23 May 2010
16 May 2010
Dar sinks in global tourism ranking
Tanzania has gone down 10 places in the global Travel and Tourism Competitiveness ranking, trailing Kenya in the region, the latest report shows.
It is ranked 98th overall, up from 88th position in the previous report year. Tanzania is ranked 3rd worldwide for its natural environment, with several World Heritage natural sites, rich fauna, and so much protected land area as to place the country 5th on that indicator.
The report published by the World Economic Forum, states that national policy on environment is not sufficiently supportive of the development of the sector, and is measurably less so than last year.
Other issues of concern, according to the report are security levels in the country, and a focus must be placed on improving the health of the workforce, upgrading the educational system, and improving all types of infrastructure on which the industry is dependent.
“This is buttressed by an important focus in the country on environmental sustainability, particularly as it pertains to the development of this industry. There is also a general affinity of the population to Travel & Tourism, and it is clearly seen to be an overall national priority” reads the report.
Kenya, a country long famous for its tourism attributes, is ranked 18th regionally and 97th overall, up four places since last year. Kenya is ranked 25th for its natural resources, with two World Heritage natural sites and its rich diversity of fauna.
Tourism is a strong priority within the country (ranked 12th on this pillar), with high government spending on the sector, effective destination- marketing campaigns, and country presence at several international fairs and exhibitions.
In addition, there is a strong focus on environmental sustainability in the country, which is particularly important for Kenya given the sector’s dependence on the natural environment. On the downside, the policy environment is not at present conducive to the development of the sector, with bilateral Air Service Agreements that are not open, insufficiently protected property rights, and much time and cost required for starting a business.
In addition, infrastructure remains underdeveloped and health hygiene levels require improvement. Just like in Tanzania, the security situation in the country remains a significant hindrance to further developing the sector.
General analysis of the year 2009, as stated in the report, may go down in history as the year of “make or break” for the Airline and the Travel & Tourism (T&T) sector as a whole. The historically high price of crude oil of $147 per barrel in the summer of 2008 clearly highlighted the vulnerability of the sector to mid and long-term oil prices.
An oil price of $100 per barrel was considered ruinous only a few years ago before it emerged as a realistic scenario to which all players in the T&T sector have to adapt in the recent past.
At such a high level, the price of oil will become even more critical to almost every part of the tourism value chain. Although weak global demand, caused by global economic recession, resulted in a steep oil price decline to $45 per barrel by the fourth quarter of 2008, this will not change the mid- to long-term oil forecast.
Several economic analysts predict an end to the recession in the next one to two years. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that oil prices will recover to more than $100 per barrel as soon as the economies around the world recover from recession.
According to that agency, strong growth in the emerging economies of China and India, along with the maturing of several oil fields, will soon rally the oil price again.
The obvious impact of a high oil price is an increase in the operating costs of airlines. Fuel costs were only an average 18 percent of airlines’ operating costs between 2000 and 2007, according to IATA estimates.
With prices of more than $100 per barrel, as seen during 2008, fuel accounts for more than a third of the total operating cost for an average airline, thus representing the single most important cost item in expenditures.
Low-cost carriers are even more exposed to fuel prices than their higher-cost counterparts, as kerosene expenditures represent more than 50 percent of their total cost base.
Tanzania's tourism earnings, the country's foremost foreign exchange earner, dropped to $1.26 billion in 2009 from $1.28 billion in the previous year, partly due to the global crisis, the central bank said on Monday.
"The dismal performance is partly attributed to the global financial crisis, which has affected major sources of tourists to Tanzania," the central bank said in a monthly report.
"However, improvement in travel receipts is anticipated given the recovery of major economies from (the crisis) and concerted efforts by the government and other stakeholders in promoting Tanzania as a unique tourist destination in new emerging markets."
It is ranked 98th overall, up from 88th position in the previous report year. Tanzania is ranked 3rd worldwide for its natural environment, with several World Heritage natural sites, rich fauna, and so much protected land area as to place the country 5th on that indicator.
The report published by the World Economic Forum, states that national policy on environment is not sufficiently supportive of the development of the sector, and is measurably less so than last year.
Other issues of concern, according to the report are security levels in the country, and a focus must be placed on improving the health of the workforce, upgrading the educational system, and improving all types of infrastructure on which the industry is dependent.
“This is buttressed by an important focus in the country on environmental sustainability, particularly as it pertains to the development of this industry. There is also a general affinity of the population to Travel & Tourism, and it is clearly seen to be an overall national priority” reads the report.
Kenya, a country long famous for its tourism attributes, is ranked 18th regionally and 97th overall, up four places since last year. Kenya is ranked 25th for its natural resources, with two World Heritage natural sites and its rich diversity of fauna.
Tourism is a strong priority within the country (ranked 12th on this pillar), with high government spending on the sector, effective destination- marketing campaigns, and country presence at several international fairs and exhibitions.
In addition, there is a strong focus on environmental sustainability in the country, which is particularly important for Kenya given the sector’s dependence on the natural environment. On the downside, the policy environment is not at present conducive to the development of the sector, with bilateral Air Service Agreements that are not open, insufficiently protected property rights, and much time and cost required for starting a business.
In addition, infrastructure remains underdeveloped and health hygiene levels require improvement. Just like in Tanzania, the security situation in the country remains a significant hindrance to further developing the sector.
General analysis of the year 2009, as stated in the report, may go down in history as the year of “make or break” for the Airline and the Travel & Tourism (T&T) sector as a whole. The historically high price of crude oil of $147 per barrel in the summer of 2008 clearly highlighted the vulnerability of the sector to mid and long-term oil prices.
An oil price of $100 per barrel was considered ruinous only a few years ago before it emerged as a realistic scenario to which all players in the T&T sector have to adapt in the recent past.
At such a high level, the price of oil will become even more critical to almost every part of the tourism value chain. Although weak global demand, caused by global economic recession, resulted in a steep oil price decline to $45 per barrel by the fourth quarter of 2008, this will not change the mid- to long-term oil forecast.
Several economic analysts predict an end to the recession in the next one to two years. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that oil prices will recover to more than $100 per barrel as soon as the economies around the world recover from recession.
According to that agency, strong growth in the emerging economies of China and India, along with the maturing of several oil fields, will soon rally the oil price again.
The obvious impact of a high oil price is an increase in the operating costs of airlines. Fuel costs were only an average 18 percent of airlines’ operating costs between 2000 and 2007, according to IATA estimates.
With prices of more than $100 per barrel, as seen during 2008, fuel accounts for more than a third of the total operating cost for an average airline, thus representing the single most important cost item in expenditures.
Low-cost carriers are even more exposed to fuel prices than their higher-cost counterparts, as kerosene expenditures represent more than 50 percent of their total cost base.
Tanzania's tourism earnings, the country's foremost foreign exchange earner, dropped to $1.26 billion in 2009 from $1.28 billion in the previous year, partly due to the global crisis, the central bank said on Monday.
"The dismal performance is partly attributed to the global financial crisis, which has affected major sources of tourists to Tanzania," the central bank said in a monthly report.
"However, improvement in travel receipts is anticipated given the recovery of major economies from (the crisis) and concerted efforts by the government and other stakeholders in promoting Tanzania as a unique tourist destination in new emerging markets."
Lions of Tsavo
It is well known that lions ate many of the workers who were building the Mombasa-Kampala railroad. The lions were killed by John H. Patterson who arrived in 1898 to oversee the construction of the rail bridge over Kenya’s Tsavo River. Hundreds of workers fled the site – and construction had halted.
Nine months after his arrival he killed the first one. From nose to the tip of its tail that lion measured 9 feet 8 inches (3 metres) and stood 3 feet 9 inches high. Three weeks later Patterson killed the companion. The lions’ skins were turned into carpets for his flat in England. By 1924 he was broke and he sold the carpets to the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History in the USA. The lions’ skins and heads were mounted on wire forms and until now are displayed in the Museum’s mammal collection.
Nowadays, through stable isotope analysis it is possible to reconstruct the diets of animals by analyzing their teeth, hair, and bones. (Isotopes are atoms of the same element but with different masses because they have different numbers of neutrons.) Isotopes exist in various foods in different ratios, creating a sort of “signature”. Different plants have different signatures. These ratios are passed up the food chain. Therefore the tissues of the body reflect the chemicals in the food and water that are ingested. So for example if a buffalo eats grass, and a lion eats that buffalo, the isotopes from the grass become part of the lions’ tissues. It is possible to analyze what animals were eating, even after they are dead!
To discover what the lions of Tsavo were actually eating, researchers Domini and Yeakel decided to analyze the isotope signatures of a few hairs about 3 centimeters long and a plug of bone from the skulls. The hairs would reveal what the lions had eaten in the previous 3 months; the bones would reveal what they had eaten over their life times. For comparison the researchers also obtained skin and muscle tissue from 5 modern Tsavo lions, bone samples from 25 Tsavo herbivores which would have been the lions normal diet, and bone samples from ancestral skulls of the Taita people, the native people of the area.
Results showed that the Taita people had been eating corn, mbaazi, and the blood and milk of goats. This gave the people a specific isotope signature.
Results also showed that one lion had shifted from a lions’ traditional diet of grass-grazing animals such as zebras and wildebeests, towards leaf eating browsers such as gazelles at the end of its life. The other lion seems to have been eating browsers for most of its life until it shifted its diet to people. During their final three month, humans comprised approximately 30% of one lion’s diet, compared to just 13% of the other lion’s.
The scientists speculate that the lions were companions. They attacked the camp together – but one was after human beings, and the other was focusing on the goats and donkeys.
Why did they change their diets so drastically? It is believed that a sequence of events turned the lions into man-eaters. First, ivory hunters had killed off most of the region’s elephants. Elephants stimulate the growth of grassy savannahs, because they push over trees to eat their leaves. When elephants die, animals that eat grass do poorly – and that is what lions typically hunt. Second, drought and disease had further reduced the population of potential prey. Third, into this situation came a large population of railroad workers. Fourth, one of the lions was in ill health due to broken teeth and major infections on its jaw that probably led to its dependency on soft human prey.
Especially interesting is that the lions were cooperating while eating different prey. It is now understood that individuals of a species can appear identical but actually have different eating habits. Although lions typically hunt together and share the proceeds, cooperation is not just simply related to food sharing. There are other benefits. Territoriality would be one. And perhaps they simply enjoyed being together even though they were eating different things.
Nine months after his arrival he killed the first one. From nose to the tip of its tail that lion measured 9 feet 8 inches (3 metres) and stood 3 feet 9 inches high. Three weeks later Patterson killed the companion. The lions’ skins were turned into carpets for his flat in England. By 1924 he was broke and he sold the carpets to the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History in the USA. The lions’ skins and heads were mounted on wire forms and until now are displayed in the Museum’s mammal collection.
Nowadays, through stable isotope analysis it is possible to reconstruct the diets of animals by analyzing their teeth, hair, and bones. (Isotopes are atoms of the same element but with different masses because they have different numbers of neutrons.) Isotopes exist in various foods in different ratios, creating a sort of “signature”. Different plants have different signatures. These ratios are passed up the food chain. Therefore the tissues of the body reflect the chemicals in the food and water that are ingested. So for example if a buffalo eats grass, and a lion eats that buffalo, the isotopes from the grass become part of the lions’ tissues. It is possible to analyze what animals were eating, even after they are dead!
To discover what the lions of Tsavo were actually eating, researchers Domini and Yeakel decided to analyze the isotope signatures of a few hairs about 3 centimeters long and a plug of bone from the skulls. The hairs would reveal what the lions had eaten in the previous 3 months; the bones would reveal what they had eaten over their life times. For comparison the researchers also obtained skin and muscle tissue from 5 modern Tsavo lions, bone samples from 25 Tsavo herbivores which would have been the lions normal diet, and bone samples from ancestral skulls of the Taita people, the native people of the area.
Results showed that the Taita people had been eating corn, mbaazi, and the blood and milk of goats. This gave the people a specific isotope signature.
Results also showed that one lion had shifted from a lions’ traditional diet of grass-grazing animals such as zebras and wildebeests, towards leaf eating browsers such as gazelles at the end of its life. The other lion seems to have been eating browsers for most of its life until it shifted its diet to people. During their final three month, humans comprised approximately 30% of one lion’s diet, compared to just 13% of the other lion’s.
The scientists speculate that the lions were companions. They attacked the camp together – but one was after human beings, and the other was focusing on the goats and donkeys.
Why did they change their diets so drastically? It is believed that a sequence of events turned the lions into man-eaters. First, ivory hunters had killed off most of the region’s elephants. Elephants stimulate the growth of grassy savannahs, because they push over trees to eat their leaves. When elephants die, animals that eat grass do poorly – and that is what lions typically hunt. Second, drought and disease had further reduced the population of potential prey. Third, into this situation came a large population of railroad workers. Fourth, one of the lions was in ill health due to broken teeth and major infections on its jaw that probably led to its dependency on soft human prey.
Especially interesting is that the lions were cooperating while eating different prey. It is now understood that individuals of a species can appear identical but actually have different eating habits. Although lions typically hunt together and share the proceeds, cooperation is not just simply related to food sharing. There are other benefits. Territoriality would be one. And perhaps they simply enjoyed being together even though they were eating different things.
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