Tanzania gets promoted in the United States by various media

By Apolinari Tairo
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (eTN) — World-renowned National Geographic has launched a program that will encourage its members to visit key tourist and conservation sites in Tanzania as part of tourism and wildlife conservation promotion to the American people.

In a recent visit to Tanzania, 25 members of the National Geographic expeditions told Tanzanian Prime Minister Edward Lowassa that they were in Tanzania to explore nature conservation and tourism development in this part of Africa. 
Tom Chielewski from Texas and the group leader of the visiting members from the States said he has been in Tanzania for eight weeks and he has seen incomparable tourist attractions than what he has been hearing or reading in the magazines.

He said since 2005, National Geographic started a program aimed at bringing its members to Tanzania to enable them see various activities that are funded by the organization as well as educating them on natural resources and tourist attractions that Tanzania owns.

The members of the National Geographic including prominent American businessmen and industrialists briefly met the Tanzanian prime minister inside Ngorongoro crater in northern Tanzania tourist circuit during their seven-day tour in wildlife parks before leaving for other three days in Zanzibar.

One representative from the group, Dr. Meave Leakey, said, "Tanzania has many tourist attractions which need strong promotion. This will be an eye opener to many people around the world and they will be attracted to visit this country."

Dr. Leakey is a daughter-in-law of Africa's most renowned archaeologist, Dr. Louis Leakey who discovered the skull of an early man believed to exist in the world at the Olduvai Gorge in Ngorongoro.
She now lives in Nairobi, Kenya where she is carrying archaeological excavations on Lake Turkana.   She said Tanzania has national parks, game reserves, clean beaches, mount Kilimanjaro and historical sites in Zanzibar which could be combined and given special promotion and in turn boost the tourism sector in the country.

Hyla Dobaj, who deals with children, said: "We need to include archaeology in our school curricula so that our kids could understand their origin as human beings and also be able to learn other people's history and culture."
There are currently two more expedition groups which are visiting Serengeti national park in northern Tanzania, and for the year 2007, they are planning to hold 10 more expeditions, National Geographic visiting members said.
Serengeti national park had recently held a high profile after the USA media rated it a "Natural Wonder of the World."

On November 17, 2006 viewers of ABC Television program of Good Morning America and readers of USA Today newspaper named Tanzania's biggest wildlife park of Serengeti the new Wonder of the World, pegging their views on the park's unique animal species.
Listeners and viewers of ABC Television and readers of the USA TODAY, the leading American newspaper voted Serengeti National Park in Tanzania as the best natural site in the world by its unique wildlife species, mainly the picturesque annual wildebeest migration.

January 11, 2007   Posted in: Africa