Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/22095
HON. SHAMSA S.MWANGUNGA ANNOUNCED THE 2010 TANZANIA TOURISM HONOREES AT THE 35TH AFRICA TRAVEL ASSOCIATION CONGRESS IN BANJUL, THE GAMBIA MARKING THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ANNUAL AWARDS PROGRAM Annual Awards were announced by the Hon. Shamsa S. Mwangunga, M.P., Tanzania’s Minister for Natural C elebrating its 10thAnniversary, the 2010 Honorees of the prestigious Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB)’s New Product Development Award; and Asilia Africa’s Sayari Camp, Sustainable Tourism/CampsAward. This year, there were also three Resources and Tourism, and out-going President of the Africa Travel Association (ATA). The announcement took place at the GalaTanzaniaTourism Dinner earlier this year at the Sheraton GambiaHotel.TheTanzaniaAward din- ner has become a celebrated tradition and one of the highlights of the annual ATACongress. Notable among the honorees was MTV News and Docs, named winner of the Tanzania Tourism Media Broadcast Award, in recognition of its one-and-half hour documentary on the “Summit on the Summit” Kilimanjaro Celebrity Climb aired nationwide on March 14, 2010. Other honorees included:Dar Guide, Media Print Award; Zara Tours, Tour Operator Humanitarian Award; Africa Adventure Consultants, Tour Operator Southern/Western Tourism Circuit; Immersion Journeys, Tour Operator 68 Special Recognitions for outstanding contribution to the development of Tourism: Jane Goodall, for her world renown research with Chimpanzees on Gombe Island National Park, and her worldwide efforts to educate children around theworld about conservation; the lateDrs.Louis andMaryLeakey,archae- ologists and anthropologists, working on bone and fossil analysis in Oldupai Gorge in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (nowaUNESCOHeritage Site) 50 years ago, discovered a skull that would change all prior scientific hypothesis. Their exciting discovery was a humanoid skull with huge teeth that they named Zinjanthropus or “Zinj.” The excellent conditionof the skull allowedscientists to date the beginnings ofmankind to about two million years ago, and to verify that human evolution began not in Asia, as previously thought, but in Africa. In keeping with the significance of this information, Oldupai Gorge is now known as “The Cradle ofMankind”; and RetiredGeneralMirisho Sarakikya,who has climbed Kilimanjaro 46 times, the most amongTanzanians, for his outstand- ing contribution, passion and efforts he has shown in promoting and sensitizing various categories of climbers including diplomats, students and several digni- taries to climbMt.Kilimanjaro. Present at theTanzaniaDinner for the announcement of the 2010Honorees and Special recognitionswere theHon.Fatou Mass Jobe Njie,Minister ofTourismand Culture, the Gambia, Eddie Bergman, ATA executive director, and the Ministers of Tourism and heads of dele- gations frommore than 10African coun- tries, the ATA International Board of Directors andATA Chapter representa- tives as well asmore than 300ATAdele- gates, including US-based travel profes- sionals. In addition to the Hon. Mwangunga, the Tanzania delegation included, Dr. Aloyce Nzuki, newly appointed managing director of the TanzaniaTouristBoard (TTB), represen- tatives of the Tanzania Ministry for Natural Resources & Tourism, the Tanzania Tourist Board, Tanzania National Parks, Ngorongoro Conservat- ion Area Authority, Tanzania Wildlife Department, the National Museum of Tanzania and the Department of Ant- iquities. “The American market continues to grow, and for the third consecutive year remains the number one source of visi- tors to Tanzania worldwide,” said Hon. Shamsa S.Mwangunga,M.P. “We attrib- ute this growth to the many aspects of ourmarketing plan, not least of which is the strong support of our travel industry partners we are honoring here tonight.” Dr.Nzuki noted that “as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Tanzania Tourism Awards program, we can be proud of that fact that we achieved two major objectives, increasing the number of tourists from the North American market, and increasing the number of tour operators who offer stand alone safari programs to the Southern and Western circuits. These successes are due in large part to the strong private sector support from Tanzania itself as well as our partners globally. However,wewant to emphasize, that as we work hard to continue to grow our tourism arrivals, TTB will remain vigilant about conser- vation, encouraging low impact/high quality tourism.” Black Meetings & Tourism November/December 2010: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com