Vacations Blog

Kilimanjaro airport is having a facelift, which is due to be completed by 2015 in the effort to attract more world-class airlines. This new project is funded by a 57.5 billion shilling grant from the Dutch government. The funds granted by the Dutch government is set to increase tourism from 650,000 to a million people per annum as well as doubling the regions horticulture exports rather than sending them all through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi In a statement buy the Chief Executive Officer Marco van de Kreeke of the Kilimanjaro Airport Development Company (KADCO) the funds are set to be used to resurface the taxiways, runways and the airport aprons. The funds have also been set aside to build a new taxiway to increase the capacity of the newly expanded terminal building which is set to see further upgrades to accommodate the growing number of tourists in the Northern Tanzania region.

A Tanzania safari is the reason so many tourists visit this area of East Africa as the nation is home to the highest concentration of animals anywhere in the world. Kilimanjaro Airport (KIA) has been named the gateway to the north of Tanzania and was the first airport in the country to be privatised. This new investment is hoped to boost tourism in the region making Tanzania’s northern circuit one of the most popular in Africa.

Above all, the region is most famous for hikers wanting to climb Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa and the highest freestanding mountain in the world. Hikers travel from all 4 corners of the globe and fly through Kilimanjaro Airport to embark on a hike up this majestical mountain. The Tanzanian authorities have had to respond to the decline of tourism in the country throughout 2008-2009. To mitigate the situation the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) began to intensify it’s effort to revamp domestic tourism and by initiating a thorough marketing campaign the number of tourists in the region grew by 19.3%.

Kilimanjaro airport is in major competition with other airports around the African continent in a bid to attract more tourists to the region. A Kenya safari is becoming ever more if not as popular as safaris in Tanzania so by 2015 Kilimanjaro’s new revamped airport should be pulling in close to a million tourists per annum.

Trouble still seems to be brewing in Kenya’s Masai Mara as the local people block the entrance gates to tourists. The protests have been off and on for 3 weeks in wake of a new deal signed between Narok County Council and Equity bank over a new smart card system that has been implemented in the Game Reserve. The idea behind the smart card was to eliminate corruption and make the entrance process much more efficient. The protests are on-going as the Narok County Council broke the law by secretly doing this deal as the countries constitution states, decisions like this must be made clear to the public prior to any final decisions being made, which was not the case.

Thousands of tourists have descended on the Masai Mara during this festive season on a Kenya safari only to see their path has been blocked by angry protesters. On tourist said “Someone has got to fix this mess; I did not take a loan to come and see Masai people protesting outside the park. I want to see the animals.” Anyone who has the vaguest idea of what’s going on in the Kenya economy will know that the Masai Mara is an important revenue generator for the country.

If you are still to book your festive trip and are looking for a trouble free holiday then a Zambia safari to the South Luangwa National Park is right up your street, and although the Masai Mara is a spectacular Game Reserve, now is certainly not the time to visit in wake of recent developments.

The main reason that so many people have become wound up by this situation is because under the contractual payment obligations if the total annual revenue isn’t more than Sh1.5 billion the Narok County Council must pay 50% of the difference alongside a service fee of the total revenue collected to Equity bank. The problem is that Narok locals say the Masai Mara doesn’t earn Sh1.5 billion annually and therefore the 50% difference plus a service fee will have to come out of the Narok County Councils pocket instead of using that money to improve the local region.

A situation as complex as this simply won’t work itself out overnight and until a compromise is made it would be better if you are looking for a trip to Africa to travel to climb Kilimanjaro in Tanzania instead. Although Tanzania has a similar system in operation they have the right balance and issues surrounding the smart card system throughout the parks in Tanzania are almost non-existent.

Africa is the second largest continent in the world and has three of the world’s largest deserts, the Sahara Desert, the Namib Desert and the Kalahari Desert. Together these vast array of diverse land masses cover a large area of the African continent and hold the key to millions of years worth of history. These regions are areas of natural beauty but it doesn’t take away the fact they are hostile, treacherous regions that hold very little life. The only people who live in the desert regions are nomads who travel from village to village trading goods.

Most tourists travel to Africa on one of three types of trips, a Botswana safari or a safari in South Africa or they travel to the continent on an adventure trip to locations including Victoria Falls and the Garden Route where bungee jumping, canyon swinging and sky diving are all activities people can sink their teeth into. More and more tour operators are now offering trips to the more desolate desert regions to take part in sand boarding and quad biking and in some cases stay in the desert for up to a week at the time.

Although the majority of tourists still prefer the typical Zambia safari there are a lot more people looking for extreme adventure in Africa, whether its paragliding, skydiving or camping out in the desert for a week or so. The deserts of Africa are now beginning to attract as many tourists as those who climb Kilimanjaro every year. Due to the African deserts being so vast it’s highly unlikely there will be any confrontation between local nomadic tribes and tourists especially in the nations of Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia.

The Namib Desert is the most visited by tourists simply because the majority of the Namibian coastal region is dominated by desert. In Namibia the main attractions are the Namib-Naukluft National Park and the Skeleton coast that are all located in the oldest desert in the world. The Namib Desert is also home to the highest sand dunes on the continent that are frequently visited by tourists.

The deserts in Africa are ever changing environments, expanding their reaches for few years and then retracting and becoming home to an abundance of new flora and fauna when the occasional rains do fall.