July has been a busy month thus far for Tanzania and Zanzibar. Economic growth has been tremendous in both areas and they are drawing a lot of attention as hot destination spots for people all over the world. In order to catch you up on some of the biggest events that took place this month, we will give you a rundown of what has been taking place throughout July.
Barack Obama visits Tanzania
U.S President Barack Obama made a visit to Tanzania earlier in July to discuss a partnership with Africa that will help boost the nation’s economy. Instead of simply providing financial aid, the proposed plan would help stimulate Africa’s economy by building a trading partnership. This will help the economy by providing new jobs and building a self-sustaining future.
The visit to Tanzania was part of a week-long tour of Africa for Mr. Obama. The president hopes to bring more private investors into Africa to help match or surpass the investments made by China (over $200 billion in 2012).
Zanzibar Film Festival is a Hit!
The 16th annual Zanzibar International Film Festival came to an end with an eventful awards ceremony at the Ngome Kongwe theatre. The event spanned over 10 days and featured many respected film makers and actors. Among the awards that were presented were:
- Verona Awards
- The Signis Awards
- The Ousuman Sembene Awards
- The East Africa script
- The ZIFF awards
- The Zuku award
Some notable winners were The Lovers Island for Best Director and Best Feature Film, Ni Sisi and Little One for the Signis and Save the Children Awards. The biggest winner of the awards show was the Iranian film, Golchereh which took home the Golden Dhow award.
Zanzibar nominated as one of WAYN’s Seven Best Destination Islands
Zanzibar has joined Reunion, Seychelles, Bali, Hawaii, Ibiza, and the Bahamas as one of the top island destinations in the world according to WAYN.com. The selections were based off market research and user engagement on WAYN. It is an honor to be featured on this prominent list and the nomination has brought more positive attention to the area.
Air India to fly to Africa Again
Africa’s booming economy and trade growth has sparked the interest of Air India. The company will be the only Indian passenger carrier to fly to Africa. The new route was created because of “growing traffic between India and some of the African countries on account of trade and business developments as well as education and medical tourism,” according to Aviation Minister Ajit Singh. No official date has been announced for when the new routes will begin, but Singh says “There are plans to start services to Africa soon.”
Fast Jet Tanzania has launched new flights from Zanzibar to Kilimanjaro this month. Tickets started going on sale towards the end of June and it has been a success thus far. General Manager of Fast Jet, Tim Lee-Foster, says that they also have plans for maiden flights to South Africa, Zambia, and Rwanda hopefully later this year.
ATA Brings Tourism to Africa
The Africa Travel Association (ATA), based out of New York, has been doing a lot of work to help increase American interest in Africa. Through educating the public about Africa’s rich wildlife and emerging economy, the ATA has made Africa a go-to destination for Americans.
The ATA has used areas such as Tanzania to host conferences and events to showcase everything Africa has to offer in terms of tourism and investment. Tanzania’s economy has seen a tremendous boost from the tourism industry over the years rising from $392 million in 1997 to 1.3 billion in $2012. Tanzania is beginning a new marketing campaign to help bring even more tourism to the nation and hopes to see even more progress over the next couple of years.
Author
Eran Feinstein is the founder of Direct Pay Online. Direct Pay Online provides global e-commerce and online payments solutions for the travel and related industries He is a leading authority in the fields of e-commerce, travel and payments, having acquired extensive experience from various parts of the world.
