SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS TO SUPPORT TANZANIA’S ‘GOLDEN JUBILEE’
South African Airways, a member of the world’s leading airline grouping ‘Star Alliance’, has announced the introduction of very special fares between Tanzania and the United States, for travel in both directions over the period between September and December, when East Africa’s largest country will celebrate its 50th anniversary of independence from Britain. The Tanzanian Tourist Board, alongside other government departments, is working on a range of special programmes and events to offer visitors to Tanzania added value during their holidays, and details of the special celebrations are expected to be released soon.
SAA, which offers direct connections to New York via Johannesburg hopes to bring a greater share of visitors from the US into Tanzania, not just for the ‘Golden Jubilee’ but even for the time afterwards, as it promotes its direct flight links from an African gateway and with an African airline to the US, otherwise only possible when flying with Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa or with Egypt Air via Cairo.
The recent turnabout over the controversial Serengeti highway plans, long considered a potential threat to the celebrations over fears of being de-campaigned by environmental and conservation groups – the Tanzanian government through the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism has written to UNESCO and assured them the plans would not go ahead – will also add fresh live to the plans to put on an extraordinary show for ‘Independence Day 50’ when Tanzania, first to be let go by Britain at the time in East Africa in 1961, will take stock of half a century of self governance.
Watch this space.
