DESTINATIONS

WHAT WE DO
The DMASS GROUP partners with tourism stakeholders to facilitate services in Tanzania and Zanzibar. Consult with us for information and plans to facilitate your experience.

WHO CAN JOIN US
Tourists, travelers, vacationers, students' companies, non-profit and religious organizations, teams, and families.

SCOPE OF SERVICES
We organize a unique and personalized experience with attention to details.

R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S

Summer Destinations

Visit or Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro on the Machame route. There are seven main routes to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. You might consider the Machame route based on the following advantages: it is one of the cheaper routes due to its easy access and a shorter itinerary, it is the route of choice for many visitors as it provides impressive views and a variety of habitats, and about 50% of all climbers and seasoned climbers opt for the Machame route.

Visit Mikumi National Park. Mikumi is Tanzania’s fourth-largest national park. It’s also the most accessible from Dar es Salaam. With almost guaranteed wildlife sightings, it makes an ideal safari destination for those without much time.

Visit the Serengeti National Park. It is undoubtedly the best-known wildlife sanctuary in the world, unequalled for its natural beauty and scientific value, it has the greatest concentration of plains game in Africa. It is home to the greatest wildlife spectacle on earth - the great migration of wildebeest and zebra. The resident population of lion, cheetah, elephant, giraffe, and birds is also impressive. There’s a wide variety of accommodation available, from luxury lodges to mobile camps. The park covers 5,700 sq miles, (14,763 sq km), it’s larger than Connecticut, with at most a couple hundred vehicles driving around.

Visit the beautiful island of Zanzibar, also known as the Spice Island. The 9th Century Tales of Sinbad the Sailor from the Arabian Tales reflect the seafaring tradition of the people of the Persian Gulf. They named the coast ‘Zanj el Barr’ meaning “land of black people.” The African people of the coast intermarried with the visitors, fusing their traditions with Arab customs until ‘the Swahili’ became a distinct race with its own language, feudal rulers, art forms and decorative traditions.

Visit Udzungwa National Park. It is the largest and with most biodiversity and a chain of a dozen large forest-swathed mountains that rise majestically from the flat coastal scrub of eastern Tanzania. Known collectively as the Eastern Arc Mountains, this archipelago of isolated massifs has also been dubbed as the African Galapagos for its treasure-trove of endemic plants and animals, most familiarly being the delicate African violet.

MY STORY.

AN OBSERVATION ANALYSIS OF TANZANIA TOURISM ON AN UNTAPPED MARKET.

Famous Hollywood actor Will Smith makes headlines in Tanzania during his safari visit in 2019. Is the Tanzania Tourist Board undeserving its goal in marketing tourism and increasing revenue?

Will Smith’s net worth this year is estimated at $350 million. At the current conversion rate of $1.00 to 2,313.40 Tanzania Shillings, Will Smith can easily pay up to 10 times the nation’s estimated budget for the year 2020/21. He is not the only celebrity that has visited Tanzania. The following celebrities and billionaires have made Tanzania one of their tourism and family getaways: Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Will Smith, Harrison Ford, Anthony Bourdain, George and Amal Clooney, Dwight Howard, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, Ellen DeGeneres, Charlize Theron, and Naomi Campbell. Considering the Southern California Market where a lot of such celebrities live and work, what results would a focused marketing strategy yield for Tanzania Tourism Board? Working under TheDMASS Group, I traveled to Tanzania to find out.
As a consultancy business, we provide consultation and facilitation of Strategic Planning. Our goal is to work with our clients to clarity their competitve advantage that will attract and retain new customers, as well as the right talent to elevate their business performance through strategic communication tools.

During my visit to Tanzania, my prospect was the Tanzania Tourist Board. It is a government agency that is responsible for tourism in Tanzania, and it is the agency that hosts the annual S!TE Event. The event is an initiative that attracts both local and international tourism stakeholders from all over the world. It is a platform that connects tour operators, agencies, companies, businesses, media, manufacturers, innovators, and other industries that are invested in tourism. With U.S $2.44 Billion earning from tourism in 2018 (East African Business Week(EABW, 2019), Tanzania is constantly seeking ways to improve, promote and market her tourism destination.

Tourism is a big industry and revenue earner for many countries in the world. In authoritative research on the economic contribution of the tourism sector in the African continent, research shows that in 2018: Travel & Tourism contributed $194.2 billion to the region’s economy, representing 8.5% of the continent’s GDP (World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), 2019).

Tanzania is a country in the East Africa region. It is the home of a hospitable people and a rich cultural heritage. It is the largest country in East Africa, and is also the home of other world-famous attractions such as Mt. Kilimanjaro, the second tallest mountain in the world, and the tallest in Africa; The Ngorongoro Crater that is a paleoanthropological site and often called the Eighth Wonder of the World (Olduvai Gorge/cradle of mankind); and the exotic spice islands of Zanzibar. Tanzania has 14 National Parks, Including the Serengeti, and Saadani, a unique marine/bush park along the Indian Ocean Coast, and 33 Game Reserves and two Marine Parks, and the Selous, world’s largest Game Reserve; Serengeti Wildlife Park that is famed for its annual migration; statistically, the Serengeti Migration is the largest terrestrial mammal migration in the world, and the wildlife is ranked as the 7th New Wonder of the World.

When I mirrored Southern California economic capacity with Tanzania’s wealth in resource-based tourism, I kept asking myself: If a few celebrities have been visiting Tanzania, what would a strategic marketing campaign in Southern California yield? This question can be analyzed if the Southern California economic market is put in perspective. Southern California is an economic powerhouse and a major player for the state of California and the U.S.A. In the U.S., the top 20 counties by GDP, only 0.6 percent of the nation’s counties, account for 27 percent of its overall GDP, a total of $5 trillion and the Southern California region accounts for 23.6 percent of this (JLL Research, Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2019). According to a poll tabulation by Charles Schwab brokerage, Southern Californians scored better vs. the national norm on the brokerage’s “modern wealth index” —poll tabulations that weigh wealth-building skills.

As I listened to the presentations at the annual Swahili International Tourism Expo in 2019 (S!TE 2019) in Tanzania, I was interested in the number of tourist arrivals to Tanzania, from which countries, and the tourism destination marketing strategy for Tanzania. The number of arrivals equates to revenue and overall tourism GDP contribution in Tanzania. I noticed that the distribution of arrivals by region indicated that Europe continued to account for the largest from 2017- 2018 followed by Asia and the Pacific, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East.

While the reports indicated success in the tourism sector, I was concerned about the loss of revenue by not leveraging on celebrity power that visits Tanzania discreetly. I remembered the former U.S president’s visit to Tanzania after finishing their terms: George Bush (2008), Bill Clinton (2015), and Barack Obama (2018). Yet, apart from the one-time Seattle Stadium Initiative in July 2012: no marketing and promotion have been done to attract the American market at large. I reflected on the city of Los Angeles that is in Southern California and is ranked as the most popular star-studded city where so many celebrities live. They live in this city because it is the movie-business capital of the world. I imagined how the city of Los Angeles would be a prime location for high net worth tourist clients. Additionally, it would also cultivate a market of clienteles who may not be rich, but able to save and visit another country for vacation.

During lunchtime, I sought for an interview with the Managing Director for Tanzania Tourist Board: In the midst her busy schedule, she was kind to sit with me for a brief interview. My questions were few and centered on strategic marketing for Southern California. I was guided to the executive business booth where we started our conversation. I had to be quick because she had another interview with China Central Television (CCTV). I warmed her up by congratulating her, and the Tanzania Tourist Board for putting up such a massive event. I let her know that I appreciated the unusual vision and determination to come up with such an event. She was so honored and humbled for the compliments. I established the premise for my main question as I referenced the success of tourism in Tanzania and the influx of celebrity guests to Tanzania. Then, I highlighted the economic power that exists in Southern California where most of the celebrities live and work. And finally, I felt it was time to land the questions:

Is the Tanzania Tourist Board underserving its goal in marketing tourism and increasing revenue?

Managing Director: “We are keen on ensuring that we maximize all revenue sources. Our strategy to expose Tanzania as a destination is faced with budget limitations. Hopefully, you have noticed that we are a government agency, and under the current government’s austere economic measures, we don’t have a lot of room to expand our marketing strategy.

In your current marketing and promotion plan, was the United States included?

Managing Director: No, our focus was on Europe. We do have tourist arrival from the US, and I agree that it could increase with intentional strategy. Actually, we did have a consultant in the US who was working for the US marketing plan. Unfortunately, it did not work out because our budget could not stretch.

Given the Southern California market segment and its economic capacity, and the fact that there are high profile visitors from that segment who visit Tanzania, do you agree that attention should be given to that market?

Managing Director: Based on your explanation and deduction, it makes sense to pay attention and act. But the cost implication is my curiosity and concern. If maintaining our previous consultant was over our coffers, how can we manage your proposition? I agree with you. But I can creatively navigate around the budget constraints. I can find a solution for that and enable you to get something going rather than nothing at all.

Would you be open to email your marketing plan for 2018, and the budget for marketing and promotion for the same year?

Managing Director: Oh yes! Definitely! if there is a way to work within our budget and produce results – then I am for it. Give me your contacts and I will email the information to you.

Thank you very for your time!

We stood up, shook hands, exchanged our business cards and I left. For the rest of the lunchtime, I visited with other vendors and stakeholders to better understand the industry. Later, during the day, I attend a forum on Econ-Tourism (Economic Tourism). Econ-Tourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. The presenter was from Tanzania Tourism Board (TTB), and an expert in Econ-Tourism. During her presentation on the model used in facilitating community econ-tourism, she highlighted the success stories and mentioned seven stakeholders in the programs. I noticed that the community members were not listed as stakeholders. Since I wanted to confirm that it was not a mistake, I listened throughout the presentation and confirmed that indeed the community members were not considered as stakeholders. When the opportunity came for questions, I presented my proposition and followed with a question:

I am curious how the model works if the community members are not accounted for as stakeholders. I think they are part of the process that claim their basic rights to manage the resources their lives depend on. How can we fully determine the success you have mentioned if the community is left out without a comprehensive engagement? Is it possible that there are divergent values in the process?

Presenter: You ask a relevant question. The teams work well, and the community participates in the outcome. The programs can be complex at times, and that is why we have them as beneficiaries and not stakeholders.

I would like to follow up after the session if you don’t mind. I’d like more information.

I thanked her and sat down. Unfortunately, the attendants were not convinced. To rest the questions that kept coming, another Director from Tanzania Tourism interjected and stated that “we certainly need to re-evaluate and include the communities as stakeholders.” That was accepted, and the forum ended. I left to attend another forum as I rushed to make it on time. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and ready to go to my hotel room. The last day of the event was filled with festivities as they held it at a five-star hotel in the commercial city of Dar-es-Salaam.

The following week I flew back to the U.S feeling a great sense of accomplishment. As I got back to work, I sat at my desk and started going through my notebook, business cards, pictures, and videos. I was keen on responding and following-up with potential new clients and my main prospect: Tanzania Tourist Board. Few of them responded. However, my questions and request for documents were not followed through. It dawned on me that my expectations and business culture was different from the Tanzanian business culture. I admit that it will take time for me to learn how to legally circumvent some business cultures in Tanzania. To date, I still ask myself: Is the Tanzania Tourist Board underserving its goal in marketing tourism and increasing Revenue?

Review by Dennis Massawe.
For any questions, email: dennis@thedmassgroup.com

Inquiries/Booking
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For Visa services, please visit the following link for application: https://eservices.immigration.go.tz/visa/

Link to Official United Republic of Tanzania Website.

Did you know John Legend's Slow Me Video was shot in Zanzibar?

A TOURISM PARADIGM SHIFT.

The Common Story.
The wild animals are certainly an attraction that Tanzania has a reputation of offering the best. What the experts say about Tanzania

Mary Fitzpatrick US – Author of 6 Lonely Planet guides to Africa, incl. Tanzania. Rating: 4/5 stars
“With its abundant wildlife, excellent species diversity and evocative acacia- and baobab-studded landscapes Tanzania is one of Africa’s most rewarding safari destinations.”
Philip Briggs ZA – Author of 7 Bradt guidebooks to Africa, incl. Tanzania. Rating: 5/5 stars
“There is arguably no better safari destination than Tanzania. And, to be honest, I’m not even sure I should be using the word ‘arguably’ here!
Tim Bewer US -Author. Tim is a travel writer who has covered 10 African countries for Lonely Planet's Africa, East Africa and West Africa guidebooks.
Sue Watt GB. Sue is a travel writer, co-author of Footprint's guidebook to Tanzania and regular contributor to Travel Africa magazine. The perfect safari destination with almost a quarter of this vast country dedicated to wildlife reserves and national parks, Tanzania is justifiably regarded as Africa’s premier safari destination. It’s one of my favorite countries, not just for the bush, beaches and big peaks, but also for the genuine warmth and friendliness of its people.

The Different Story.

Why?

Because Tanzania is a land of diverse opportunities socially, culturally and economically. While the common stories about wildlife and safaris are great and absolutely relevant, we would like to challenge you to a different story that we call ECON-TOURISM in Tanzania.

Why?

Tanzania is a land of diverse opportunities culturally, socially and economically. Therefore, we would like to invite you to travel for your vacation while you open your eyes, heart, mind, and investments to maximize the available opportunities. We will survey your touristic needs, offer analysis to identify the development potential of an economy.

How?

By allowing us the opportunity to consult, facilitate, and manage your access to Tanzania, whether as an individual or a business, we will explore areas of interest, provide guidance as far as Tanzania regulatory procedures. We will also do our best to connect you to necessary resources that will ensure satisfactory value proposition.

R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S

Summer Destinations

Initial Contact and Interest Form.