ARUSHA, Tanzania - Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) has announced nine new cultural tourism enterprises (CTEs) coordinated by its Cultural Tourism Program (CTP) based in Arusha which will expand its niche market.
With the additional CTEs, the total number of enterprises rises to 60, in which visitors take time to experience local cultures, the people, the environment and the traditions that are unique to each of the more than 120 tribes in Tanzania.
According to Elirehema Maturo, the CTP Coordinator the new listed CTEs include: Bujora Cultural Tourism Enterprise, Ukerewe Cultural Tourism Enterprise and Kisesa Cultural Tourism Enterprise, all from Mwanza region.
In Kilimanjaro region new approved CTEs are Kiliman Cultural Tourism Enterprise, Rau Eco and Cultural Tourism Enterprise and Lyamungo; while Arusha region has Meru Forest Eco-Tourism and Momela Cultural Tourism & Campsite. Ruvuma region have benefitted for one: Liuli-Pomonda Cultural Tourism Enterprise, Mbamba Bay.
CTEs offer visitors the opportunity to leave the safari vehicle behind and spend time in local villages interacting with the people. Besides, CTEs provide visitors with an authentic cultural experience and a unique insight into the daily lives of the local people. During such visits visitors are exposed as much as possible about the wealth of culture values, natural and historic tourist attractions located in their area.
In addition visitors can partake in different activities which include: preparing local cuisine, making local wine, helping to process coffee beans, learning how to make local handcrafts, and learning traditional games and dances. The cultural enterprises also host a number of music and dance festivals that attract many visitors because of their authenticity. And for the visitors who want to meet fishermen, cultivators, local minors, wildlife scouts, rainmakers and story-tellers.
In one of the newly registered cultural enterprises, Lyamungo Sinde, a village in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, tourists can enjoy the scenery of the highest mountain in Africa while staying with villagers to make handcrafts out of banana leaves or fish in the Weruweru River.
In Kahawa Shambani, visitors are hosted by local families at coffee plantations and learn the entire coffee process from the coffee growers’ co-operative, their history and fair trade, to picking, grinding, roasting and making their own fresh coffee.
“There’s nothing worse than arriving in a new place and making a massive cultural faux pas on day one. As long as you don’t do anything outrageous you should be fine, but a bit of information and guideline beforehand will only help to make your stay and experience memorable,” Maturo said in an exclusive interview with East African Business Week.
Cultural Tourism in Tanzania has been developing since 1996 when it was initiated by youth in local communities in northern Tanzania. The Maasai warriors (youth groups) used to dance alongside the mainstream northern safari road accessing Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti major tourist attractions in the area. During these volunteering dances, resulted for them been given a tip or recognition for doing an interesting entertainment.
Cultural Tourism development took an approach of Sustainable Pro-poor Tourism. The aim was and is to develop and promote cultural excursions, organized by local people in their natural environment where they live today.
“This is a way of doing tourism so that it focuses specifically on unlocking opportunities for the poor to benefit more within tourism, rather than expanding the overall size of the sector. Sustainable Pro-poor Tourism goes well beyond ecotourism and community based tourism. It is an approach that attempts to maximize the potential of tourism for eradicating poverty by developing appropriate strategies in co-operation with all major groups/stakeholders central government, local governments, tourism operators, and local communities to have a fair distribution of benefits,” Maturo said.
Tanzania cultural tourism adopts a community-based tourism approach in which the people are directly involved in designing, organizing tours and showing tourists aspects of their lives in the area they live in.
While economic benefit is derived from activities, some cross-cultural exchange between visitors and the local people is also developed. It is people tourism that enables tourists to experience the local people’s way of life, offering insights into the values, beliefs and traditions in the host communities’ own environments.
The CTEs provide employment and income generating opportunities to local communities in rural areas of Tanzania hence decreasing rural to urban areas migration. Most of the cultural tourism enterprises have convenient transportation and easy access to restaurants, accommodation, entertainments, and other services.
Tourism to the villages directly supports the local community with a sustainable source of income.
Over 3,000 Tanzanian people benefited from a direct income in 2014 due to the success of the Cultural Tourism Program. A portion of the income from tourism for each enterprise is used for community development such as renovating schools, providing books for students, tree planting projects, and water tap project.
Tanzania, the largest country in East Africa, is focused on wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism, with approximately 28% of the land protected by the government, the largest percentage of any country in the world.