My Africa Today

Tanzania, popular for its wildlife and beaches, expects tourism earnings to exceed $1 billion in 2008 thanks to marketing in North America and Europe.

“This year, we are going to embark on an aggressive marketing campaign in our major source markets,” Peter Mwenguo, managing director of the state-run Tanzania Tourist Board, told Reuters on Friday.

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Mwenguo said the accommodation problem was being tackled.

“For instance in the Serengeti there are four new areas that are being offered for investment for lodges. Already there is a lodge being constructed,” he said.

“I know the Aga Khan Group is due to put up three new properties in the southern part of Tanzania.”

The Aga Khan Group has shares in Serena Hotels, which has two hotels and four lodges in mainland Tanzania and one hotel on the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar.

Tanzania’s visitors come to enjoy its beaches, scale Africa’s highest mountain Mount Kilimanjaro or watch animal migrations, to and from Kenya, in its renowned Serengeti National Park, in the north of the country.

Tourists also have a chance to pursue sport hunting, which Mwenguo said brings an average of $14 million in licence fees.

Reuters Africa

• The Namib at 80 million years, is the oldest desert in the world. Namibia itself is characterized by vast open spaces, breathtaking scenery and great contrasts – ocean, dunes, mountains and deserts
• Easily accessible wilderness paradises such as the Etosha National Park. The Waterburg Plateau National Park, the Fish River Canyon and the Namib-Naukluft National Park
• Namibia is great value for money for international visitors
• A diverse range of lodges, tented camps and guesthouses to suit all budgets
• Namibia is a popular self drive destination with excellent infrastructure
• The world’s highest sand dunes are at Sossusvlei in the Namib-Naukluft National Park
• Namibia boasts two spectacular deserts – the Kalahari and Namib, each with distinctive wildlife and scenery. Desert adapted wildlife such as rhino, and elephant are fascinating phenomena
• Diverse cultures from San Bushman, Portuguese and German influences to the Himba people still living their age old traditional lifestyles. San paintings and engravings can be seen in the Kaokoveld and Damaraland
• The Namib and Damaraland offer remarkably clear skies for astronomers and keen star gazers
• The country offers superb birding, including the coastal ares. Good fishing is available from the banks of the Kavango and Kunene Rivers on the northern borders.

1. Hotel Ivoire - *** - 750 rooms - built 1973, 1977 (Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire)
2. Transcorp Hilton Abuja Hotel - ***** - 670 rooms - built 1987 (Abuja, Nigeria)
3. Eko Hotel & Suites - **** - 604 rooms - built 1983, 1988 (Lagos, Nigeria)
4. Sandton Sun & Towers InterContinental - ***** - 565 rooms - built 1984, 1993 (Johannesburg, South Africa)
5. Southern Sun Waterfront - **** - 546 rooms - built 1998 (Cape Town, South Africa)
6. Sheraton Abuja Hotel & Towers - **** - 540 rooms - built 1985 (Abuja, Nigeria)
7. ArabellaSheraton Grand Hotel - ***** - 483 rooms - built 2003 (Cape Town, South Africa)*
8. Southern Sun Elangeni - **** - 450 rooms - built 1971, 1973 (Durban, South Africa)
9. Garden Court Sandton City - *** - 444 rooms - built 1994, 1995 (Johannesburg, South Africa)
10. Grand Hotel Kinshasa - *** - 422 rooms - built 1976, 1989 (Kinshasa, Congo DR)

*To be renamed Westin Grand Hotel Arabella Plaza by end of July 2007