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Tanzania Tourist
Board Awards 2005 TTB
established the Tanzania Tourism Awards in 2001, both to
express its support and appreciation to the travel
professionals and media who have worked hard promoting and
selling Tanzania; and as an incentive to increase the
numbers even more in the coming years. According to Mwenguo,
one of TTB's specific objectives when creating the awards
was to promote the Southern Circuit, until recently, a "best
kept secret"
We
have witnessed in the last couple of years a tremendous
growth in the number of major tour operators from North
America expanding their itineraries to include the Southern
Circuit and are pleased to announce that the 'secret' is
out!" The
inauguration of the new "Tour Operator Humanitarian Award"
is a direct result of the Second IIPT Africa Conference on
Peace Through Tourism held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
December 7-12, 2003, hosted by Tanzania's Ministry for
Natural Resources and Tourism. The IIPT Conference, held in
partnership with ATA and the Corporate Council on Africa
(CCA), focused on "Community Tourism: Gateway to Poverty
Alleviation." According to Mwenguo, "TTB established this
new Award category to encourage tour operators to make a
direct contribution to the betterment of the local
communities, thereby also making them "stakeholders" in the
tourism industry. We are pleased to be able to inaugurate
the "Tour Operator Humanitarian Award" by recognizing Africa
Adventure Consultants, whose outstanding contributions to
Tanzania are a shining example of the sited purpose of the
Award." Mr.
Amant Macha, TTB Marketing Manager, noted that The Hotel and
Lodge categories were added to emphasize the necessity of
having the full support and cooperation of the Hospitality
and Lodging sectors in Tanzania in order for TTB to carry
out a successful marketing campaign in the US. "We wanted to
find a way to recognize those hotels and lodges who have
provided this ongoing support in such an outstanding
manner," said Macha. Tanzania
Tourist Board"Awards 2004 Honorees
this year were: in the Media Category, Jerry Bird and
Muguette Goufrani, Publishers (left), ATA's Africa Travel
Magazine and website; Tour operator, Coastal Travel Ltd, Dar
es Salaam; Tour Operator Humanitarian Award, Africa
Adventure Consultants, Denver, Colorado; Hotels, Holiday Inn
Dar es Salaam; and Lodges, Sopa Lodges. The Award dinner
venue was the Sawa Hotel, ATA Congress Headquarters. Photo
above: Africa Travel Magazine and Web Site publishers also
won the Founders Award, Cape Town, 2001. See
flashback Present
at the Awards Ceremony were Hon. Pierre Hele, Minister of
Tourism for Cameroon and ATA Congress host Minister;
Ministers of Tourism and heads of delegations from 15
African countries; and the 300 ATA delegates, mostly
American travel professionals. In addition to the Hon.
Meghji, the Tanzania delegation included representatives
from the Ministry for Natural Resources & Tourism, the
Tanzania Tourist Board, Zanzibar Commission for Tourism,
Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and Tanzania National
Parks. Awards Tanzania
Tourism 2004 Honorees: TANZANIA
TOURIST BOARD MEDIA AWARD 2004: AFRICA TRAVEL
MAGAZINE & WEB SITE, JERRY BIRD AND MUGUETTE
GOUFRANI The
first Award was for the media or individual travel
journalists providing outstanding coverage of Tanzania's
Tourism products. The 2004 Media Award was presented to
ATA's Africa Travel Magazine and Web site publishers Jerry
Bird and Muguette Goufrani, Bird and Goufrani continue to do
an outstanding job of providing constant editorial coverage
of the Tanzania Tourism Product and marketing activities in
print and on the web. In August of 2003, when Tanzania
President, H.E. Benjamin William Mkapa, took over as SADC
(Southern African Development Community) Chair and hosted 14
Heads of State in Dar es Salaam, the ATA magazine publishers
quickly produced a special SADC Summit Edition. This special
Africa Travel Magazine issue, showcased not only Tanzania,
but the global accomplishments of the Africa Travel
Association and all of its member countries, as well as
promoted ATA events to the more than 1000 SADC
delegates. TANZANIA
TOURIST BOARD TOUR OPERATOR HUMANITARIAN AWARD 2004: AFRICA
ADVENTURE CONSULTANTS This
new award category recognizes the tour operator who has done
the most in its efforts to support community-based tourism
and humanitarian projects in Tanzania. The first Tour
Operator Humanitarian Award went to Africa Adventure
Consultants for their remarkable contributions to Tanzania.
In the past year, the company has greatly increased its
support to both community &endash; based tourism and
humanitarian causes in the following ways: $10
from each client's safari cost is contributed to one of
three not-for-profits, all of which work exclusively in
Tanzania. The not-for-profits are Mwangaza; The Richard
& Agatha Scholarship Foundation; and The Serengeti
Cheetah Research Fund. 100% of all funds contributed go
directly to the organizations. Africa
Adventure Consultants established and has since funded the
Richard & Agatha Scholarship Foundation, a US-registered
not-for-profit organization that provides school fees for
Tanzania children. Since
it's inception, Africa Adventure Consultants has supported
Mwangaza, a US and Tanzania registered not-for-profit/NGO
that helps disabled children in northern Tanzania. In
addition to in-kind donations, they send clients to the
project sites, contributing $50 per person to the
fund. Africa
Adventure Consultants contributes regularly to the Serengeti
Cheetah Research Fund, the longest ongoing study of wild
cheetahs in the world. Fund
community-based tourism through partner companies who hold
leases, pay fees, and have community-based tourism
agreements with in districts such as Arusha, Siminjiro and
Ngorongoro. TANZANIA
TOURIST BOARD TOUR OPERATOR AWARD 2004: COASTAL
TRAVEL Ltd. The
fourth award recognizes the tour operator or group organizer
providing the most support of the promotional efforts of the
Tanzania Tourist Board in the US market. The 2004 Tour
Operator Award was presented to Coastal Travel Ltd., Dar es
Salaam. Nicola Colangelo, Director, and his excellent staff,
have provided tremendous support to TTB marketing efforts to
promote the Southern circuit and Mafia Island. In 2001,
Coastal hosted a press group from the US, which resulted in
high profile coverage of the Selous in such diverse media
outlets as the Boston Globe and National Public Radio.
Coastal has also hosted other journalists since which have
resulted in coverage of Mafia Island, Ruaha, Mikumi and
Zanzibar. TANZANIA
TOURIST BOARD HOTEL AWARD 2004: HOLIDAY
INN DAR ES SALAAM This
year TTB introduced a hotel category to recognize the hotel
properties that have done the most to support the
promotional efforts of Tanzania Tourism in the US market.
The first award in this category was presented to Holiday
Inn Dar es Salaam. General Manager, Adam Fuller, and his
team have provided enthusiastic and ongoing assistance with
high profile promotional projects by providing complimentary
accommodation for travel writers and journalists, as well as
other promotional teams. Recent examples, Holiday Inn Dar es
Salaam hosted American travel writers covering the IIPT
Conference in December, 2003; the American journalist who
did a live report for BBC as he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, as
well as stories about his climb for the Blue Magazine and
NPR (National Public radio ) web sites; and the Star Chef,
Marcus Samuelsson (Aquavit New York) and his team as they
research a book on "Soul of Africa Cuisine." TANZANIA
TOURIST BOARD LODGE AWARD 2004: SOPA LODGES The
Lodge Award was introduced this year to give recognition to
the Lodge in Tanzania that has done the most to support the
efforts of Tanzania tourism in the US Market. The first
Honoree in this category was the Sopa Lodges. In 1998, when
Tanzania hosted its first-ever ATA Congress, in Arusha, Sopa
Lodges was a major sponsor and hosted the more than 350
delegates on their visit to Tarangire National Park. It was
this historic ATA Congress that served to relaunch Tanzania
into the American Market. The number of Americans visiting
Tanzania, following the ATA Congress, has increased to such
a degree that it has become the second largest tourism
generating country (after Great Britain) and the number one
spot in visitors to the Tanzania National Parks. Since the
Congress, Sopa lodges has continued this commitment to the
American market by annually hosting travel industry press
and tour operators in an effort to familiarize them with the
Tanzania Tourist product. For
more information on Tanzania, visit the new TTB web site at:
http://www.tanzaniatouristboard.com/ or
contact the Bradford group, Tel (212) 447-0027; email:
mailto:bradfordmktg@aol.com
TTB MEDIA AWARD: Robert Eilets, Photojournalist,
USA
TTB TOUR OPERATOR AWARD: Chris Gakuo,, Born Free
Safaris Inc., USA
TTB TOUR OPERATOR AWARD: Adam Jillo. Safari VentureS
Inc.
TTB TOUR OPERATOR AWARD: Karen Zulauf, Deeper Africa
Inc.
TTB TOUR OPERATOR HUMANITARIAN AWARD: Robert Chama
Thomson Safaris Inc. USA 
Douala,
Cameroon. The Tanzania Tourist Board fourth Annual Tanzania
Tourism Awards were presented by Hon. Zakia Hamdani Meghji,
MP, Tanzania's Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism.
The Tanzania-hosted Gala Awards Dinner followed the official
opening of the Africa Travel Association's (ATA) 29th Annual
Congress, Monday, May 3, 2004, in Douala, Cameroon. The 2004
Awards featured three new categories of recognition, Hotels,
Lodges and a special Tour Operator Humanitarian
Award.
