; local agents for Wild Frontiers in Uganda &endash; have won the right to operate tours in Murchisons Falls National Park from the Paraa river crossing to the falls and the river delta. A second company was also chosen to offer boat and launch trips in both locations, namely the owners of the main safari lodges Mweya and Paraa. Marasa Limited will be happy to now add these services to accommodation and game drives and their clients will have a one stop centre when booking safaris to Uganda's two main safari parks. The initial concessions will run for 10 years but are subject to a performance review after 5 years to ensure compliance with UWA terms and conditions and take client feedback into consideration. Further negotiations are reportedly still underway with a fourth company, which had also been shortlisted in the bidding process but where no contract has yet been finalised. The development comes at a time when gate arrival figures in all of Uganda's national parks have been rising steadily over the past few years, requiring additional services to be provided.   MORE GOOD NEWS FROM EMIRATES Ugandan passengers of Emirates have been given more good news from the airline office in Kampala. The award winning airline from Dubai has now given the green light for the use of mobile phones on board of their aircraft. Calls from on board phone systems, possible already for a long time on many airlines, proved quite expensive for most of the Ugandan passengers and also required the use of international credit cards, not common yet amongst Ugandans. After resolving the often overplayed safety issues, allegedly caused by the use of mobile phones on board of an airplane, and accepting the findings of many studies that mobile phone use does not endanger airplane operation and flight safety, Emirates is the first of the global big carriers to allow their use, after obtaining regulatory approvals. However, calls during night flights will be restricted. Calls made on board will also require 'roaming' enabled mobile phone connections and will still cost quite a bit more than calls made on the surface due to the expected 'roaming fee surcharges'. Blackberry and other data services are due to follow the voice calls in due course once the Emirates' fleet has undergone the necessary modifications. The airline will however retain the seat-side and cabin mounted phones so far available to passengers. It is understood that phone calls will not be allowed during take off and landing.   AKON DUE IN KAMPALA Celtel Uganda is sponsoring the next big concert in Kampala, when on April 26th this year Akon is expected to perform at the Lugogo Cricket Ground, scene of the recent UB40 concert. Inspite of some ruffled feathers with the top VIP's in the country over certain aspects of their Platinum Ticket Packages the concert and its management overall went well and, as expressed at the time in this column is now leading to yet another big bash for the music hungry crowds. Tickets can be purchased presently at Celtel's offices and corporate outlets. The concert is also due to be the highlight of a 1 billion+ Uganda Shilling promotion, which will see some of the winners to fly by helicopter from their residences &endash; or at least near them &endash; to the star's hotel cum limo rides to and from the concert. The telecom sector has seen unprecedented growth in the recent past, with subscribers now standing at a reported 4.5 million mobile phone users, compared to the early 90's when less than 50.000 subscribers had access to the then state owned phone and post company UPTL's fixed network in the city and across the country. Recent entrant Warid Telecom has found the going rough so far as the established operators UTL, MTN and Celtel have bombarded the market with promotions, tariff cuts, special tariffs and a range of other goodies for their faithful and new clients, which Warid was so far unable to match. Celtel is Uganda's first mobile operator (since 1995) and has of late also seen spectacular growth again, mostly spurred by their 'One Network' which allows calls at local rates across much of the African continent.   VISA OFFENDERS TO GET '10 YEARS' The British High Commission has confirmed, that Visa applicants giving false information or using fake supporting documentation, will receive a 10 year application ban if found out. It can be expected that this information would then also be shared with other embassies and high commissions in Kampala, effectively barring 'fake applicants' from receiving any Visa from any Western country. Information received from usually well informed sources confirms that this move was a result of the large number of applications found deficient or information contained suspected to be false, adding another hurdle to the already &endash; often considered tilted, one sided and discriminatory &endash; hard road to obtaining a visitor Visa for the UK. Ugandans have often complained about what many consider excessive cost of such Visa, compared to average wages in the country, and about the way embassies regularly handle applicants. Suspicions are in fact running high amongst even successful applicants and raging rows emerge ever so often in the daily newspapers. This happens in particular when mistaken officials at the Visa office turn down prominent business people with an otherwise excellent record and then have to reverse their initial decisions or applicants complain of severe mishandling. Several applicants working in the tourism industry and known to this correspondent added that 'when you have to go in person for an interview it is almost like a police interrogation'. One such individual said further: 'I suspect they use voice stress analysers in some of those embassies to try and sort out people. They cannot of course openly use lie detectors but I am almost sure that they use other technology now. You get finger printed and all sorts of other things. We think that applicants are not really treated very civilly in some of those embassies. And their own citizens just pay a small fee, in fact much less than we have to pay, and when they arrive in Entebbe they not even fill one single form other than the normal arrival cards. Something is very wrong here. My parents could still travel without Visa and got a visitor pass on arrival in the UK or Europe. Maybe this is the price third world country citizens have to pay these days. Some of the countries now ask you to allow them contact your bank directly for information, this has become very intrusive and suspect'. It was also pointed out to this correspondent that Visa refusals are now stamped into applicants' passports, effectively black-marking them when applying for Visa elsewhere, a practise much criticized by Ugandans falling foul of such methods. It was also established that the UK High Commission refuses about 30+ percent of all submitted applications, but &endash; needless to say &endash; retains the application fees already paid of course as to almost add insult to financial injury.   NEW NATIONAL MOSQUE OFFICIALLY OPENED The Libyan funded newly built national mosque was last week officially opened by the Libyan leader Col. Gadaffi, in the presence of President Museveni and several other heads of state and government from the wider Eastern African region. Gadaffi visited Uganda to close the first Afro Arab Youth Summit which ended on 17th March. Initial potential for controversy was avoided, when the opening day was set for Wednesday, avoiding a possible argument with the Christian communities over rumoured other plans to do it on Palm Sunday, or worse on Good Friday, key dates in the Christian annual religious calendar. Gadaffi in his address however was not shy of controversy, and quoting the headlines of the two main newspapers in the country, his utterances were quoted as: 'Bible a forgery' (New Vision) and 'Bible altered' (Daily Monitor). This incensed staunch Catholics and Protestants to no end of course and a prolonged argument is expected to unfold in coming days and weeks over these unfortunate remarks. Letter columns 'to the editor' are presently full of scathing counterattacks against Gadaffi and leading Muslim clerics have been called upon to disassociate themselves from the ill tempered, ill worded and ill considered remarks aimed at inciting religious division and hostility. The Catholic Archbishop of Kampala in his Easter address called Gadaffi's utterances 'provocative' while other Christian leaders and large sections of the public demanded an apology. Muslim leaders too waded into the argument over Gadaffi's invitation to Christians to visit Mecca. Government of Uganda refused to be drawn into the raging debate saying the comments were 'individual and government has no business with such'. It is worth to note that Uganda is an overwhelmingly Christian country, where the minority Muslim communities have their rightful place, protected by the constitution and, more importantly, the accommodating spirit and religious tolerance of her people, who have always shunned religious fanaticism and Gadaffi's comments did little to enhance this spirit. Gadaffi in his address also laid heavily into 'the Scandinavian countries' &endash; presumably referring to Denmark &endash; over the controversial cartoons the (free of government control) press published there two years ago and again more recently. During the official opening security scuffles were also reported in the local media, first between the Ugandan presidential security detail and the unusually large security contingent &endash; reportedly some 200 of them &endash; Gadaffi brought for himself and then again when President Kagame arrived slightly late for the official opening ceremony. More details of constant scuffles and disputes between the details were also reported in the media after Gadaffi left, what seemed to have been 'suddenly' while he was still expected at another function. There was also an unusually large number of worshippers who had come to the mosque without invitation cards and who were refused entry, while the dignitaries were in attendance, causing some angry arguments with police and other security surrounding the compound, but the crowd later on peacefully disbursed. The new mosque however is an instant architectural landmark for Kampala and will undoubtedly be added to the city tours for tourists, who hitherto were able to see other primary places of worship like the Catholic cathedral in Rubaga, the Anglican cathedral in Namirembe, worship temples belonging to the Hindu and Sikh communities near the Clock Tower junction and of course the only Bahai temple in Africa near the Ntinda suburb. The formal opening and subsequent security measures, which included key road closures, also led to massive traffic jams across Kampala on the day and traffic participants caught up in the situation took hours to get to their intended destinations. Traffic on Entebbe road was also affected when the presidential motorcades passed from and to the airport and some airline passengers are said to have missed their flights when arriving late at the terminal building, due to the delays caused by the road closures.   NEMA SHOWING TEETH AGAIN &endash; but will it bite? The national environmental management authority has started threatening eviction of squatters once again from wetlands leading towards Lake Victoria &endash; and elsewhere in the country &endash; and has vowed to demolish illegal buildings. Most Kampala wetlands have been heavily encroached over the past 15 years and unauthorised damming, construction and farming have last year led to severe flooding in the city itself, as the drainage function of the swamps were severely impaired. Demarcation of one of the wetland boundaries went underway during the week. However, going by experience this may well be a short-lived publicity stunt again. This correspondent has in the past repeatedly pointed out the ongoing and quickening encroachment at a wetland on the way to his own residence and NEMA has not once acknowledged, responded to or acted on these reports. NEMA Executive Director Dr. Mugisha has in the meantime in a sweeping statement before a parliamentary committee called mobile masts 'safe', probably basing his comments on pro telecommunication industry studies, while obviously ignoring the studies pointing out the inherent dangers associated with radio signals. In fact the off the cuff remarks would indicate that NEMA has not carried out substantial research on their own and is probably 'borrowing' studies from abroad. The authority head was also asked about the deficit in mast approvals across the country. This issue concerned the parliamentarians as less than 10 percent of the overall masts erected across the country seem to have NEMA clearance, with the authority standing by in idle mode and doing little if anything about this alarming trend. It could be established however that UTL is subjecting itself to an independent annual environmental audit, a most commendable circumstance were it not for the fact that NEMA seems to have taken no interest in this voluntary measure. The following 'Sunday Vision' quote tells it all: "Scientific information available is that radiation from the masts is so low compared to other radiation received such as the one from mobile telephones," Dr. Aryamanya Mugisha told the parliamentary committee on Information and Communication Technology on Thursday. Hmmm …. DELTA DEFERS NAIROBI LAUNCH The American international carrier Delta Airlines has now announced that they will delay their planned Nairobi flights until at least December 2008, due to the prevailing market conditions. Delta was expected to commence direct flights between the United States and Nairobi via West Africa by June this year and it was generally expected to be a code shared operation with Kenya Airways, as both airlines belong to SkyTeam &endash; the KLM / Air France led global airline alliance. The delay will be a blow to the Kenyan efforts of reviving the tourism industry on the fast track. The new flights were expected to make travel between the US and East African easier, as passengers do not need to transit via European airports nor have to change planes to reach Nairobi. The US is a major source market for safari visitors to Eastern Africa and the flights to Nairobi were also expected to benefit neighbouring countries like Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, all of which have seamless Kenya Airways onward connections. There is however some speculation by industry analysts and observes that the delay may have something to do with the absence of the FAA Category 1 approval for Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, which presently is a prerequisite for direct flights into the United States. This status was expected for Entebbe International Airport some time ago but may now take until some time in 2009, and the same may apply also for other airports in the region. Watch this space. FLY 540 TO OFFER CARGO SERVICES Kenyan low cost carrier Fly540 has now added an F27 freighter service to their domestic and regional passenger flights. The aircraft is reportedly capable of uplifting some 5.5 tons of 'loose' cargo, but will not be able to accept palletized cargo shipments. The airline will be offering the service to all destinations already served by them but also offer cargo charters in the entire region. Meanwhile, local media in Uganda still permit themselves to be duped into making the public believe, that Air Uganda is a 'national carrier' for Uganda, while it is actually a 'designated' carrier. Former national carrier Uganda Airlines went defunct some years ago and is in the process of winding up. Claims to be a 'national' airline tend to impress the market in favour of competitors like Kenya Airways &endash; incidentally a true national airline &endash; or Fly 540, which is a designated airline on the routes assigned to them by the KCAA under bilateral air services agreements. Questions have also been raised on the 'nationality' status of the Ugandan upstart, which traditionally requires 51 percent of the shares being held by Ugandan owned corporate bodies or individuals, something which does not seem to be the case here. Other Ugandan airlines like Eagle Air or Royal Daisy Airlines incidentally never laid claim to being a 'national' airline although both are in fact owned by Ugandans. Watch this space. AFRICAN SAFARI CLUB TO END OWN FLIGHTS The crisis in Kenya during the post election violence of January and February has taken its toll not only on the hotel occupancies along the Kenyan coast but has now taken another victim. As mentioned in a previous column about the Kenyan tourism situation at the time, the African Safari Club closed several of their hotels at the time due to radically dropped occupancies at their beach resorts. Their flight operation was also reduced at the time, although they were the first ones to gradually move towards a full operations mode again, being one of the biggest operators from Europe to Kenya. They ordinarily use their own resorts and safari properties in an integrated operation from sales over airtransport to accommodation and transportation at the destination. However, according to reports from Mombasa they have now apparently decided to end their own air operation from Europe to Mombasa, and from next season onwards use the services of other quality airlines like LTU, Edelweiss and Condor to fly their clients to Mombasa. This will bring a long tradition to a premature end and Kenya coast aficionados will miss the zebra striped planes of African Safari Airways, which over the years brought many tens of thousands of tourists from Switzerland, Germany and other European countries to the sunny Indian Ocean beaches of Mombasa and Malindi. The aircraft used so far is reportedly due to be sold off. African Safari Club's domestic flights from an airfield along the Bamburi beach of Mombasa to the safari parks will however continue as usual. PRECISION AIR SEALS LOAN DEAL The Tanzanian privately owned airline &endash; 49 percent of which is controlled by Kenya Airways &endash; has now finalised the loan arrangements for the purchase of their French manufactured ATR aircraft. The airline has 7 brand new ATR 42 and 72 models on order, due for deliveries starting soon. The nearly 130 million US Dollar loan facility has been underwritten by Citibank Tanzania and is due to run for 12 years. In the meantime, the Tanzania government has pledged nearly 40 million US Dollars to upgrade and rehabilitate several primary and secondary airports across the country, including Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Bukoba, Kigoma, Mafia Island and others. This infrastructural development will undoubtedly spur more domestic and regional air traffic at a time when both Air Tanzania and Precision Air are engaged in a major fleet overhaul and fleet expansion, setting the stage for further growth of the aviation sector in East Africa's largest country. Many tourists are in fact using air charters and domestic scheduled flights into the national parks and to several of the Indian Ocean Islands off the shore of the mainland. There are however persistent complaints about charters from Arusha having to use the international airport, which is some 50 KM from Arusha while there is an airfield at the vicinity of Arusha, which has to be maintained by the Tanzanian Airport Authority while generating little revenue. The Arusha field has often been mentioned to become a potential 'safari hub' &endash; similar to Nairobi's Wilson Airport &endash; for flights to and from the Northern circuit national parks and could also cater for regional flights with larger turboprop aircraft like the ATR's now commonly used across Eastern Africa. This would allow swifter access to the parks and also to Arusha itself for visitors, sparing them the long trips to and from JRO.   TANZANIAN VOLCANIC MOUNTAIN KEEPS RUMBLING Ol Donyo Lengai, the no longer dormant volcano in Northern Tanzania, has settled down to a threatening routine since erupting and causing some major quakes last year. Fume and smoke clouds keep emerging from the volcano's crater and side vents, and earth tremors continue to be felt in the wider vicinity of the mountain. More and more of the population resident in the area have now voluntarily vacated the area, after initially resisting government directives to leave. The mountain is located near Lake Natron, the annual breeding ground for the East African region's millions of lesser flamingos &endash; recently in the press over attempts by India's Tata group to begin mining of soda ash, which was thankfully stopped over grave environmental concerns. The area with one of the most hostile climates known to man, is however of touristic value, not only for the flamingo breeding but also to see other game transiting between Ngorongoro and the Serengeti across very sparsely populated land. The pastoralist Masai of the area, who consider Ol Donyo Lengai as the seat of the Gods, have also been affected by a long lasting draught besides the constant 'rain of ash' and 'breath of death' caused by floating toxic fumes emitted from the volcano and they have moved their families and livestock to other grazing grounds.   RWANDA &endash; UGANDA OIL PIPELINE CONTRACTS SIGNED During bilateral talks between the two countries it was agreed last week to carry out a survey and look at the cost of such a project before embarking on construction. Transportation of fuel by road from Mombasa is prohibitively expensive and has a substantial impact on the prices of the commodity in both Uganda and Rwanda, but also other hinterland countries. Uganda will this year commence work for the pipeline extension from the present end-location in Eldoret / Western Kenya to Kampala. This is aimed to reduce accidents, reduce transport cost and secure regular uninterrupted supplies, which during the post election Kenya crisis were severely disrupted and caused the Uganda to temporarily run out of fuel. Tamoil East Africa, locally incorporated but Libyan state owned company, is the main contractor for the Eldoret &endash; Kampala pipeline extension and is also expected to play a lead role in eventually linking Kampala with Kigali. A further extension between Kigali and Bujumbura/Burundi is an additional option, once the main works in Uganda and Rwanda have been completed. This development is good news for the East African hinterland as it will reduce reliance on expensive road transport of fuel products. It may very well also allow Uganda, once oil production has gone commercial in two year's time, to export their own fuel products to these neighbouring countries by using the new pipeline. The contract was signed by Presidents Museveni and Kagame, while Presidents Kibaki (Kenya), Nkurunziza (Burundi), Yusuf (Somalia) and Gadaffi (Libya) were also present at the function. Watch this space.   CONGO'S DUBIOUS ROLE IN REBEL ESCAPE The often vented sentiments by this correspondent about Congo's rogue regime's behaviour were once again proven correct, when news reached Kampala that rebel chief Kony had successfully left his jungle hideout in Garamba National Park and made his way unimpeded into the Central African Republic. There he is reported to have teamed up with a CAR rebel group, supposedly for joint operations after his own 'forces' suffered large scale defections in recent months. There are also unconfirmed reports from usually well informed sources that at their new location the Kony group has received new supplies, possibly from their erstwhile supporters in Khartoum and that the terror group may be used to ply there bloody handiwork as far as Darfur in the service of their masters. Kony along the way continued his killing, looting and abducting once again while enroute to his new hide out, and neither the UN forces stationed nearby nor the Congolese army tried to intercept, arrest or eliminate the rebels. Fork tongued talk, made easy to recognize … at least wildlife specialists may now have an early opportunity to return to Garamba and take stock of what other damage the rebels have done there besides eliminating the last freely roaming Northern White Rhinos. The rebel group was due to sign a peace accord as early as this month but have not only failed to assemble at designated points but now staged an escape once again. Peace talks have been going on for nearly two years in Southern Sudan's capital Juba between the rebels and the Uganda government, funded by the EU and other well wishing organizations and countries. A positive outcome so far is that the rebel group is now no longer present in Northern Uganda and peace and development can at last take hold in that part of the country. There is now talk that sections of the LRA would sign the peace deal but that may mean nothing at all as long as the ICC indicted head goons are still at large. In contrast to Kony's behaviour, the Ugandan government has put an amnesty programme into place of which many former rebels took advantage, deserting from Kony, coming out from the bush, renouncing violence and returning to civilian life with a substantial start up package of support measures. Meanwhile, in another typical turnabout, existing mining contracts and concessions in the Congo, including and probably in particular in the East of the country, are to be cancelled by the regime in a 'review' process aimed at signing new agreements, ordinarily a pretext for another round of corruption, when trying to extract undue payments and considerations from holders of present contracts and applicants for new ones. International observer groups like 'Global Witnesses' have already decried the development as 'far from transparent' &endash; in other words expressing their own misgivings and suspicions in a more diplomatic language. EMIRATES ANNOUNCES MORE US DESTINATIONS FOR UGANDANS Soon after Emirates broke the news to the local market, that they will introduce A380 flights to New York from late this year for Ugandans connecting to the Big Apple in Dubai, they have now added another US destination. From September onwards Emirates' travellers can reach Los Angeles after the customary stopover in Dubai, before boarding a non stop flight to California. This is the airline's third US destination after New York and Houston. Travel agents expressed their delight over the new options, partly also because Emirates still pays a commission to travel agents for tickets sold as opposed to many other airlines, which have cut the agents out with zero commission for their work. Emirates' daily flights from Entebbe have been hugely popular for travellers to the Gulf, India, the South and Far East owing to convenient connections in Dubai, stopover 'goodies', decent inflight service and well placed pricing. The airline intends to use a Boeing 777-200LR (long range) for the service and will offer its traditional three class configuration, including its legendary first class suites and their acclaimed flat bed business class. Flight time from Dubai to LAX is estimated to be about 16 ? hours, plus about 5 hours from Entebbe to Dubai, allowing passengers to enjoy nearly a full day of award winning inflight service and on board entertainment to pass their time. BRUSSELS AIRLINES ADDS BAGGAGE ALLOWANCES Now that the fourth weekly flight between Brussels and Entebbe has taken root in the market, Brussels Airlines has granted increased baggage allowances for their passengers. Economy passengers can now carry up to 46 KG's without extra charge, while business class travellers have an allowance of 64 KG's for checked in luggage. In line with international standards this allowance applies to at least two checked pieces. Well done! WEATHER RADAR BREAKDOWN The parliamentary committee on transport has been told by engineers that the Entebbe based weather radar system has broken down. The system had been repaired and upgraded less than a year ago for the Commonwealth Summit in late November 2007 and is a key ingredient for safe air operations, providing important clues for aircraft landing at and leaving from Entebbe. The committee reportedly focused on projects and expenditure connected to CHOGM and how funds have been spent and what value the country got in return, when they heard from witnesses about the radar's faults. However, the main traffic radar facility in Entebbe is said to be working satisfactorily. SHELL SAYS 'AVGAS ON THE WAY' Following reports on the ongoing AVGAS shortage at the Kajjansi airfield and Entebbe International Airport, Shell Uganda has responded directly to questions from this correspondent and assured the aviation fraternity that new supplies would be available within days, after transit times from Mombasa to Uganda had 'normalised'. It was also revealed by Shell that a new storage facility at Kajjansi was nearing completion. This, they mentioned, would add extra storage capacity at an airfield where consumption of the fuel was substantial and relieve domestic airlines operating from Kajjansi to constantly stop over in Entebbe for refuelling or else having to transport the fuel in drums from the main tanks to the required locations. The aviation fraternity cautiously welcomed the announcement when informed about it but nevertheless remained in a 'wait and see' mode as similar past commitments came and went without results. However, information received just before going to press confirmed that AVGAS has now been received in Entebbe's main aviation fuel storage tanks and that the new Kajjansi AVGAS fuel facility will be ready for use by April this year, bringing relief to the domestic air operators and private aircraft owners. Full charter services from the Kajjansi airfield's operators have now resumed, just in time for the annual Easter Holiday and seasonal peak demand.   CAA TO EXPAND CARGO AREA As part of the long term development plan for Entebbe International Airport the CAA has now announced a new public-private venture to develop a new cargo centre at the airport and create sufficient new space in warehousing and cold storage to meet the growing requirements for exporters of fresh produce, cut flowers and chilled fish, but also for importers using airfreight. While the CAA will create roads, parking spaces for aircraft and links to existing taxiways, private investors are expected to add more facilities in the now designated areas away from the present cargo terminal, capable of handling some 100.000 tons of cargo per annum. The new buildings will also allow an expansion of the passenger facilities in a few years time, when the recent terminal expansion will have reached its limit again. The cost for the expansion was given at about 25 million US Dollars. It was also revealed during the week before a parliamentary select committee that government institutions owed the CAA some 70 billion shillings in various charges and fees, including rent. This prompted committee members to summon those responsible for not settling their bills to answer before them in due course, as the outstanding amounts could financially cripple the CAA severely.   POST ITB RUMBLES CONTINUE More anger has been expressed by trade fair participants returning from ITB over government's handling of the financial side for the show. ITB this year set new records for attendance and exhibitors, making it without argument the most important and extensive tourism trade show across the world and the greatest opportunity to showcase a country and attract tourists. As previously mentioned in this column, Uganda's Tourist Board has been notoriously shortfunded and the near disaster in Berlin, when the stand money only arrived after the opening of the show, is the latest mishap in this saga. Stakeholders and show participants now demanded a swift meeting with top officials of the Ministry of Tourism to conduct a 'post mortem' and identify those responsible for the unbearable situation. Some sections of the tourism industry have also vowed not to rest until fundamental change has come to the Ministry and the culprits been reprimanded or worse, including calls for resignations and sackings. Several very negative press articles also appeared over the past two weeks from journalists who actually witnessed the Ugandan performance in Berlin and compared it with other East African exhibitors, while applauding Rwanda's performance which the same media called ' outstanding' and 'excellent'. No public statement in response however was given by the Minister of Tourism so far to the disappointment of the sector and the general public following the developments. Watch this space.   RWENZORI PARKS GETS NEW 'LOOS' Rwenzori Mountain Services has at last responded to frequent visitors' complaints about the status of the pit latrines along the popular medium and high altitude hiking and climbing trails. In a concerted effort the concessionaire has now put up some 13 new ecofriendly 'Ecosan' compost latrines for use by visitors and their guides, making the trails finally more user friendly, while at the same time protecting the mountain's water sources and environment. The park is slowly getting more popular again with alpine tourists from Europe and the rest of the world, after a closure in the mid 90's due to rebel activities from the other side of the border in Congo. The border between the two countries runs across the main peaks of the East African mountain range and have some time ago been disputed by Congolese officials against age old standing international agreements. Climbs and treks across the mountains, including the glaciers, are amongst the more difficult ones' due to the constant rainy and foggy weather conditions but are also considered as some of the most rewarding experiences for visiting alpinists. Next on the list of urgent 'to do' things will be a full rehabilitation of the mountain huts as well as constructing more of them to open up new trails and hikes towards the main peaks as well as provide better comfort along the present routes. For more information on Uganda's national parks and game reserves visit www.uwa.or.ug or the official Tourist Board website www.visituganda.com. More pertinent information on Uganda can also be found at www.caa.co.ug &endash; the official website of the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority.   LOADSHEDDING BITES HARD AGAIN As power generation at the Jinja based Owen Falls and Kiira power stations again reduced to less than 140 MW, compared to an installed capacity of well over 300 MW, power shortages once more grip the country. The outflow of water in Jinja was reduced to comply with long term agreed (or should one say dictated) average water release rates, as is required under the present Nile Treaty. Egypt and the Sudan have a major say on this matter, as the East African countries are bound by the colonial treaties of 1929 and 1959 regarding the use of the Nile waters up to the original contributory rivers and lakes. At the same time diesel shortages and sharp price increases after the Kenya crisis took their toll, causing the reduction of thermal power output. Government too is struggling to find the funds for further subsidies of diesel used in thermal power stations and heavy duty industrial generators in view of the cost having risen beyond expectations. Equipment for the new heavy fuel oil plants presently under construction was also delayed at the Mombasa port and in transit, as the roads at the time were not safe enough and the companies feared for the equipment &endash; mostly transported on very slow moving extra wide low-loaders &endash; to be vandalised or destroyed. Hotel operators have already started complaining strongly again over having to use expensive in house generators, while the glut of hotel rooms in Kampala does not allow passing the extra cost on to their customers. The power transmission and distribution companies have gone back to the pre-CHOGM 12 hour load shedding schedules &endash; speak power cuts &endash; and the well known blame game is in full swing again. Meanwhile consumers, small scale industries and big industries again have to tighten their belts as they either have to sit in darkness and halt production or else use expensive generators to stay in business. Charcoal has in the meantime become scarce and prices for the commodity have also shot up, proving the often vented opinion in this column right that lack of affordable electricity is accelerating deforestation across the country and leading to environmental degradation. Usage of charcoal and wood fuel has over the past two years increased many-fold, especially in the city and urban areas, following years of gradual decline, when electricity prices began to climb. This happened when thermal energy production was injected to make up for the loss of hydro power generation in Jinja at the beginning of 2006 and once electricity prices had doubled and then some, much of the population began to return to wood based fuels for their kitchens and other domestic uses. Unless therefore hydro generated power and renewable sources of energy are once again taking the forefront, the assault on Uganda's forests is bound to continue and an environmental disaster for coming generations all but assured.   TULLOW OIL SIGNS POWER PLANT DEAL A key step towards restoring full electricity supply for the country was taken this week, when Tullow Oil, one of the main exploration companies working towards crude oil production in the Lake Albert basin, signed a supply deal with Jacobsen Elektro. As a first step Tullow intends to build a mini refinery near their production sites to produce useable oil products. Concurrently an 85 MW heavy fuel oil and gas powered thermal powerplant is to be constructed by Jacobsen Elektro, which is already in the final phase of installing a 50 MW heavy fuel oil plant near Kampala, said to come on line within the next two months. Heavy fuel oil powered plants are cheaper to operate and will help to keep rising cost in check (see previous column item). Tullow also announced that they would invest at least US Dollars 200 million this year alone to advance further drilling and bring to production the already existing wells within their concession area. This will be welcome news for the Uganda Government, the business community and civil society. Government has been struggling with a multitude of misfortunes in the energy sector over the past years, as supply of electricity has been lagging largely behind present consumption and against forecasts for coming years.   KENYA WILDLIFE SERVICE DELAYS TARIFF INCREASE Following the crisis months after the end December elections in Kenya, KWS has now announced that they would defer the planned tariff increases due for July 2008 for 6 months until January 2009, in order to boost the tourism recovery in the country. This was announced by the Executive Director during the official re- opening of the Nakuru National Park airfield, which has been undergoing repairs and upgrades. It was also announced that KWS would advertise additional concession sites in Tsavo National Park (both East and West), the Aberdare's, Amboseli, Nakuru, Mt. Kenya and Nairobi. KWS gave assurances at the function that all parks would have their main airstrips rehabilitated to facilitate more visits by air, avoiding the often notoriously bad roads leading to the parks. To spur domestic travel in the weeks ahead KWS also announced a waiver of park entrance fees for young Kenyans below 18 years from Easter until April, to make visits more affordable. Wildlife authorities across the region however still need to implement a joint East African policy, to allow a common entrance rate across all the countries in the region for 'citizens of East Africa' (not just citizens of the respective country itself), registered 'residents' of East Africa and foreign non resident visitors to the parks, to make regional / domestic travel more affordable and therefore more attractive.   EASTER BRINGS RELIEF TO COASTAL RESORTS Although the international tourists are still slow to return to Kenya's Indian Ocean beaches, Kenyans and visitors from the region have boosted hotel occupancies for the Easter season. Flights to Mombasa show marked signs of higher occupancies ahead of the holidays and some hotels and resorts along the coast are in fact fully booked for the long Easter weekend and the week afterwards. Once again, domestic tourism has come to the rescue of the industry in times of need and visitors numbers include between 80 to 90 percent of 'locals' in many of the hotels surveyed. Starting from the week after Easter very special offers are now also on the market with huge tariff reductions, giving the best value in years to visitors. In the process a good number of staff previously laid off or sent on leave have been recalled on duty, which is good news too. Kenya is once again ready and waiting to provide hospitality for tourists from far and near.   QATAR AIRWAYS OFFERS MORE DESTINATIONS The daily flights of Qatar Airways between Nairobi to Doha now offer a wider choice of connections, with three destinations to China on offer and Houston coming on line soon. Travellers from around Eastern Africa can use their choice regional connections on Kenya Airways, Fly 540, Air Tanzania and Rwandair Express to link up with the carrier at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Qatar Airways presently offers over 80 destinations already for Nairobi passengers connecting in Doha. The Gulf based airline has about 140 planes (80 Airbus and 60 Boeings) on order and expects from July 2008 onwards delivery of at least one new aircraft per month to meet its ambitious expansion drive towards more destinations and greater frequencies. This development will then match the launch of the new Doha International Airport, presently under construction.   KENYA VIOLENCE 'METICULOUSLY PLANNED' A recently published report, compiled by the New York based Human Rights Watch, speaks of well planned post election violence against President Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, once presidential election results did not go the opposition's way. This previously often mentioned, and equally often harshly criticised notion in this column now stands on solid grounds, with HRW's credible findings made public. The Kenya Police was also severely criticised over the use of 'excessive force' against demonstrators, but this too can now be seen in a different light in hindsight, having had to deal with clearly organized mobs with a deadly agenda. The report also speaks of planned counter reaction by Kikuyu tribesmen after the initial onslaught against them, mainly in Western Kenya and the Rift Valley, which however seems to have taken some time to set up, while the opposition sponsored violence was 'instant'. Hard work will be needed therefore to reconcile the opposing sides, not just in parliament but across the country and Kenya deserves some special Easter prayers towards that end.   KENYAN PARLIAMENT AIDS RECOVERY AND RECONCILIATION Following the political agreement, brokered by former UN supremo Kofi Annan &endash; assisted by eminent personalities from across Africa and the world &endash; in Nairobi last month, Kenya's parliament has now in record time passed a constitutional amendment to pave the way for the formal introduction of the office of Prime Minister and for two deputies. This was a core issue agreed upon by the political rival parties as part of their reconciliation. President Mwai Kibaki become also a history maker by being the first sitting Kenyan President to vote in parliament when the constitutional changes were put before the house, a sign of his personal commitment to make the deal work. The President however also left no doubt of his government's intent to unearth and prosecute all those involved in the mass violence inflicted upon the Kenyan population after elections results had been published, irrespective of which political side they belong to or who they individually are. (See previous column item about the Human Rights Watch report released during the week). The Kenyan Ministry of Tourism Permanent Secretary Mrs. Rebecca Nabutola in the meantime decried the slow pace of lifting anti travel advisories against Kenya and noted that recovery even from those countries which lifted their warnings bye and large so far was still slow. She expressed her hope that by the start of the 2008/9 high season in late 2008 however international arrival numbers would have returned to the pre-election levels, an aspiration which has our all blessings.   CONGO'S WILDLIFE WOES CONTINUE A senior gamekeeper turned apparent poacher was recently arrested in Goma / Eastern Congo and stands accused of having been involved in the slaughter last year of a group of habituated mountain gorillas. Some other staff of the Virunga National Park are also said to be under arrest. Sycophantic NGO's seeking the sympathy of the regime in Kinshasa promptly showered praise on the rogues for their 'decisive action', saying authorities have 'regained control' of the park. Reality in Congo however is that any type of authority is erratic at best, corruption is endemic and that this arrest may only be a scapegoat to cover up the colossal failures wildlife conservation in Congo has suffered of over the past, both recent and more distant. It should also be recalled that the same quarters some time last year accused the Tutsi self protection forces of General Nkunda for being responsible for the killing of the prized animals in th UGANDA CIVIL AVIATION ANNOUNCES LICENSING HEARING The Licensing Committee of the Civil Aviation Authority has just set April 10th for the next hearing of applications for air service licenses. At least 12 companies have applied for new licenses or a renewal of their existing licenses. These applications are for non-scheduled and scheduled passenger and cargo services cum aerial spraying and medical evacuation services / air ambulance operations. Venue for the public hearing is the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala at 11 a.m. on the day. Members of the public as well as media representatives are welcome to attend the proceedings. In the meantime, outgoing Managing Director of the UCAA, Mr. Ambrose Akandonda, has revealed the traffic figures for 2007, standing now at over 720.000 passengers, again a substantial improvement over the preceding year and largely attributed to the increase in international flights by such carriers as Brussels Airlines, KLM and South African Airlines and the going daily by Ethiopian Airlines.   FLY540 TO ESTABLISH UGANDAN OPERATION Kenyan LCC Fly540 has been put on the top of the hearing schedule for the next CAA licensing meeting, giving the clearest indication yet that they intend to establish a locally incorporated Ugandan airline under the same name. This serves notice to other airlines in Uganda that competition is about to descend on them like the proverbial 'ton of bricks' and will undoubtedly compel several of them to either improve their service levels or face hard times. Operating cost effective modern ATR's, the Kenyan low cost carrier is expected to do financially well in Uganda, where high fares were perpetuated by the most recent upstart Air Uganda, instead of bringing fare levels down to more affordable levels as initially hoped for and making air travel available to larger sections of society. Fly540 is also expected to establish other regional footholds, before the regulatory environment in Eastern Africa will eventually be harmonized and country specific air operations become once again subordinate to a joint East African aviation regulator. In the meantime however Fly540 is intent to obtain a Ugandan ASL (air services licence) and an AOC (air operator's certificate) and will then base dedicated ATR aircraft at Entebbe International Airport. A similar development is anticipated for Tanzania too in due course. Lonrho Africa is the main shareholder in the Kenyan company but is also expected to be instrumental in the new companies now emerging across several, probably as many as eight Eastern, Southern and Western African countries, where Lonrho has substantial economic interests. Watch this space.   PILOT TRAINING PARTIALLY RESUMES The Kampala Aero Club and Flight Training Centre in Kajjansi has now resumed limited training flights for aspiring pilots after managing to import some AVGAS via Mwanza / Tanzania. The main suppliers for aviation fuel in Uganda, Shell and Total, have however failed to restock this crucially important fuel type, which is used in most light, single and twin engined, aircraft presently used for 'safari flying' and other charters across the country and into the region. Sources from within the aviation fraternity speak of a 2 months supply gap for AVGAS by Shell, and while fresh deliveries have apparently reached Nairobi's Wilson Airport and other Kenyan airfields, the Entebbe depot for AVGAS is reportedly still empty. Aviation fuel company contacts confirmed that a delivery is now only expected in the second half of March, which is totally unsatisfactory for the air operators. KAFTC is the only licensed training private training facility of its kind in Uganda at present. The other training school is the publicly owned East African Aviation Academy in Soroti / Eastern Uganda. That school however is presently short of aircraft, until newly ordered training equipment is delivered, and has reportedly also been short of fuel, caused by the Kenyan crises in January and February as well as lack of sufficient funds to pay for the sharply increased prices. No confirmation could be obtained from government sources about the main national fuel storage facility in Jinja keeping AVGAS stocks for emergencies, which could be released to air operators in times of need. In fact press reports about the status of the national fuel reserves in Jinja, as published in the local media this week after a visit of the parliamentary sessional committee on energy, speak of 'empty tanks' as far as government reserves were concerned and that private companies were owning the present stocks. During the visit it was also discovered, that most of the about 40 fuel companies in Uganda, especially the smaller ones' apparently have no significant storage facilities of their own at all, depending entirely on the national reserves for supplies during crisis times. Watch this space for emerging news. USE OF NEW AIRPORT FACILITIES CAUSES CONCERNED DEBATE The newly build and refurbished facilities at the 'old' airport in Entebbe are now subject to some considerable wrangling behind the scenes over the use of the dedicated 'domestic departure' lounge and the entire area. Sources within CAA have quietly confirmed that there is a possibility to turn this area in to a specific VVIP terminal, which however would cause the CAA further expenditure, and loss of rent and advertising revenue for the time being, if a new domestic terminal would need to be constructed. Other sources however played down the question and pointed out that at this stage no decision had been made and a panel of experts was presently still looking into the matter. Recommendations would be expected in due course and the aviation fraternity is holding their breath until then. Watch this space for further developments on this emerging saga.   ITB SAGA ANGERS PRIVATE SECTOR The failure by government to avail sufficient funding for the just concluded ITB participation of the Uganda Tourist Board and the country's private sector to put up a shining stand in Berlin has angered the private sector stakeholders to no end. An article in the Daily Monitor of today expressed the sentiments of participants fed up with the situation. Several efforts were made prior to the trade fair to convince government to release funds, and while top level intervention secured the stand rental cost, this was clearly not enough to perform as anticipated and expected. Said one participant in clearly a foul mood over his experience: '..this has to stop. We have embarrassed ourselves. For how long can we allow bureaucrats to mismanage these affairs? They have sabotaged our efforts to promote tourism efficiently. We will ask for those responsible to be sacked for messing with our country's good name abroad. There was a lot of interest in East Africa and Uganda and we have been let down, the country has been let down. How can we fill all these new hotel rooms and conference facilities which were built for CHOGM last year if we do not promote them strongly?' Find the Monitor article by Joseph Olanyo through the following link: http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/business/Uganda_fails_to_shine_at_Berlin_tourism_fair.shtml   UPCOMING GRADING WORRIES HOTEL PRETENDERS Would be 'hoteliers', often people who found the money to get into the sector but lack qualifications to run hospitality establishments (and in addition often employ unqualified labour), are getting increasingly worried about the implications of the recently passed tourism bill. The new law is set to shift licensing, monitoring and enforcement from the Ministry of Tourism to a reconstituted Uganda Tourism Board, a new function besides the generic marketing of the country. Under the auspices of the East African Community a catalogue of criteria for grading and classification, declared by the EAC as binding for member states, was developed in past years but implementation has been lacking. Although ahead of the Commonwealth Summit in 2007 some classification and a short-lived effort to impose grading on participating hotels were started, the full exercise is only going underway once the tourism bill enters the implementation phase. Sections of the hotel owners have long been accused to exploit the absence of enforcement in the sector to award themselves utopia star ratings, which do not at all reflect the reality on the ground. Hence, several such hotels and lodges in Kampala and across the country mislead potential customers with words like 'luxurious' without understanding what it takes to actually create such an environment for guests. Uganda's neighbours Kenya and Tanzania are more advanced in setting and controlling standards for hotels, resorts and safari lodges and Uganda will now have to catch up with them, in order to eventually offer matching descriptions and standards under the commonly accepted regional star rating. However, the present glut of hotel rooms in Kampala has already led to a general rate reduction across the board, offering customers now more value for money, besides more choices of where to stay. ON OFF ON OFF &endash; YOUR GUESS IS AS GOOD AS MINE Construction at the so called 'Hilton Kampala' construction site has apparently resumed, after the promoters reportedly secured another loan of US Dollars 20 million from a Southern African finance company. The notorious 'Aya' brothers promptly resumed their full mouthed statements, which had hitherto made them into a laughing stock amongst the hospitality fraternity with their often grotesque assurances, to have the hotel ready for last year's Commonwealth Summit. Far from being ready the construction had been halted several times in the past for more than just financial reasons, when architects, contractors and consultancy teams pulled out of the project. Completion cost, initially estimated at 90 million US Dollars, are now said to have risen to as much as 120 million US Dollars due to sharply increased energy costs but also heavy price increases for building steel and cement, amongst other construction items. In a related development no one is holding any breath during March 2008, which several government officials had set for Kingdom Hotels commencing construction of their hotel project at the former Shimoni Primary School. The educational institution was hastily moved to another &endash; at the time incomplete and todate still too small site, to allow for demolition of the premises some 2 years ago. Inspite of the undue haste at the time Kingdom Hotels failed to make any headway so far. The company is however spending quite heavily in Kenya on a full rehabilitation of the former Lonrho Hotels properties, which they acquired a few years ago. They are also said to be interested in the Tanzanian market, but market confidence in Uganda will be measured on making progress in Kampala too. Watch this space. MOBILE MAST CONTROVERSY INTENSIFIES Following the launch of the 4th mobile operator in the country public complaints arose over the placement of Warid Telecom masts inside heavily populated residential areas, in some cases right next to houses. Media scrutiny subsequently unearthed the reality of mast installations, most of which were not approved and sanctioned by NEMA. This led to a further public outcry for action, prompting the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to issue full page statements in the local print media, trying to defend the present situation and offering a consultative exercise to determine the safety and suitability of both masts and their electronic equipment as well as of locations chosen by the operators. Government also promised to develop and issue guidelines for mast placements in due course. This announcement followed a swiftly arranged hearing conducted by the ICT parliamentary committee, trying to ascertain the health risks to the public by unapproved masts. All four telecoms providers in the country appear to have a substantial shortfall of approvals between the masts put up across the country and those sanctioned by NEMA. Warid alone claims to have put up some 400 masts prior to going operational but apparently less than 10 percent of those have been approved by NEMA. Existing companies too apparently have a low mast / approval ratio, although it has been confirmed that masts erected inside protected areas (national parks, game and forest reserves) have undergone the full process of NEMA's regulations and approval processes, where agreed mitigation measures had to be implemented by the applicant companies. UGANDA TELECOM INTRODUCES 3G STANDARDS The latest innovation in telecommunications was launched last week by Uganda Telecom, when it inaugurated its 3G network, the first of its kind in Uganda and Eastern Africa. Visitors to the country can at a very nominal cost acquire a local SIM card from UTL outlets or dealers, preload call credit and then are able to make video calls from suitable mobile handsets or receive television broadcasts from local stations. UTL is also offering Blackberry services for visitors from abroad using this facility in their home country. Latest entrant Warid Telecom however is still only offering conventional mobile call options, without even GPRS/EDGE or CDMA connections, leave alone the other high tech offers presently available from UTL, Celtel or MTN. Subsequently their market penetration is still low and the soon expected start of a 5th operator &endash; HITS Telecom &endash; is now thought to be only successful if launched immediately with a full product range instead of going piece meal like Warid. Warid has also been singled out for allegedly causing phone malfunctions through their use of a extra capacity 64 KB SIM cards, which seems to be too much for many of the commonly used phones in Uganda, overall not a good start for the newcomer. Consumers however presently have the last laugh as the cost for hand sets and for call rates have come down on a broad basis and more cuts and special offers are expected to flood the market just before HITS 'hits' the market. UGANDA GOLF CLUB TURNS 100 The Uganda Golf Club, located in the very heart of Kampala, where it owns and operates the city's premier 18 hole golf course, just celebrated its centenary, having been launched in 1908. Along with the celebrations went substantial improvements to the course, the club house and the entire infrastructure. The course forms part of the 'green lung' of the capital city and is open for temporary membership of visiting golfers, with several hotels offering this facility to their guests, who then only have to pay, often reduced' green fees. Caddies are readily available for 'guest golfers' at the club house. NAIL ON THE HEAD The publisher of East Africa's premier travel and leisure magazine, TN &endash; Travel~Leisure~Life has in his monthly column 'Miscellaneous Ramblings' hit the nail on the head, when talking about the tourism recovery in Kenya. GO DOMESTIC! Many resorts, hotels and lodges took a while to rediscover the domestic market in this time of need (SOME IN FACT ARE STILL PONDERING) for which they normally only make special deals available during the annual off season, lasting from after Easter until the end of June (lodges) and up to middle or end July for some of the beach destinations. With overseas traffic of tourists still down to a fraction of the pre-election usual, at least some tourism businesses have responded to the challenge and made special offers available to Kenyans and in fact East Africans. Yet, as mentioned before, East African governments &endash; and in particular the one most in need to revive tourism = Kenya &endash; ought to swiftly scrap Visa requirement for expatriates duly registered and living in one of the other East African countries to remove the Visa cost burden from a holiday within the region, rather than having this market segment fly off to the Gulf or Southern Africa, where NO Visa fees are due to them. Other than that, there are excellent packages on the market already between now and Easter and more so for the traditional low season. In fact, an insert in the latest TN edition from Cheli and Peacock (visit www.chelipeacock.com) is absolutely 'mouth-watering' and those in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi who are not taking advantage to following the footsteps of the rich and famous &endash; while those are still hesitating to return to Kenya &endash; may miss a chance which may never come back again. Travelling to Kenya now is also a way of supporting a good neighbour and helping the tourism industry recover, something we in Eastern Africa will all benefit from in coming months and years. And with Fly540 now operating from Entebbe to Nairobi and on to Lamu, Malindi, Mombasa or even the Masai Mara at low affordable fares, there should be no stopping the Ugandan expat community to show that extra bit of solidarity &endash; and saving big time in the process. NAIROBI HILTON POSTPONES REFURBISHMENT Owing to the drop in occupancies over the past two months to an average of below 25 percent, the Nairobi Hilton has for the time being postponed the planned refurbishment and modernization. The city centre 5 star business hotel, which offers over 250 suites and rooms, has suffered along with the rest of Kenya's tourism sector, as it depends greatly on conference and business visitors, as well as tourist groups, most of which deserted the country over the political violence. It is however understood, that the hotel has used the lesser occupancies and started with some 'soft' work on the floors presently closed. It was pointed out that the main refurbishment and upgrading exercise will only now commence, once a clearer picture emerges on the strength and speed of Kenya's tourism recovery. CONGO GORILLAS UNDER CONTINUED THREAT Congo's abominable record of wildlife conservation and protection has taken another hit when news emerged that the Kinshasa regime has failed to assert any control over the national park along the Rwanda and Uganda borders, where the prized mountain gorillas can be found. While the three wildlife management bodies of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda have signed agreements towards joint efforts to protect the animals, and the governments of Rwanda and Uganda have shown serious commitment towards this end, the Congo regime again seems intransigent about the situation at the Virunga National Park, where last year a number of the animals ended up dead. The game rangers at the time fled from marauding soldiers and Hutu militias terrorising the area, which at the time cause wide spread population displacements. Predictably the Kinshasa mouthpieces have blamed Tutsi dominated protection forces, which were formed to prevent yet another Hutu perpetrated genocide against their ethnic group, a convenient and regular excuse for all the regime's ills in Eastern Congo. However, with heavy UN forces present in the area and recent truce agreements between most of the militias and the regime, there should be no further excuses for again sitting on their hands. The most notorious case of aiding and abetting wildlife extermination in Congo was found in Garamba National Park, where the Kinshasa regime tolerated &endash; some even say openly supported &endash; Ugandan rebel groups to pitch camp and in the process poach into extinction the remaining wild Northern White Rhino population, alongside dozens of killed elephants and other species of wildlife.   RWANDA'S ORTPN RETAINS TOP RATING AT ITB The Rwanda office for tourism and national parks once again scored highly at the just concluded ITB, when they retained the top spot for African exhibitors. Congratulations to Rosette Rugamba and her entire team for this wonderful achievement in putting Rwanda firmly back on the map of tourism destinations in Eastern Africa. Well Done!   RWANDA &endash; TANZANIA RAILWAY 'ON TRACK' Further progress has now been reported for the intended railway link between Kigali and the Tanzanian inland dry port of Isaka. The line, to be constructed over the next few years, will be of 'standard' or otherwise called 'international' gauge of 1.435 mtrs width, compared to the hitherto common 1 mtr gauge narrow line, which is found all over Eastern Africa. Rwanda is said to be very keen on developing this alternative supply and export route to and from Dar es Salaam port by rail, which would substantially lower the road transportation cost for fuel and other goods for the country, but also make exports through Dar es Salaam's port cheaper. The Isaka station will become the interchange platform where containers and other goods will be transferred from the narrow gauge line coming from Dar to the standard gauge line moving into Rwanda. It could not be confirmed if a railway extension into Burundi is presently planned or indeed viable for development.   RWANDA CAA COMMITS TO SITA Kigali's international airport will soon see the installation of Sita's air traffic information system and air-ground data link 'Digital ATIS'. The introduction of the new technology for Rwanda's main international airport is a result of ICAO's ongoing commitment to improve aviation safety in Africa. The new system is reportedly reducing reliance on voice transmissions and installation is expected to be complete by the end of the year.     And this week once again quite some more tourism news from Gill Staden in Livingstone / Zambia about the trials and tribulations of the tourism sector there. Contact Gill at <livingstonian@zamnet.zm> for direct inclusion in her weekly newsletter     Victoria Falls Boma, the place of eating During the week I was invited for dinner at the Victoria Falls Boma.  Because it is so difficult to take one's car across the border these days I opted for the taxi route.  It was not painful at all.  I drove to Sun and parked my car; walked to the border; caught a taxi across the bridge (K10,000), then took a taxi to Victoria Falls Safari Lodge (US$10) ... easy stuff ... and some good coversation on route with taxi drivers too ...   I had arrived around 4pm so we spent an hour or so looking at a new development in Victoria Falls ... yes, the Zimbos are all thinking that now is the time to develop in Victoria Falls.  Zimbos know that we, in Livingstone, cannot compete with their tourist facilities in Zimbabwe and that when Zim comes right, they must be ready to make the most of their advantages.  The fact that Zambia has already shot themselves in the foot with the new tourist visas is an added impetus for them to make the most of things.  The site we looked at was for a new hotel ... yes, a new hotel ... Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, already has at least four times the accommodation that we have in Livingstone, but they can, all being well, fill their hotels, whereas we cannot.  Why????  Maybe it has something to do with costs???    Anyway, let me tell you about the Boma.  It is akin to Ngoma Zanga but on a larger scale.  It is a huge thatched structure, open at one side, with loads of local artefacts.  It is almost like a traditional village scene.  We were welcomed by a drink of chibuku ... I say no more, except that chibuku is an acquired taste ...  and when someone started mentioning vomit I gave up on my attempt to be polite ...  Really, though, it is not that bad ...   After the starters we went to the servery to select food from such an array of beautifully prepared local (or western) dishes.  I think I ate eland, warthog, ... and loads of traditionally prepared vegetables.  Really, there was so much to chose from that I was totally spoilt for choice.  There were even mopani worms - anyone who eats one gets a certificate ...  Having eaten mopani worms before at Songwe Village and not being in need of a certificate, I declined the invitation to eat one.   During the meal we were entertained by some troupes of entertainers.  The first group was OK but was nothing to write home about.  The second group, though, was a group of drummers.  They were first rate.  I could have listened to them for hours.  All the diners were given a drum so that they could join in ... I did try, but found that I have absolutely no talent in the drumming department, so gave up.   The Boma in Victoria Falls was started as an experiment on a very small scale.  But, because of its popularity, has become part of the African experience in Victoria Falls.  I suppose there were about 100 people there that night and they said that it was a quiet night!    Victoria Falls Safari Lodge I stayed the night at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge.  This is a beautiful hotel set on a ridge overlooking the National Park and the Zambezi.  The hotel faces the sunset and that evening we had watched, along with loads of other guests, the sun as it dipped below the hills in the distance, the sky steaking with reds and oranges.  A stunning sight.  Below, in the valley, there is a waterhole.  While eating breakfast in the morning a herd of impala, accompanied by some kudu, came down to drink.  As we were eating, a red-winged starling sat on the balcony looking for food - it was treated to a knob of butter ...  The breakfast was definitely 5-star and the service was excellent.  Next time I go there I will, hopefully, have my camera and will take some photos.   From Kafue National Park ZAWA has re-categorised the Kafue Park from a B park to an A park meaning the bed night levies went up 150% overnight! People at Mayukwayukwa, Two-Fig [Mukambi's new bushcamp], Hippo Lodge, McBrides Camp and Wilderness are complaining bitterly as they are located in the park and have not calculated the new fees into their rates for this season. Plus the border entry visa fees have been doubled and the visa waivers scrapped so Zambia has yet again outdone themselves in welcoming tourists to the country!!   Tour Operators continue the fight for a change in the new visa fees  Correspondence is flying around Zambia as the tour operators get an argument together to present to Government to fight the new visa fees which have resulted in a huge loss of business in the budget market. Here are some of the comments … We have received the questionnaires and also passed them on to a lot of our agents to return direct. We sincerely hope that for the sake of Tourism in Livingstone the fees are going to be brought down for everyone and not just for the Brits and Americans. A lot of operators in Livingstone already say that a visa fee of USD 50-00 for everybody would be acceptable. These operators mainly work with the top-end of the market and a visa fee of USD 50-00 will not make any difference to their holiday and these clients will come anyway. We should however be looking at the bigger picture and think for Livingstone and Zambia as a destination and not just everyone's own operation. Livingstone region is bordering three countries of which two do not have any visa fees for the majority of the visitors. The only reason that Livingstone has been doing reasonably well is because the majority of visitors to Livingstone come for The Victoria Falls. They do have the option between Zimbabwe and Zambia and because of the political situation in Zimbabwe we now have the majority of the market. Costs of nearly all commodities as well as fuel in Zambia are approx double of the costs in Namibia and +40% of costs in Botswana, which makes our overheads also nearly double. Zimbabwe, we cannot really compare with because they, at the moment, have to get most of the commodities they need to run an efficient Tourism enterprise, from their neighbouring countries, which they quite successfully do. Livingstone and most of the local smaller businesses in Livingstone have done very well with the budget market and mainly because of the visa waiver. The budget traveller stays in local guest houses, backpacker places, use local taxi's, shops and restaurants and over the last couple of years these small businesses started thriving. The budget market we will lose, without any doubt, to Zimbabwe, because even a USD 20-00 or more difference for a visa, that Zambia now is more expensive, will make the budget traveller swing the other way. Therefore the Zambian visa fee should stay below the Zimbabwe visa fee which is USD 30-00 for most nationalities. Also Livingstone airport is the Gateway to Botswana's Chobe National Park and no doubt National Airports can give you the exact figures for transit passengers to and from Botswana. I fear that Botswana visitors will start using Victoria Falls Airport once again if the transit visa is not cheaper than the Zimbabwe transit visa. This will be a great loss for National Airports Livingstone.   The day tripper!!!! Of USD 10-00 for visitors to Livingstone coming for sight seeing and leaving within 24 hours is not implemented any longer. If you look at the government immigration website, you will see that all the new visa fees have been listed and the day tripper visa for USD 10-00 according to this website is still in place. Immigration Livingstone does not seem to know about this and charges our day visitors for the full visa fee. Many tourists coming for a helicopter flight, micro light flight or any other activity that Livingstone has to offer, or to visit Livingstone Town and the Falls, now turn back because of the hefty visa fees. The Livingstone Tourism Sector at the time has fought long and hard to introduce this day visa, with a lot of documentation to proof the success for this visa. Now by the looks of it, we have lost this as well.   What I also do not understand is, how these fees from one minute to the next can be changed and implemented before it having gone through parliament. Surely this is against the law!!!   * * * * *   In a nutshell our argument is based upon the fact the majority of tourists visiting Zambia before the 'fee waiver' was abolished were paying Zero for their visa's.  They are now paying anything up to $150 which will have a negative impact on tourism which is substantiated in the report.  The Govt needs to consider a fee that is competitive based upon the region, Botswana '$0', Namibia '$0', Zimbabwe '$30' and South Africa '$0' and the re-introduction of the day visa so that competively priced activity providers in Zambia can benefit from the Zimbabwe and Botswana markets which has since ceased due to the abolishment of the day visa.    From the Museum Newsletter Photographic Survey of Wild flowers of Victoria Falls Victoria Falls is one of the world heritage sites endowed with natural beauty. Within its perimeter, there is a diversity of wild flowers. For many years now, there has not been any book photographically documenting the wild flowers of the Victoria Falls area. The last known piece of literature on flora of the Victoria Falls was by D B Fanshawe in 1975. Helen Pickering from Kew gardens in England, and Freddie Sayi Siangulube of the Livingstone Museum have undertaken a project aimed at documenting the wild flowers. The anticipated book will be useful for both casual visitors and amateur botanists interested in the flowers of the Falls area. For more information, contact Helen Pickering (helen@hpickering.com EMIRATES OFFER UGANDANS A380 CONNECTIONS TO BIG APPLE Starting in October this year, the daily Emirates flight out of Entebbe to Dubai will allow Ugandan travellers a first chance to fly the fabulous giant aircraft A380 onwards to New York, soon after to be followed by London and Sydney in December 2008 and February 2009 respectively. Emirates, the award winning airline from the Dubai / United Arab Emirates, has set many first's for Uganda, since it began daily direct flights between the two countries. Presently travellers can make a brief, or longer if so wanted, stop-over in Dubai before choosing one of now three daily connections between Dubai and New York, currently operated on the B777. However, from end of 2008 onwards at least one of these daily flights will be operated with the double-decker A380, bringing a new dimension to air travel between East Africa and the rest of the world, as long as travellers connect via Dubai. The first airline to receive the new plane was Singapore Airlines, but they are not easily accessible for East African travellers. SIA has however been repeatedly mentioned to be looking at flights between East Africa and Singapore, although no concrete dates have ever been announced. Most recent events in Kenya were also not helpful to attract additional airlines to the route but this is due to change once the tourism and economic recovery has gone underway. Watch this space for breaking airline news from Eastern Africa. GIVE CHOGM ADVANCES BACK SAYS GOVERNMENT Uganda's hotel sector has woken up to a stark reality when government sources gave notice to recover at least some 4.1 billion Uganda Shillings (about US Dollars 2.35 million) paid to them as advances for confirmed accommodation of delegates during the Commonwealth Summit last November. Apparently all transactions, where delegations had paid directly, are being audited and scrutinized to ensure that unused and unallocated advance payments are being returned by the hotels. The Serena Hotel, according to government sources and related press reports, was singled out for a refund of 1.4 billion Uganda Shillings in building advances to prepare the meeting room for the Executive Committee session of the Commonwealth and a further 327 million Uganda Shillings for accommodation advances, while its towering neighbour Imperial Royale Hotel is reportedly due to repay a staggering amount of 2.7 billion Shillings for unused accommodation, when due to the state of readiness of the hotel at the time of the summit start only a few rooms were occupied. Other hotels in Kampala and Entebbe, which housed delegations and the press teams, are also mentioned in the lists now made public, but with lesser amounts claimed from them. The parliamentary watchdog 'public accounts committee' is also chasing the whereabouts of some 2.2 billion funds advanced to the J&M Airport Hotel &endash; which was due to become the Protea Entebbe Hotel until the South African hotel management company pulled out of the deal last year when they finally recognised too that they were engaged with a cuckoo land project &endash; for which government has yet to demonstrate if any guests at all stayed at the then building site (still not completed as of now). The owners of the 'hotel' are in any case in deep financial trouble as a leading commercial bank has started foreclosure procedures and taken possession of several of their Kampala properties given as loan security, including a major shopping mall, should loans to the crumbling business empire not be repaid by end of March. Watch this space. PUBLIC AND AGENTS COMPLAIN ABOUT PRICE ADVERTISING While the rules on price advertising for consumer goods are relatively clear, in that all charges have to be included in the prices publicly advertised, some hotel owners conveniently forget this and add in hard to see little asterix lines 'plus VAT and service charge', causing at time embarrassing moments for clients, when they are presented with a bill unexpectedly higher by 18 percent VAT and 5 percent SVC than budgeted for. The Ugandan consumer watchdog has hitherto kept rather quiet on such misleading practises but more and more complaints from the public are bound to change this. Airlines too have been criticised for publishing fares without clear mention of the regulatory charges to be added for airport taxes and security fees, which completely distorts the final billing for a ticket. This has reportedly resulted in complaints at agent's offices, when disappointed clients vented their anger over the extra charges after feeling duped and misled by adverts and commercials. While in Europe the EC has taken harsh measures against offenders, this seems still a long way off here in Eastern Africa but the pressure is said to be building. In fact, exposing the regulatory charges will put the pressure and spotlight equally on the regulators to begin reducing these costs for domestic, regional and international flights to make flying more affordable. Hence, in particular airlines should review their advertising practises and clearly mention what the asterixed 'conditions apply' financially involve, unless they want to stand accused of misleading the consumers on a broad and deliberate basis. Some sections of the civil society have also taken exception to airlines' statements, calling recently acquired aircraft 'new', withholding and muddling information about aircraft age and by doing so misleading the general public. Increased competition however is likely to sort out the black sheep in the industry to the benefit of travellers.   ITB PARTICIPATION &endash; TOUCH AND GO FOR UGANDA The release of funds for the Uganda Tourist Board to pay for travel and stand cost of this week's ITB in Berlin took top level intervention and directives to make it happen, after the government bureaucracy had broadly failed to avail the funds to UTB, as it would rightfully be expected of them. Some stakeholders in the tourism industry, clearly at the end of their tether, spoke openly of their disgust with this situation and accused unnamed officials of trying to sabotage their efforts to promote the country, clearly inferring to an opposition sponsored destabilisation activity and fifth column within government aimed to embarrass the country and its tourism sector. This could not be independently verified in the short space of time but similar incidents were alleged before and were found to be of some substance and credibility. Other angry stakeholders however called this correspondent and accused the Minister of Tourism, Trade and Industry for being as they phrased it 'detached', 'uninformed', 'never available' and 'not fighting for the tourism industry', before demanding a new minister of Hon Migereko's calibre (immediate previous Minister of Tourism and now excelling at the Energy portfolio) to be appointed in the next cabinet reshuffle, which is expected soon. Watch this space to see if anything comes out of this and what lessons can be drawn from this heart rending experience. Yet, all is well that ends well and I hope the Ugandan delegation has a successful time in my old country promoting my adopted home. LOADSHEDDING ON THE INCREASE &endash; AGAIN The rising global energy prices, combined with the shortages of diesel caused by the Kenya crisis over the past two months, has now led to a significant reduction of power generated by thermal plants. This has promptly increased the load-shedding across the country. Power companies were quick to blame the denial of a tariff increase on this situation, leading to less production to minimise their extra cost for diesel, which were not budgeted for and where anticipated price increases exceeded the projections by far. The business community and civil society have already made urgent representations to government to set aside more funds to subsidize diesel importation as well as accelerate any projects for hydroelectric power across the country. This applies in particular to the planned power station at Karuma Falls, but also smaller plants at suitable locations feeding into both national and stand-alone grids. Eastern and also Southern Africa have been hit by persistent power shortages, largely blamed on the failure of the respective governments to plan ahead in good time for increased consumption. In a parallel development it was also reported that the cost of charcoal has risen too, contributing to climbing inflation, but more importantly causing increased environmental degradation and deforestation, which in years to come may inflict a heavy price on the developing countries of Africa. The Ugandan government has recently pledged to build additional fuel storage facilities catering for another 150 million litres of various fuels in 4 strategic locations across the country to be better prepared in coming years for any potential disruption in fuel supplies, until Uganda's own domestic crude oil reserves can come on line late this decade. Peak demand in Uganda is estimated to now stand near 400 MW with the combined hydro production and reduced thermal production now only catering for about half of this demand. PEACE DEAL DONE &endash; TIME TO RETURN TO KENYA As the Kofi Annan brokered peace deal was signed on Thursday last week between the Kenya Government led by President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Odinga, jubilations broke out across the Eastern African nation's population. Neighbouring countries too breathed a sigh of relief over the deal, which will result in Odinga claim a newly created Prime Minister's position, however thought to be subordinate to the President, who will retain substantial powers of his own. President Kikwete of Tanzania, his predecessor Mkapa and other dignitaries witnessed the signing of the deal, which was initiated by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in a marathon series of closed door negotiations, often thought at the brink of collapse but finally succeeding due to the personal influence and creativity of the diplomatic supremo. With the deal done, it is now time &endash; just as the world's biggest tourism fair ITB is underway&endash; to throw anti travel advisories into the trash cans, restore charter flights to Mombasa and return to 'business as usual' &endash; as it was before the end December elections. Kenya and her people have suffered enough from the opposition goons loosened upon them, when the results did not go Odinga's way at the polls, and as a result tens of thousands of people lost their jobs, not only in the tourism industry but across the entire economy, plus a thousand or so innocent Kenyans who lost their lives. Bringing tourists back to Kenya, and the wider region, is now a paramount obligation to all of Kenya's friends near and far, so that people recently laid off can return to work and begin restoring order in their personal lives once again. The forthcoming Karibu Travel and Tourism trade show, the Leon Sullivan Africa Summit and the ATA &endash; Africa Travel Association annual convention in Arusha should therefore also focus in rapidly increasing tourist arrivals to Kenya, as this will benefit the entire region, where drops in occupancy during the current high season were also witnessed. Kenya's tourism sector is gearing up towards the challenge to put the past two months behind them and look ahead in rebuilding tourism businesses. One of the strongest delegations ever assembled is now hitting the road towards ITB to see clients before, during and after the world's biggest tourism trade show to reassure them all that 'hakuna matata' has indeed returned to Kenya. All the best to them in their endeavours and success galore along the way. TIME TO TAKE A LOOK With the sad events in Kenya now hopefully over and never to be repeated again following a landmark political power sharing deal between the leading parties, it is probably the right time for at least some Kenyan tourism business leaders to take a hard look in the mirror and ask themselves some pertinent questions. Prior to the political crisis, up to December 2007, nothing seemed to go wrong for them and the figures for the past years constantly went in one direction only, upwards. This however also led to some complacency concerning product quality and innovations as well as at times almost personal arrogance, when dealing with legitimate issues raised with them from a 'high horse' position. The sharp reminders over the past two months should be taken to heart by those concerned to revise their positions. Instead of allocating and distributing accommodation in 'hot properties' and seats in eternally full aircraft they will now have to start 'hard sell' once again to fill those rooms and seats, and a little humility will come in handy when dealing with clients, who up to December got more than a little stick. Scorn, contempt and attitude are no acceptable tools when dealing with a client and the past two months have hopefully taught that lessen too. Just as the estranged and politically divided communities in Kenya now need to rebuild trust and confidence, the same ought to apply to tourism business leaders and their clientele. Further to this, regional tourism administrators and industry gurus would do well to firmly remember how the crisis in one country affected all the other countries in the region immediately to a greater or lesser degree. Interdependence has grown and regional integration is becoming a fact of life. Fast tracking regional tourism integration, including full cross border operations for tour/safari and air operators, joint promotion and marketing of the entire region as 'one destination with many attractions' would be helpful towards the success of making tourism the number one economic sector in the region. Regulatory measures are also most urgently required, like lowering airport taxes, introducing a common East African Visa for visitors from abroad, rapidly rolling out the EAC protocols on freedom of movement of labour, joint monetary markets and a common open sky policy for all East African nations would be just a few areas, where progress towards Kenya's recovery can be cemented across the region. Watch this space in coming weeks as we evaluate and assess the recovery process. PRECISION AIR GETS NEW ATR 72-500 Hot on the heels of Air Tanzania's emerging fleet renewal did Tanzania's leading privately owned airline Precision Air take delivery of a brand new ATR 72-500, which will be used to operate routes with larger traffic volumes and help expand the destination network. The airline, 49 percent owned by regional aviation giant Kenya Airways, has several more such aircraft on order and expects them delivered between now and 2010. The deal between the French manufacturer and Precision is said to be worth more than 100 million US Dollars and is a sign of confidence that the market will continue to expand and offer opportunities for at least two mainstream airlines in Tanzania in coming years. It is also an appropriate moment to congratulate airlines like Kenya Airways, Air Tanzania, Precision Air, Fly 540 and Jetlink for their commitment to employ new aircraft unlike other aviation pretenders and upstarts, who continue to dupe the public through their use of very old and old aircraft, which would not be flying in much of the rest of the world but seem good enough for the owners of such companies to pollute the East African environment with noise and fumes while squeezing every last penny of revenue out of their obsolete fleets. RADISSON NAIROBI ON COURSE Inspite of the upheavals over the past two months in Kenya, the Rezidor Hotel Group is on course with the progress on its new Radisson Nairobi Hotel, due to open in early 2010. Construction of the 244 suites and rooms 5 star hotel is on course, conveniently located in the newly emerging business district on 'Upper Hill'. The development will eventually feature almost a dozen meeting and conference rooms, serving notice on the hotel trade of the new player meaning business. Other international companies, not yet represented in Kenya, have also expressed ongoing interest in either taking over or developing a top notch city hotel in Nairobi, the most immediate candidate being Kempinski Hotels. The international top star management company already manages properties in Tanzania (Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar) and Djibouti and is also reportedly interested to develop a safari and resort circuit across Eastern Africa. This will undoubtedly inject some new ideas and concepts into the otherwise a little stale city hotel market in Nairobi, where the only international entry in recent years was the buyout by Kingdom Hotels of Lonrho's hotel interests. Subsequently, the Norfolk Hotel, the Mount Kenya Safari Club and the group's safari properties like the Ark, the Aberdare Country Club and the Mara Safari Club all benefited from a major rehabilitation and modernization package injected by Kingdom Hotels. However, Kingdom's Kampala project has not shown any signs as yet of going ahead, as the free prime city plot given to them 2 ? years ago is still lying idle, after displacing a key city primary school and teachers training college in a hurry. KISUMU AIRPORT UPGRADE TO START NEXT MONTH Inspite of the political upheavals in Kenya over the past two months, largely centred at the opposition strongholds in Western Kenya and around Kisumu, election loser Odinga's political stomping ground, the Kenya Airports Authority has now confirmed that the long planned re-development of Kisumu's domestic airport will go underway at a projected cost of about 2.6 billion Kenya Shillings. Amongst the work to be done will be a runway and taxiway resealing and upgrade, a substantial runway extension and an enlargement of passengers facilities for both check in and arrivals. The works, expected to take about 2 years, will then allow regional and even international flights in and out of Kisumu. Several airlines, often led by Kenya Airways on safety grounds, have in the past halted operations due to the poor state of the runway, forcing emergency repairs at the time, but only a full rehabilitation will ensure the long term safety of air operations in Kisumu according to internationally accepted standards. NATIONAL FUEL RESERVE TO GET 30 MILLION LITRES The national fuel reserve is to get an additional 10 million litres of petrol and 20 million litres of diesel to avoid a repeat of the crippling shortages caused by the violence inflicted upon Kenya by election loser Odinga's street mob and gangs, when all transit routes were subsequently shut down. The African hinterland nations (Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Eastern Congo and Southern Sudan) all paid a heavy price when imports and exports were delayed for weeks. Kenya in turn is also expected to loose valuable port activity to Dar es Salaam, to which &endash; subject to capacity &endash; a great deal of the goods flow will be switched in coming weeks and months to avoid a repeat of the January scenario. There was no word however about reserves for kerosene, heavy fuel oil, aviation fuel JetA1 and most important the ever short supply of AVGAS, on which much of the domestic and charter aviation sector depends. The move was welcomed by the business community and civil society at large, in particular as the stale mate in Kenya's political talks has revived fears of yet more violence and a repeat of the transportation problems encountered in January, when few if any UB 40 TAKES KAMPALA BY STORM African telecoms giant MTN sponsored the one and only UB 40 concert in East Africa last weekend, with the crowd reaching some 35.000 in Kampala's Lugogo cricket ground and many remaining outside due to lack of tickets but still able to listen to the sound from inside the stadium. The ground breaking concert was also the very last one of the English group in its original composition, as the lead singer has now left UB 40 to start a solo career the after Kampala concert. The group had arrived earlier in the week on Emirates from previous engagements of their world tour in the Far East and Pacific region and reportedly spent some time on charitably activities as well as taking in some of Uganda's spectacular sights before returning to Europe. Fans from across Eastern Africa travelled to Kampala for the music event, cited to be the biggest ever in the Ugandan capital. The Saturday night event drew the 300 who is who of Kampala in the 'platinum' section with back stage access, while some 5.000 revellers crowded the special 'gold' section and some 30.000 spectators filled the remaining stands to capacity. The musical success of the event, organized by the local MTN company, is likely to bring more globally recognized performers and groups to Uganda and possibly the wider East African region. However, there were some negative vibes from the 300 platinum ticket holders over problems with the promised shuttle vehicles from the parking to the venue, the substitution of the envisaged dinner with canapés and bites and the promised back stage access after the show for interaction with the band, who had been whisked off to their hotel. It also appeared that the distance from the stage became an issue for holders of the most expensive tickets, but ultimately the fun of UB40's last show in its original set up outweighed those points of organizer's neglect. SHERATON GETS READY FOR EASTER Ahead of the upcoming Easter holidays Kampala's oldest 5 star hotel, recently completely refurbished, rebuilt and modernized, has put their annual Easter packages on the market. The arrival (see related column item) of Fly 540 on the Entebbe &endash; Nairobi route has also added scope to market such package holidays in the wider region. Kenya holidays from Uganda are already marketed aggressively by Declan Peppard's TravelCare making use of the Fly 540 flights which offers very attractive excursion fares to promote travel in the region. These packages offer flights via Nairobi to the Masai Mara or the Kenya coast (Mombasa, Malindi and Lamu) with convenient connection times in Nairobi, unlike other upstarts which can only offer point to point flights and yet pretend to be the aviation Wizard of Oz. Regulatory charges and Visa cost however continue to be a deterrent for the expatriate population across Eastern Africa, many of whom continue to rather fly to the UAE or Southern Africa, where they have to pay no fees for tourist Visa. This is unlike in Eastern Africa, where a trip covering the entire region (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda) for a family of four can easily add 1.000 US Dollars in Visa fees and airport taxes to the holiday budget. Kenya in particular under the present circumstances is therefore called upon to scrap Visa fees for East African residents and the East African community ought to fast track a regional Visa for visitors from abroad to add incentives towards restoring tourism arrival to the levels of Kenya's pre-election and pre-violence performance. KABALE &endash; KISORO ROAD TO TAKE LONGER The long awaited and much needed, for both trade and tourism, road between Kabale and Kisoro &endash; located in the border triangle between Uganda, Rwanda and Congo - in the extreme South West of the country, will now take three more years to complete, according to a press report attributed to the project manager Mr. Inbar Giora of SBI Construction. The road construction, always promised and regularly delayed in the past, started some time last year when sufficient finance had been secured from the African Development Bank. The new delay will undoubtedly add negative feelings amongst tour operators using the route regularly as well as area residents, who depend on the road to send their produce to the urban centres and receive their own supplies of fuel and assorted other goods. The road, considered as one of the most scenic in Uganda, offers spectacular views through the bamboo forests towards several of the main volcanoes located just across the nearby border in Rwanda and also offers some of the less frequented nature reserves to visitors keen to explore the forests, swamps and wetlands for a rich variety of birds, butterflies and an extraordinary flora. Kisoro, under the World Bank's PAMSU programme, benefitted through a 'district tourism development plan' which was enhanced by the EU UGSTDP programme with feasibility studies and more concrete proposals, how local residents could partake in the growing tourism business. Watch this space! TRUCE SIGNED &endash; BUT TRUST KNOW WHOM The ongoing, and long drawn out negotiations in Southern Sudans's capital Juba between the Uganda Government and the LRA terror rebel group have now resulted in a renewed truce agreement and the signing of a formal peace agreement could be just weeks away. However, the rebels refused to accept the 06th March date offered by the Ugandan side, as they had failed to get confirmation from their on the run leadership. The LRA has so far failed to assemble its thinning ranks at the two designated meeting points and there are ongoing reports that the bulk of their remaining men, and of course their slave abductees, continue to move towards the Central African Republic, where they are carrying out their usual crimes and inflict terror on otherwise peaceful populations unprepared for such goons. While there is sentiment in Kampala 'the further away they go the better' there is also anger about their negotiating tactics, twists and turns and hardliners in Kampala are spoiling for a final showdown with the depleted rebels, should the present agreement bounce. Not much different from Savimbi, Kony has previously left each and every opportunity go unused and ultimately the same fate may await him too. His rebel ranks have shrunk due to many recent defections, encouraged by the ongoing amnesty programme by the Uganda Government and by the open and transparent negotiations and consultations by the Ugandan side. On the positive side, with peace settling in across Uganda's North, economic development and also tourism are on the upswing in the area, hopefully creating much needed jobs and business opportunities for the long suffering Acholi people and their equally affected neighbours. In fact latest news obtained from the Southern Sudan indicate that Kony has added yet more pre-conditions to signing a final peace accord, such as retaining arms and the International Criminal Court having to drop their indictment against him and several of his killers. This latest change of mind is again delaying the prospect of an early conclusion of the long lasting conflict after nearly two years of negotiations. The ICC has indicted the LRA leader on crimes against humanity and war crime charges and fully expects to have Kony arrested and handed over for a full trial at The Hague. UGANDA SET FOR ITB Some 18 companies and of course the Uganda Tourist Board / Tourism Uganda will attend the forthcoming biggest global tourism show in Berlin / Germany in early March. There is however still an issue with government releasing sufficient funds (speak any money) for UTB to pay for their travel and stand services. Uganda's tourism marketing agency has been notoriously shortfunded for years and has struggled to make ends meet, living on meagre handouts since its main support line, the EU funded Uganda Sustainable Tourism Development Programme, expired in mid 2007. As previously mentioned in this column, government had also failed to seek an add on programme or specific intervention from its development partners, leaving UTB financially nearly incapacitated. This led some time last year to the resignation of the marketing body's chairman Roni Madhvani in obvious disgust. Inspite of parliament passing the new tourism bill last week, which will allow for the introduction of a tourism development fund levy, this is expected to take up to another 18 months to operationalize, as the relevant regulations first need to be passed and a mechanism of fund collection be established. The private sector has already made it abundantly clear that collected funds need to go directly to the beneficiary body and not first go to the consolidated fund at the treasury, where the likely scenario will be that only a fraction of the money collected may go back to the tourism sector. This in fact prevented previously the introduction of the marketing levy and the training levy under related legislation (HTTI Statute and UTB Statute &endash; both of 1994), as no agreement on collection and funds administration and disbursement could be reached then. Appointments with the Ugandan delegation can be made via utb@starcom.co.ug, attention of Mr. James Bahinguza, CEO of Tourism Uganda. FLY 540 NOW SET FOR ENTEBBE Following shortly after launching their first regional destination &endash; Southern Sudan's capital of Juba &endash; Fly 540 has now started operating their next regional route to Entebbe, launched earlier this week with yet little fanfare. The advertised fares stand at 79 US Dollars one way, plus continuously high regulatory charges, which the regional governments now have to address as a matter of urgency. Bringing airfares down on a broad basis has to be matched with lower airport taxes and navigation / landing fees for regional flights to promote airtravel beyond its present transportation market share. These regulatory charges presently cost US Dollars 116 for a return flight, with the air fare costing USD 158, an unrealistic equation. The Fly 540 fares are not much different from the Royal Daisy / African Express fares of USD 70 one way plus regulatory charges, mentioned some time ago in this column as breaking news, but are substantially lower compared with other airlines on the route. In addition Fly 540 operates 2 daily flights while African Express operates only twice a week and may therefore not stand the pace of the new competition. This will be a welcome development for travellers and is aimed towards the AKFED owned Air Uganda, which was licensed by the Uganda Government in November 2006 with the understanding that fares between Kenya and Uganda would come down on a broad basis. Not only did the upstart fail and subvert this expectation but also introduced two aviation stone age, first generation DC 9's as their start up aircraft, one of which will this weekend be substituted with what they say ' a newer' aircraft, this being a nearly 20 year old MD 87. Environmental concerns obviously do not feature at all in this outfit and regulatory demands therefore must be hastened to compel such companies to comply with global standards of emission controls. This is of particular significance in view of AKFED's corporate song of 'best practise', which alter ego may now have to be looked at afresh by the green lobby and real conservationists to establish its true global carbon footprint and industrial emissions caused in the developing world. Fly 540 is starting on the route with ATR 42 equipment with 48 economy seats, and having several brand new ATR's on order from the French manufacturer will undoubtedly put Fly 540 into an excellent position as far as operational cost are concerned. The route will see the new ATR 72 introduced soon, which will then operate with 12 business class and 50 economy class seats, reflecting anticipated market demand for services on the heavily travelled route. There will, for the time being, be two daily flights between Nairobi and Entebbe, offering the important and convenient first connection out of Nairobi to Entebbe at 06.40 hrs, as well as a late afternoon flight, which will allow travellers from Kenya to spend a full working day in Uganda and be home in Nairobi the same day again. Fly 540's biggest single investor is Lonrho Africa, which also intends to launch air operations in several other African countries during 2008 and 2009 as a credible regional alternative, going by recent press statements issued by the company. In fact, travel agents during this week's Skal function in Kampala expressed delight with Fly 540's start in Uganda and were hopeful the airline could soon add further flights, which in their combined view were offering the best value for money in the market. AIR TANZANIA NEWS The first Bombardier Q300 has early this week transited through Entebbe on its ferry flight to Tanzania and the second Q300 is due for delivery next week, in late March to be followed by a leased Airbus A320, before their newly ordered additional Airbus aircraft are due to be delivered in a full fleet renewal exercise. By doing so Air Tanzania seeks to reclaim lost market share in the domestic market and restore a full regional and domestic schedule. It goes to demonstrate that airlines in the region, as initially practised by Kenya Airways, do not need cheap, old fuel guzzlers and sky howlers to make a commercial success of their business and that well managed airlines with capacity to develop and implement a strategic vision can indeed afford to use modern aircraft. In a related aviation development Tanzania's Precision Air will also shortly commence flights from Tanzania to Luanda / Angola and Lubumbashi / Congo to cater for the growing demand by businesses intent of trading with Tanzania and in particular Dar es Salaam port, which managed to position itself as a reliable alternative to Mombasa during the recent upheavals in Kenya. Tanzania is set to host some major tourism events in Arusha over the coming months, including the annual Karibu Tourism and Travel Trade Show before the annual Africa Travel Association congress re-visits Arusha, and the added capacity and capabilities of Air Tanzania will well enhance the options for visitors to see the Indian Ocean islands, the beaches along the mainland coastline and the national parks through pre and post congress tours. And finally some more tourism news from Gill Staden, Livingstone/Zambia <livingstonian@zamnet.zm> HONORARY WILDLIFE POLICE ZAWA SOUTHERN COMMAND MOSI-OA-TUNYA UNIT LIVINGSTONE On behalf of the Honorary Wildlife Police Officers and Zawa Livingstone we would like to take this opportunity to thank Island of Siankaba for assisting us with a boat, fuel and a driver on the 16th of February 2008 which we used for Crocodile control. During this patrol in which we had responded to a report that was made of an unfortunate event where by a crocodile had taken a woman from the village water point in the Mandia area. This patrol would have been difficult to do with out the assistance provided by Islands of Siankaba. Once again thank you very much for all your help.   LEADING CONSERVATIONIST PASSES ON Dr. Yakobo Moyini, a past Chairman of the Uganda Wildlife Authority and the immediate past Chairman of the Uganda Wildlife Society (a leading conservation NGO), passed away earlier in the week after some period of illness. Yakobo spent much of his life dedicated to conservation and the cause of protecting the environment and the flora and fauna of Uganda, in particular after he had returned in the early 90's from Canada (where he had attained his Ph.D. in forestry) to Uganda, his native country. As many others Yakobo had gone into exile to avoid the past dictatorships in the country, before returning home to help building the 'new Uganda'. Yakobo hailed from Adjumani in Northern Uganda and was laid to rest in his ancestral land. He was well known to this correspondent in both a personal and professional collegial capacity and his loss will be felt for a very long time to come. Rest in peace my friend! CHOBI SAFARI LODGE REBUILDING UNDERWAY The works contracts were signed this week between the Madhvani Group, owners and operators of the two key safari lodges in the country, and their selected contractors, to restore the Chobi Safari Lodge to its former glory. With security returning to Uganda's North, after the LRA was expelled from Uganda in a concerted security effort nearly two years ago, more and more tourist visitors came to Murchisons Falls National Park and the previously closed gates into the park from the Northern side were reopened. Chobi was famous in the late 60's and 70's for fishing the Nile between Karuma Falls and the better known Murchisons Falls and restoring the lodge is expected not only to serve the fishing aficionados but also regular tourists wanting to visit the forested part of the park above the main falls. Road works are also going on to restore game viewing circuits, create more access points to the river and provide materials specially created for that hitherto inaccessible part of the park. The reconstruction is going to take about one year to completion and will add much needed room capacity to the park. Packages will be available in conjunction with the group's sister lodge Paraa, which is located overlooking the main river crossing in the heart of the park. The other sister operation is the Mweya Safari Lodge in the heart of Queen Elizabeth National Park, arguably the most popular safari lodge in the country. UWA GIVES PARK LAND AWAY FOR LIMESTONE MINING The Uganda Wildlife Authority Board of Trustees, incidentally headed by a corporate lawyer, has given the green light to the Executive Director to sign away a substantial piece of land in a mining concession to Hima Cement. The locally incorporated company is owned by Lafarge of France and early indications are that global conservation bodies and activists are now going after the French company and put not only the company, but also its executives, board members and shareholders under the spotlight. The highly controversial decision to allow Hima open quarry mining and crushing of limestone is also bound to bring Uganda's development partners into the fray. The World Bank's private sector lending arm, the IFC, had already indicated that they would not finance Hima / Lafarge's plans, as in particular the World Bank itself has poured mega millions of Dollars into the rehabilitation of Uganda's protected areas and in especially into Queen Elizabeth National Park. The brewing controversy is following closely on the heels of more recent efforts to dissect the Mabira Forest and turn a quarter of the sprawling central forest reserve into a sugar cane plantation. These plans, as earlier plans to turn the Pian Upe Game Reserve into a farm / ranch, presently stand defeated, but it will only be with the help of development partners and global institutions, that conservation stands a chance to survive this latest onslaught on Uganda's natural beauty. One of the main issues conservationists have with the project is the noise of blasting and crushing the stone, the inevitable dust, subsequent water and landscape pollution and damage to the flora and fauna, all of which is right at the edge of a globally recognised Ramsar site. Uganda is a signatory to the Ramsar Convention and other global treaties to protect biodiversity and nature, and in fact hosted not long ago a global Ramsar meeting, in which verbal commitments were made towards conservation and protection, which now sound hollow and unreal. Tourism to Uganda is largely wildlife and nature based and has suffered of the Ebola scare in late 2007, now formally declared over by WHO and health ministry officials, before being further affected by the present Kenyan situation, which has a severe impact on tourism across the Eastern African region. The company has meanwhile decided to avoid loans from major banking consortia, including the World Bank's IFC, ostensibly to avoid the environmental demands coming with the loan packages, and has vowed to use internal funding for the project. The company has also given vague assurances as to mitigating measures to be employed for the project, but this latter point has met with both stony silence as well as derision from conservation groups, tourism stakeholders and sections of civil society. Watch this space as the saga continues. MT. ELGON SECURITY STEPPED UP Tourism stakeholders have complained about the very late deployment of security forces to Mt. Elgon National Park, where a Belgian tourist was shot dead two weeks ago. The troops are now belatedly combing the area to find the perpetrators of the crime, and other law breakers, after UWA has all but admitted that the park has in the past harboured criminals engaged in cattle rustling and poaching. Several stakeholder in fact spoke of 'complacency' by the authorities and said they were not happy with 'reaction' and demanded a constant proactive stand in regard of security and no further lapses in surveillance. Said one senior figure from the safari operating fraternity &endash; opting for obvious reasons for anonymity; 'saying this will never happen again is a bit rich. UWA has to do a lot more to prove this. Things happened in parks before and every time we are given the same promises. We want UWA and others security forces to be more serious when dealing with tourist sites. They have to be there all the time and need to be awake all the time, because there is always complacency creeping in. Then, when it is too late, they cry wolf but meanwhile it is our industry which suffers.' In fact, in view of previous troubles across the border with Kenya, not related to the present round of post election violence, this has also raised questions why insufficient security has been arranged on the Ugandan side of the transborder national park to avoid any spilling over of perpetrators of crimes from the other side of the frontier. Six suspects have been detained at the time of writing this report, a source revealed. Also recovered in the forest were about 100 Friesian cattle, thought to be stolen from Kenya and driven across the open frontier of the transborder national park. UWA in a press briefing also all but admitted their problems with encroachment, often fuelled by irresponsible statements and actions by community and area political figures, which in the past has also led to repeated assaults on UWA protection and enforcement personnel. This requires a firm and sustained approach from UWA and others to continuously uphold the existing law and maintain park boundaries and evict encroachers as and where found. OBJECTIONS TO LODGE / PERMIT DEAL BASED ON ENVY Misguided 'stakeholders', speak disgruntled individuals pretending to speak for a wider constituency in the Kisoro area of Uganda have belatedly expressed their 'concerns' over the contract UWA has entered into with the Nkuringo community, granting them concession rights and guaranteed gorilla tracking permits for a group habituated in the immediate neighbourhood of their villages and homesteads. A process which started way back in 2003/4 saw a commendable effort being made by Uganda Wildlife Authority to engage with and benefit communities surrounding national parks, here in particular the Western side of Bwindi National Park, only accessible by road via Kisoro to Nkuringo. The area is gifted by both habituated and non habituated gorillas and a separate forest nearby is home to chimpanzees, a unique combination for primate tourism. UWA at the time engaged the community, together with the AWF and finally reached a ground breaking agreement, granting the community, through a cooperative type development association, a licence to market the tracking permits and have an upmarket eco lodge built on their land, catering for tourists. After a sustained open bidding process, in which such companies as Serena Hotels endlessly dragged their feet over this golden opportunity, Wild Places Africa / The Uganda Safari Company won the tender by offering the best package for the community. This involves a royalty agreement and job creation for 'real locals', where the company has already excelled in their other safari properties in Kidepo National Park and the Semliki Game Reserve. It was the winning combination of these proposals cum an impressive lodge design, which impressed the tender committee at the time and won Wild Places the concession. Building of 'Clouds' &endash; incidentally mentioned before in this column, has now commenced and up to 10 stone cottages are nearing completion on the site, which is located in one of the most scenic parts of Uganda. Barbs therefore for the envious objectors and bouquets for Wild Places to add another key attraction to the tourist circuit in Uganda, incorporating 'green principles' as well as giving direct benefits to the people of Nkuringo. TOURISM BILL FINALLY PASSED Inspite of assurances, and press reports to the contrary and apparently owing to 'a more important bill taking up our time' to quote a senior member of parliament, the long overdue tourism bill was last week still stuck in the hearing process. Some 10 chapters had been addressed by parliament, but the remaining balance of the bill's chapters was still due for the full process in the house. This development, once it became public knowledge, disappointed and angered the tourism private sector to no end, causing emotional outbursts by some stakeholders known for such, and others saying 'government has no visible interest in tourism' while yet more complained that 'government has absolutely no idea about the tourism sector at all'. Other more level headed individuals however went on to lobby parliamentarians and once again explained the urgency to have the bill passed. These efforts, especially towards select influential members of parliament, finally seems to have done the trick as the bill was then eventually passed on Tuesday afternoon and is now only awaiting assent by the President to make it the law of the land for the tourism sector. A regulatory framework has also been prepared and is expected to be promulgated by the minister in due course. The new law has also repealed the Hotels Act of 1964, the Tourist Agents Licensing Act of 1968 and the Uganda Tourist Board Statute of 1994, now providing for one comprehensive piece of legislation for the entire sector. RAIN FOREST LODGE BENEFITS FROM MABIRA SOLIDARITY The award winning lodge in Mabira Forest has of late become a focal point for mid week and weekend trips by prominent Kampaleans as not only a luxurious getaway but also, as confirmed by many guests staying there, to demonstrate solidarity with the 'Save Mabira Movement', which has successfully stood up against government's ludicrous plans to dissect the forest and turn a large portion into a sugar cane plantation. It is believed that the commercial success of the lodge will undoubtedly add weight to the argument, that more is to be gained by keeping the forest intact for tourism and conservation purposes than giving it away for free to a greedy sugar baron, whose sugar factories are amongst the least productive in the entire country. However, in a recent Uganda Wildlife Society annual general meeting more reports emerged on a continuous assault on Uganda's protected areas for commercial and industrial purposes. The society vowed to strongly oppose such attempts to encroach on national parks, reserves and forests for short-sighted commercial gains, when in the long run tourism and conservation, including the upcoming carbon trading, may yield a multiple in financial terms for the country. Prof. Derek Pomeroy was re-elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees of UWS for a second and final term of office. KAMPALA TO HOST AFRO &endash; ARAB YOUTH SUMMIT Over 2.500 youth leaders from across the African and Arab countries will assemble in Kampala between March 07 and 14 to hold a cultural and youth issues summit at the lakeside resort of Munyonyo. Some 18 Presidents and Prime Ministers have also confirmed attendance of this ground breaking meeting. HOLLAND BOOSTS GORILLA CONSERVATION The Dutch government has given a grant of 4 million Euros for gorilla conservation projects across the region, involving Uganda, Rwanda and Congo DR. The International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) is closely involved in the project, which also includes the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Rwanda's ORTPN and Congo's wildlife management body. The endangered mountain gorillas are found in all the three countries along their respective national parks straddling the frontiers across the border triangle. Gorilla tracking is a major tourism activity in Rwanda and Uganda, but Congo has been falling short of the achievements and standards of the other two countries, as they continue to struggle with security in the area's national parks, poaching of the prized animals and almost total indifference, in fact what often appears as contempt, towards wildlife conservation by their regime in Kinshasa. GARAMBA NATIONAL PARK NEWS It has emerged in recent days, that the Ugandan rebel and terror gang headed by one Joseph Kony, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, has began leave their hideout in the park and is now moving towards the Central African Republic, giving hope that the park will soon come under formal park authority administration again. It was in this park where the last remnants of the Northern White Rhino were found some years ago, which were then wiped out by the Congo regime's own intransigence and callous attitude towards wildlife conservation and the heavy poaching by the rebels of the entire rhino population (now thought to be extinct), elephant and other species. Congo has been sitting on the fence in regard of the rebel group's continued presence on its territory, as it has incidentally done in regard of the Hutu militias, which found safe haven after committing the 1994 Rwanda genocide before running to safety in Congo. The LRA was due to assemble at designated points under the 'cessation of hostilities' agreement signed with the Uganda government, while engaged in 'peace talks' in the Southern Sudanese capital city of Juba, but this now seems less likely to be done by the rebels. The talks have also been dragging on with rebel representatives being changed at will by Kony or - as in the case of his deputy Otti &endash; being killed by his goons. Both the Ugandan armed forces (UPDF) and the Southern Sudanese SPLA have taken all possible precautions to avoid the rebels re-infiltrate sections of Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda, while covert support seems to once again reach the rebels from the Khartoum government, which has long actively fuelled this conflict to divert attention from their own criminal conduct, first in the South of the Sudan and now continuing in Darfur. CHANGES AT KENYA AIRWAYS It was learned just a fraction too late for last week's column, that Kenya Airways Commercial Director Hugh Fraser will be leaving the airline, as will his colleague Neil Canty, holding the portfolio of Finance Director. In particular Hugh was enormously instrumental in the team supporting and surrounding CEO Titus Naikuni, to build Kenya Airways into the success story it was prior to the opposition inspired post election violence, which hit Kenya on a broad basis and ripped the carpet-s peak business - from underneath the feet of many leading companies including KQ. Recent reports filed in this column already spoke of the problems the airline was encountering in particular on the European routes and routes in and out of Mombasa. Staff have been asked to take paid leave (for the time being), although no formal lay offs are presently underway. A strict cost saving and cost reduction programme is presently being finalised and implemented to keep Kenya's national airline financially balanced, until the recovery of the tourism sector goes underway and passenger numbers return to normality. However, it is sadly noted that this recovery will apparently be without Hugh, whom this correspondent wishes the very best in the future. It is also noted that other senior staff had left the airline over the past few months (Technical Director and Director Flight Operations / Chief Pilot), probably making way for a major top management shake up and organizational revision, including creating the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO). The airline's CEO Titus Naikuni's position is reportedly however not under review as he continues to enjoy the ongoing confidence of key shareholders like Air France / KLM and the Kenya Government. The airline has been struggling before the Kenya post election violence started affecting the passenger and cargo performance, with a huge network and fleet expansion and related problems, but was reported to be on the way to getting things on the straight and narrow once again before the current crisis began to depress the financial results and drove the share price to sharply lower levels. Hot on the heels of these changes come further news that the airline suspended the Paris route for the time being, owing to a sharp drop in passenger numbers. Passengers already booked will now connect to Paris via Amsterdam, where the onward flight is operated in code share with KLM or via London, where the onward codeshared flight is operated by Air France. The route may be restored at a later date, once demand levels have risen sufficiently again to justify the service. France's anti travel advisory has been particularly aggressive, warning off would be travellers with grave language, but this may change in view of a political agreement coming nearer and the situation in Kenya in general stabilising in recent days, after the opposition goons apparently got the message from their puppetmasters to stop the unwarranted attacks on fellow Kenyans. Germany, Italy and the UK already lifted their anti travel advice which will be a welcome boost to restore tourism arrival from these countries to their per-election levels. BUSH VISIT TO RWANDA WILL BOOST TOURISM The just concluded visit by President Bush to Rwanda &endash; and Tanzania for that matter &endash; is expected to boost tourism arrivals in coming months due to the excellent press coverage received during the state visit. Rwanda has been hailed as a model nation, recovering from the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi ethnic community and moderate Hutus in 1994 by hardline Hutu militias, spurred on by incitement from politicians, many of whom have now been jailed or are facing trials in Rwanda and at the Arusha special court set up by the UN. The present government led by President Paul Kagame has turned the economy around and supported tourism to the hilt, while also excelling in fighting corruption and meeting democratic benchmarks. While in East Africa President Bush demanded an end to the violence in Kenya and a swift political settlement, having dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Nairobi in support of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's initiative for an early agreement between the two protagonists. He demanded in even sharper terms an end to the violence in Darfur, where the US is engaged with massive food aid for the starving population, displaced from their land by Khartoum sponsored militias as well as direct military action by a ruthless government. President Bush also visited the Genocide Memorial in Rwanda and, with his wife Laura, paid respects to the over 800.000 innocent victims of ethnic slaughter. While in Kigali President Bush also formally commissioned the newly built American Embassy. Rwanda's ORTPN will be present at the forthcoming ITB once again and will be happy to meet tourism trade visitors to showcase the 'land of a thousand hills'. There were however disgruntled undercurrents about the security regulations ostensibly imposed by US agencies, and several tourism stakeholders complained about airport and road closures impacting on their day to day business, delaying clients arrivals and departures in and out of Arusha and subsequently also in and out of Kigali. Said one operator from Arusha: 'it was nice of sorts to have them here and get global coverage, but thank God they are gone again, not to imagine they had been around for a week and what this would have done to our businesses and day to day life'.   RWANDA / TANZANIA RAILWAY LINK ON COURSE As reported in this column some time ago, Rwanda was also seeking to develop an alternate route for its imports, probably hastened by the present Kenya crisis, which seriously affected imports and exports for this land locked East African hinterland nation. Progress has now been made in the various stages of preparation to eventually link Kigali with the Tanzanian inland dry port of Isaka, from where the railway would continue to the Indian Ocean seaport of Dar es Salaam. Construction of the railway link is expected to commence later this year and will take approximately 5 years to complete.         And some more tourism news from Gill Staden / Livingstone, Zambia   Tourism News Government has terminated the contract for Zambia National Tourism Board Managing Director Charity Lumpa.  ...  Her monthly salary according to (the Auditor General's) report was pegged at K47million excluding other allowances.  * * * * * The mind boggles ...      Zambia to spend K12bn to host smart partnership dialogue By Times