Prince Akishino Visit, Japan's Role in Local Tourism

Arusha — JAPAN'S Imperial Prince Fumihito Akishino, during his Tanzanian itinerary chose to visit the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, precisely its legendary crater, a volcaniccaved giant earth bowl with over 35,000 wild animals within.

On his way into the crater, together with his spouse Princess Kiko-Kawashima Akishino, the prince drove through the 'Loduare Gate' entrance, which is also a stateof- art information centre built at the cost of US $ 450,000 by the Japanese government through the Mitsubishi Group of Japan which manufactures, among other various types of machinery, the Fuso trucks, Pajero SUVs, Delica vans and Rosa buses.

"It was also the government of Japan which funded the construction of the 77 kilometres long, highway linking the Makuyuni Junction (along Dodoma road) to the Loduare Gate, a road which was built a decade ago at the cost of nearly 8 billion/-," pointed out Mr Adam Akyoo the Public Relations Manager for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority.

Japan's role in Tanzania tourism goes further than infrastructural developments; everybody knows that almost all tour vehicles are Japanese made four-wheelers such as Toyota Land-Cruisers and Nissan Safaris equipped with audio, video and communication sets by either Sony or Panasonic.

However, despite Japan's active participation in driving Tanzania's tourism ahead, visitors from the Asian Island make up less than 2 per cent of the total tourists who travel into the country for leisure visits.

Figures from the Tanzania Tourist Board indicate that the number of Japanese visitors touring the country in recent times have been averaging at between 3500 and 4000 per year, a drastic fall from the average of 7500 recorded at the turn of new millennium between 1999 - 2001.

Japan, the Asian island renowned with very effectively hardworking people, producing advanced technology and extremely reliable machines is also known as the country of the "Rising Sun." Coincidentally Arusha, which is the name for Tanzania's tourism capital, also means "the rising sun," in Hindi language, yet apart from featuring Toyotas and Nissans tour vehicles, Arusha is yet to handle adequate visitors from its fellow "Rising Sun" precinct.

The lack of direct flights from Japan to Tanzania is one of the reasons why Tokyo seems to be totally blocked out from Arusha because visitors from there are compelled to connect via Amsterdam, Rome and again channel through either Addis-Ababa or Johannesburg before jetting here aboard the Royal Dutch (KLM), Ethiopian Airlines or South African Airways.

With such myriads of connections, the journey from Tokyo to Dar eventually takes nearly 30 hours, or two days and two nights plus two hours. Apparently the Japanese are time conscious people who only take 14-day leave per year, thus the idea of spending four-and-half days in just traveling puts them off this destination altogether.

Few Japanese can speak English, the language is usually learned mostly by youngsters who hardly travel due to limited finances. Wealthy Japanese happen to be the older generation who can afford foreign trips though they too, do not want to learn "strange languages."

That fact alienates them even further from less known destinations such as Africa. But tour operators here admit that the Japanese are fussy visitors demanding services of highest standard; the best hotels, best cars and outstanding catering something which the Tanzanian hospitality industry cannot deliver due to poorly trained staff.

"You see in Japan everything works, there are no power fluctuations, trains and buses arrive in time everything and everyone is always punctual, they somehow expect same effectiveness here and get disappointed," said an operator who preferred anonymity.

"The Tanzania Tour Operators' website is now being translated into Japanese among other languages so that people from parts of Asia knows what Tanzania has to offer, where the country is located and why it is not Sudan," said the Association Executive.

Local tour operators also believe that the industry is all about wildlife gazing, as favoured by western visitors but the Japanese are usually not very much interested in wildlife, preferring adventures like mountain and cliff climbing, range trekking and such.

Tanzania only offers Kilimanjaro climbing in this segment. So far the United States has been the leading source of tourists to Tanzania with an annual average record of 60,000 American visitors with the United Kingdom following at around 56,000 and Germany visitors coming third with an average of 45,000.

Tanzania's main markets are Britain, Germany, the United States, Italy, France, Spain, and the Scandinavian countries. Now, the targeted new markets include China, whose Vice President was here two weeks ago, India, and Japan. When President Kikwete met the Japanese Royals in Dar, he asked them to see the possibility of establishing direct flights to Tanzania.