Rwanda’s new wildlife bill finally caters for compensation
NEW WILDLIFE BILL AWAITING PRESIDENTIAL CONSENT TO BECOME LAW The various amendments to the Rwandan wildlife laws – most notably the provision to pay compensation to people suffering damages to property, injuries and loss of life by game straying out of the national parks – has received the approval of Rwanda’s second chamber, the Senate, […]
Aviation breaking news – FLY540 adding three times a week service from Wilson to Vipingo
Fly 540 OPENS UP VIPINGO BY AIR True to their recent form of expanding their domestic destinations to locations other airlines have not been thinking about, has Fly 540 now announced a three times a week service from Nairobi’s Wilson Airport via Vipingo to Malindi and back effective March 18th. Fly 540, operating from both Jomo Kenyatta […]
Culinary delights return to Mauritius’ Constance Belle Mare Plage Resort
BERNARD LOUISEAU CULINARY FESTIVAL COMMENCES THIS WEEKEND No sooner had the Seychelles concluded their first ever Carnival Festival, the first of its kind in Africa it is understood, did the ‘road signs’ for events in the Indian Ocean point to Mauritius where the Bernard Louiseau Culinary Festival is going underway this weekend. Hosted by the Constance Belle […]
News update – YELLOW MASAI gives East African e-travel options
YELLO MASAI TAPS INTO E-TRAVEL BOOKING POTENTIAL E-Commerce has finally descended on the Tanzanian travel scene with a bang since www.yellowmasai.com went on line. A key element, missing in many other ‘booking sites’, is available at Yellow Masai, namely secure credit card and payment transactions, but has also linked up with electronic money transfer services like M-Pesa and […]
Aviation news update – Can Kenya’s aviation boom be sustained in the face of higher inflation and rocketing jet fuel prices
IT IS SURVIVAL FOR THE FITTEST IN AVIATION The aviation industry, just recovering from the sharp recession during and after the global financial and economic crisis, is facing another serious threat to the industry’s ability to make up for the record losses IATA airlines suffered in past years. Rising fuel cost are causing crisis meetings […]
Breaking News – Uganda’s tourism ministry taken to court over plans to demolish the Uganda Museum
MUSEUM SAGA NOW IN COURT In a predictable development have civil society organisations and heritage advocates gone to the High Court in Kampala to stop the plans by the Ministry of Tourism to demolish the Uganda Museum and instead put up a 60 – yes SIXTY – storey building instead. At least four organisations, probably […]
SEYCHELLES EXCEL AGAIN – CARNIVAL FESTIVAL ATTRACTS COPY CATS ALREADY
CARNIVAL FESTIVAL A RESOUNDING SUCCESS The well attended first ever Seychelles Carnival Festival, which ended early this week, drew spectators from afar and in fact from across the globe to the archipelago, and what they saw did not disappoint. Political delegations and ‘snoops’ from various tourist boards too came to the Seychelles, as guests and […]
Breaking News – Kingdom Hotels/Holdings Al Waleed snubs Uganda and befriends Rwanda instead
KINGDOM HOTELS AL-WALEED SNUBS UGANDA AND PRAISES RWANDA In a move certain to perplex the powers that be in Uganda has Saudi Prince Al Waleed, owner of Kingdom Hotels, apparently done an about turn on his East African plans and expressed his open favour of Rwanda while on a recent visit to Kigali. Al Waleed’s Kingdom Hotels […]
Aviation news update – Tanzania’s Precision Air to go ahead with share public listing
PRECISION AIR MOVES AHEAD WITH LISTING ON STOCK EXCHANGE Tanzania’s premier airline, Precision Air, has announced it is set to go ahead with their planned listing of their shares at the Dar es Salaam stock exchange, apparently unperturbed over a recent attempt to have court issue a winding up order against them, following a suit […]
Libyan owned Uganda Telecom gets ‘cut notice’ from MTN
LIBYA FALLOUT FELT IN UGANDA The Libyan owned, many in fact say Gadaffi owned Uganda Telecom is said to be in serious financial dire straits, allegedly unable to pay interconnection fees to market leader MTN to the tune of 20 billion Uganda Shillings. MTN has now given a termination notice to UTL, effective next Monday 14th March, that no calls […]
Kenya’s ‘Grogan’s Castle’ now open for visitors
GROGAN’S CASTLE NOW TOURIST SITE Grogan’s Castle is located in an area full of history, where many bloody battles were fought between the German forces based in their then colony Tanganyika and the British and allied troops based in Kenya. Imperial Germany’s General Von Lettow-Vorbeck slipped across the nearby border at Taveta with his troops and […]
Rwanda’s Rosette Rugamba on UNWTO panel launching ‘Women in Tourism’ report at ITB
ROSETTE RUGAMBA RETURNS TO HER ‘WINNING PATCH’ Rosette Rugamba, former head of ORTPN and then Deputy CEO at the Rwanda Development Board for Tourism and Conservation, will return to her ‘winning site’ this week as an invited panelist when the global report on ‘Women in Tourism’ is being formally launched by the UNWTO. After leading Rwanda’s […]
Aviation news update – RwandAir now flies to Brazzaville and Libreville
RWANDAIR COMMENCES BRAZZAVILLE / LIBREVILLE FLIGHTS Last Saturday did RwandAir operate their inaugural flight between Kigali and Brazzaville / Congo B before then proceeding on with full traffic rights to Gabon’s capital Libreville, creating their first such connection from East to West Africa. The flight leaves Kigali’s Kanombe International Airport ever Tuesday, Friday and Saturday and is operated […]
STOP PRESS – THIS SITE IS BACK
My dear friends and faithful readers, due to an anti spam control mechanism kicking in erroneously my site was temporarily off air … however, thanks to the WordPress team this issue was resolved and you can now once again access the site and read all the articles posted this morning, in recent days and of […]
Weekly round up of tourism and conservation news from Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean region, Second edition March 2011
TOURISM, AVIATION AND CONSERVATION NEWS from the Eastern African and Indian Ocean region A weekly roundup of reports, travel stories and opinions by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang H. Thome Get daily breaking news updates via Twitter @whthome or on my blog: www.wolfganghthome.wordpress.com Second edition March 2011 Uganda News KAFTC EXPANDS FURTHER The Kampala Aero Club […]
Sheraton leads Ugandan hospitality businesses in observing ‘Earth Hour’
SHERATON LEADS LOCAL HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IN OBSERVING ‘EARTH HOUR’ The Kampala Sheraton Hotel has in line with Starwood’s global commitment to go ‘green’ also agreed to turn all but the most important security lights off on the evening of the 26th March, from 20.30 hours onwards for 60 minutes, following the World Wildlife Fund’s annual appeal […]
Aviation news update – Air Seychelles ‘all ladies crew’ flight enroute from Paris to Mahe
ALL LADIES CREW FLIGHT ENROUTE FROM PARIS TO MAHE Air Seychelles is once again highlighting their equal opportunities commitments today when an all ladies crew is flying the airline’s B767-300 from Paris to Mahe, due to arrive on the morning of the globally celebrated ‘International Women’s Day’. The event is being widely covered in the French […]
Aviation news update – KAFTC set for futher expansion
KAFTC EXPANDS FURTHER The Kampala Aero Club and Flight Training Centre in Kajjansi continues to grow from strength to strength inspite of ongoing troubles with the supply of AVGAS, one of the ‘Shell is Hell’ legacies left behind by the outgoing global company. Inspite of many assurances, meetings and even interventions by the Ugandan CAA Shell has not […]
Aviation news update – TCAA to hold licensing meeting on 18th May
TANZANIA CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY TO CONSIDER APPLICATIONS Applicants for Air Service Licenses and licenses for ground handling and other service elements in aviation, including maintenance (MRO) and training facilities were yesterday invited by the Tanzanian Civil Aviation Authority to send in their formal applications and related documentation. The Board of the TCAA will hold its […]
East African Media Summit, Nairobi/Kenya, Hilton Hotel, March 14 and 15
EAST AFRICAN MEDIA SUMMIT SET FOR NAIROBI The Nairobi Hilton Hotel will be the venue for this year’s East African Media Summit, which is jointly organised by the East African Community and the East African Business Council. The two day meeting will take place from 14th until 15th of March, a year after being held […]
Breaking aviation news – Fly 540 now routes Kilimanjaro flights via Wilson
FLY 540 ROUTES KILIMANJARO FLIGHTS VIA WILSON In a sharpish departure from conventional wisdom and operating practices, that scheduled regional flights beyond Kenya’s borders only depart from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, has Fly 540 just introduced a routing for their flights to and from Kilimanjaro / Arusha via Wilson. Customs and immigration are in any case set […]
Tanzania’s tourism minister to revive failed concept to promote tourism through embassies
PROMOTING TOURISM THROUGH EMBASSIES ?!? Tanzania’s tourism minister, elevated from the deputy position after the last election into the cabinet seat, something several stakeholders say is too much to handle for him, has dug deep into the arsenal of the command economy days when proposing last Friday that tourism promotion abroad should be handled through […]
Breaking News – Congo’s gorilla national park under threat by oil companies
SEARCH FOR OIL MAY ‘KILL THE VIRUNGAS’ Information has been unearthed that another UNESCO World Heritage Site is under increasing pressure, this time the Virungas in the Congo DR. Dominion Oil has been cited as one of the main culprits behind this youngest assault on Eastern Africa’s ecosystems, and the regime in Kinshasa is said […]
Breaking News – Ol Pejeta’s Northern White Rhinos in ‘mating mood’
OL PEJETA’S NORTHERN WHITE RHINOS ‘IN THE MOOD’ Information was received over the weekend from the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in the central Kenyan highlands, that the Northern White Rhinos, now just over 15 months on site since their relocation in December 2009 from a zoo in the Czech Republic, have started to begin ‘mating’ activities. […]
Breaking News – Uganda ‘expecting’ three more rhinos
UGANDA ‘EXPECTING’ THREE MORE RHINOS The Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary of the Rhino Fund Uganda has just released information, that the three female adults are all in the family way once again. Ziwa presently is the only sanctuary in Uganda where rhinos can be seen it he (semi)wild, and 6 adults and 3 now adolescents are roaming the […]
Uganda’s tourism minister gets into fresh controversy
THAT MUSEUM MUST GO – SAYS MINISTER Uganda’s controversial tourism minister Kahinda Otafire, by his own description aka minister of crocodiles, has again stepped into the spotlight when dismissing the pleas of members of the East African Legislative Assembly and civil society by saying categorically that ‘the museum must go’. He accused those lobbying for the […]
Aviation News Update – WikiLeaks got it wrong about Kenya Airways
WIKILEAKS ALLEGATIONS TOWARDS KENYA AIRWAYS ‘BASELESS AND TOTALLY WRONG’ The information WikiLeaks published about the alleged ‘blocking’ by Kenya Airways of direct flights by Sky Team alliance partner Delta between the US and Kenya are ‘outrageous and totally false’ according to a regular and highly placed source in Kenya Airways. WikiLeaks documents suggest that KQ was opposed to […]
Aviation news update – Brussels Airlines to release several AVRO 85, opts for A319
BRUSSELS AIRLINES GETS MORE SHORT HAUL AIRCRAFT TO MEED GROWING DEMAND A regular source at the Brussels Airlines office in Kampala has broken news that the airline is going to phase out part of their AVRO 85’ fleet, as a handful of their leases is coming to the contractual end. Instead the airline is introducing initially […]
Breaking News – Kenya’s Yala Swamp under threat of drying up as drought bites and rice growers divert water
RICE OR ENVIRONMENT – ANOTHER CONTROVERSY UNFOLDS An investor in growing rice in Kenya has found themselves at cross roads – and crossing swords – with the environmental community, when it became known that the single inflow of water of the River Yala has been largely blocked and diverted to water the rice fields. This measure, […]
Aviation news update – Kenya Airways planning for ‘all ladies’ crews on International Woman’s Day
KENYA AIRWAYS SET FOR ALL LADIES CREW ON WOMEN’S DAY It is understood from a usually very reliable source that Kenya Airways aka ‘The Pride of Africa’ is planning to honour the International Woman’s Day with ‘all lady flights’, whereby crews on certain flights and aircraft are ‘womanned’ by an entirely female crew in the […]
