ZANZIBAR VICE PRESIDENT HEADING FOR SEYCHELLES ‘CARNIVAL’
In an almost bizarre twist was it now confirmed that a Tanzanian delegation, led by the second vice president of Zanzibar (which has its own government alongside the union government), will be visiting the Seychelles for the ‘Carnival Festival’ in early March. This follows a public spat by sections of tourism operators, who had accused the Tanzanian government of being insensitive to their business by signing a memorandum of understanding with the Seychelles to promote twin centre beach and safari holidays a few weeks ago. They had claimed that the MoU was to deny them of clients at the expense of the Seychelles, a claim however put to rest by the positive experiences of similar MoU’s between the Seychelles and other African mainland countries, which worked out to the benefit of both partners by increasing ‘visibility’ in the global market place and showing how to combine the Indian Ocean islands and safaris on the mainland of Africa.
Clearly unperturbed by the shrill ‘concerns’ of a few the Tanzanian government went ahead nevertheless, as friendly countries ordinarily do, and agreed to send a delegation to the festival in the capital Victoria, comprising stakeholders and government officials from both the mainland and the ‘Spice Island’ of Zanzibar.
This will be reassuring to the two tourism sectors that official MoU’s cannot and will not be allowed to be derailed by short-sighted complaints from a few individuals trying to ride on outdated sentiments, when in fact it is only cooperation between African countries – especially under twin centre holiday agreements – which can drive the continent forward and help Africa to capture a greater share of tourism arrivals from key producer markets overseas.
So one and all, make a date with the Seychelles, for the carnival week or any time of the year, paradise awaits you.
