Tourism Blog

Tourism Blog

My blogs deals with Tourism, attractions, Destinations, Information about Tourism activities so here is the another link that you can gate more information about tourism for free culturaltourism.Chatguest.com.

So Please visit the site to meet you desire

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PROMOTE MAKONDE TRIBE IN TOURISM INDUSTRY

Makonde is a tribe found in Southern  Tanzania and Northern Mozambique The Makonde tribe of Tanzania and Mozambique are separated by Ruvuma River and are actually distinct.  Makonde tribe has strong cultural and it uses in Tourism attractions, despite of other places like Tanzania Museum of Culture use Makonde carves as tourism attractions and other curio shops but why the Makonde area has no development in Tourism activity?

Makonde Tradition methods

In traditional Makonde practices for tattooing, the tattoo ('dinembo') ("design" or "decoration") usually requires three or more sessions with the tattoo artist (mpundi wa dinembo) ("tattoo design artist") to produce the correct result. Cuts are made with the traditional tattoo implements (chipopo), the design of which is one of the only major changes in Makonde tattooing practices - the old blade has now been replaced by newer razor blades to produce cleaner, deeper lines. Vegetable carbon is then rubbed into the incisions producing a dark blue color. the man normally tattoo man and women normally tattoo women.

Makonde art 

Makonde carving is probably the best known art work produced in Tanzania. This art is produced by the Makonde people of southern Tanzania, and their material of choice is African blackwood, or mpingo. Their work is both traditional and contemporary, reflecting a tribal past as well as modern response to urban life. They utilize their tribal myths and stories as inspiration for the masterful work; one carver, for instance, specializes in ghost spirits and clouds. Animal statuettes, and human and demon-faced ceremonial masks are common. 

Makonde Traditional Dance  

Makonde tribe has traditional dance calls Sindimba this involves both boys and girls, is the traditional dance that attract and used in and out of Makonde ceremonies, the dances are very interested with residence and foreigners.

Develop Makonde Traditional in Southern of Tanzania As Tourism Attraction

Tourism activity is developed in Northern of Tanzania not in natural but also in Cultural tourism that is Masai tribe but through Makonde traditional southern of Tanzania can be develop in tourism activity now it need more advertisement and promotion and also open of centers that will deals with traditions so that to attract tourist to visit the place, the tourist need the reality,

Promote Makonde culture and develop Southern of Tanzania in Tourism Industry

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HOW TO SUCCEED IN TOURISM INDUSTRY

 Ways on succeed in tourism industry

Wall organization

The tourism industry can be hotel, tour operator, and other organization that deals with tourism services has to look on system of providing services, workers or staffs, services provided and customers, the whole system of providing service to customer because the costumer are very importance to the organization, without a good system of processing customer can often led impact of reducing customers, revenue unprofessional services so by having plan it led the growth of the organization.

Look for Plan and Opportunity

The tour operations has to look for opportunities and plans there are a lot of opportunities through online, and to prepare for package and advertise more through media and use their competitors weaknesses as there opportunities for more sales and increase of customers.

 Great Net-worker

Operators who are well networked seem to do better than those who ‘go it alone’. There’s much to be learned from others – operators who experience problems can often find the answer in talking to other tourism operators. Also those people that have strong connections to their local RTO are generally more successful.

Ability to grasp new technology

Many tourism operator fail to cop with new technology, but by cop with new technology you archive keep in update new technology will improve better technology, more sales, more exposure for little time, lower cost leading better benefit

  

Commitment to Customer Service 

It starts with the tone of marketing material and online listings, continues with making inquiring/booking/paying as easy as possible, really hits its straps when the guest arrives and carries on all the way through to post-stay communications and following up on suggestions/problems.  Too often a tourism operator will focus on the stay itself and undo all their good work in that area by neglecting everything else.  Be attentive, responsive, even proactive to customer needs.

Open-Minded

This means easy to reserve the succeed tourism operator are open minded changing ways of customer source of information  flexible online doing a business and gate new opportunity for sale and look for interest of costumers

Good communicator 

Tour operators staffs must have communication skill in explanation on thinks in meaningful and avoiding ambiguous that will led the misunderstand between the customer and worker, it also important for the employee to provide kind of experience to your customer that your desire.

Willingness and Creativity.

Tour operators must be willing to try something new, do not afraid of change, you have to show some changes, open your eyes wad for opportunities, be reserved to try new staffs and seeing if it works, Creativity do something different that will led different outcomes, by creating new thing it led innovation and new ideas to lead them in positive directions.

Have Core Values But Seek Improvement

Stay true to core values but seek constant feedback from your customers (invaluable for refining your tourism product offer and service experiences).

Knowledgeable

This kind of goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway – be knowledgeable about your tourism product, show this is your area of expertise and you’re a professional.  Sharing your knowledge of not just what you offer but also about your local area and region provides added value to your customers.

 Never Give Up

Never give up when it gets difficult, seek knowledge or ask someone else you respect in tourism for business advice and listen.

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TANZANIA IN SEVEN NATURAL WONDERS

Tanzania is the among Africa countries that need vote to be among seven natural wonders found in Africa, in Tanzania there are several of natural resources but tree are in the category that are Mount Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater, and Serengeti National Park so u can vote for any to be one of the seven natural wonders in Africa.

Mount Kilimanjaro

Mount Kilimanjaro is one of the largest volcanoes in the world reaching 19,340 feet (5,895 m) into the air. As the tallest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is also the tallest free standing mountain in the world. Kilimanjaro is a composite volcano that includes layers of lava, and volcanic ash. The volcano is currently inactive with no known history of eruptions.

Mount Kilimanjaro has seven distinctive peaks with Uhuru Peak accounting for the mountains highest elevation at 19,341 feet (5,895 m). A 1.5 mile wide crater is featured as part of the Kibo portion of the mountain.

The high elevation and proximity to the equator allows visitors to experience a variety of climate types. Kilimanjaro also features a year round snow-topped peak. Although the volcano is isolated, it is part of the line of volcanoes that reach across northern Tanzania.

The high elevation and proximity to the equator allows visitors to experience a variety of climate types. Kilimanjaro also features a year round snow-topped peak. Although the volcano is isolated, it is part of the line of volcanoes that reach across northern Tanzania.

Serengeti Migration

The Serengeti migration is the longest and largest over land migration in the world. The Serengeti plains account for over 18,641 square miles and the migration itself travels 500 miles on the path from Tanzania to the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya. Approximately 80% of the Serengeti plains are protected by the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments.

The Serengeti is home to over 70 larger mammals and approximately 500 different types of birds. Probably the most impressive part of the migration is the herds of wildebeests that blanket the plains. The migration will kill off around 250,000 wildebeests each year.

Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest unbroken caldera. Often referred to as "Africa's Garden of Eden," the crater is home to over 30,000 animals including elephants, lions, cheetahs, wildebeests, buffaloes, and the rare black rhinos. View Wildlife of Ngorongoro Crater to learn more about the wildlife and View Birds of Ngorongoro Crater to discover some of the many species that are found in the area.

Ngorongoro Crater was created from a volcano that exploded creating the caldera wilderness haven. The crater is 12 miles (19 km) across and consumes 102 square miles (264 sq km) of wilderness. The rim of the crater rises just over 2,000 feet (610 m) above the caldera floor reaching an elevation of 7,500 feet (2,286 

 m).

For more information and how to vote visit SEVEN NATURAL WONDERS website and make Tanzania to win by voting these three beautiful nature.

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DEVELOPING CULTURAL PRODUCTS AS TOURISM ATTRACTIONS

 Cultural Tourism products are experiences based in a relationship between ( CHM) Cultural Heritage Management and Tourism, The CHM is the experience provider and tourist is the experience facilitator.

What is product?

"Product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that satisfy a need or want. according to" (Kotler and Turner 1989) to look at what a product satisfy has distinguish conceptual levels of it, Core product, Tangible product, Augmented product.

Core product; This is the most important feature that describes the core benefit or solution provided by the product consumption, Is the reason of a customer to come and visit a destination which will satisfy his or her needs. example human history, evolution of mankind, human expression and beauty, or struggle for freedom.

Tangible product; The physical manifestation of the core product, The tangible facilitation of satisfying the need or core benefit, example the museum, festival, or cultural tour.

Augmented Product; This is for provide addition feature above and beyond the tangible product that add value and facilitate easier satisfaction of the core need. something increasing the beauty of the attraction that the costumer never think of it, 

Hierarchy of attraction

The cultural attractions product not all are the some, some they will be of great interest to the visitors and draw them from great distances and others will have little or no appeal to tourists.

Strategies for Cultural Tourism Attraction Development

Building a primary attraction; By identifying all the attractions fount at the specific place and identify the biggest one with the greatest primary potential, The primary attraction is those attractions in a destination that strongly influence the visitor to come from great distance.

Building lesser attractions to set/ network that collectivity can constitute a primary attraction

Identify all available attractions in a destination and develop them all in a way that you link them to each other , group in themes, map them and design connected products like tours. example small culture attractions like customs, worship places, housing, dressing.

Using Events/ Festivals

This it may be like a short term primary attractions, serve to concentrate a wide array of activities into a condensed time frame, a  mass of products fro consumption. example sauti za busara, 

Tactics to develop single attractions according to ( McKercher & DuCro, Chapter 8)

Tell the story around the asset; Cultural places/ assets always bear a story behind and cultural tourism is the process of telling that story, the story consign the cultural displayed for the tourist to like or interested with his or her tour.

Make the asset come alive; Visitation to become creative, exciting, evoking the imagination of the core need in most stunning manner.

Make it participatory; make tourist to engage with the displayed, example wandering around, dressing, drinking, and interacting.

Make it relevant; Present asset according to tourist's knowledge and frame of reference, make it culturally applicable to him/her.

Deliver quality and authenticity; Cultural tourist are well-educate, well-traveled hence very demanding also the quality and price should match.

Mythologize the asset; Convert asset to places with spiritual relevance by tying it to existing or new myths example foundation of tribe myth, indigenous beliefs gods myths.

Emphasize its otherness/ uniqueness; something different from the tourist's frame of reference, difference from the mainstream culture of the host society something makes it so unique.

Show the link from the past to present; Show the historic origin of an asset ant its evolution to its current status, the meaning of cultural asset change in different historic eras. example Hehe victory ageist German, pre colonial, colonial, after independence, globalized society.

Make it triumphant/ spectacular; you attraction must have edge over other, similar ones. example more spectacular battle than in other fields. example crazy atrocities like holocaust, Rwanda genocide.

Make it fantasy; evoke people imagination beyond what really happened in the place and transcend reality and fantasy.

Make it fun, light, and entertaining; most visitors don't seek deep learning experience but shallow entertainment so that you should be funny and visually appearing.

 

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Customer Service Skills in Tourism Industry

Customer service

Definition of customer service

Customer service skills

Importance of customer service skills

How to build a costumer service skills

 Customer Services

Customer are the people who buy your product or get your services. The business without a customer is nothing and without customer your business will never grow, so that whatever you get the customer you have to provide good service in a way that the customer will be satisfying of your product in order to build costumer loyalty.

Customer Service Skills

Communication and Listening

The importance thing in making customer to use your product is communication, The communication is one of  the most important skills in customer service, you need to communicate clear so that to build good first impression of the customer, avoiding ambiguity words, make the communication clear so the customer to understands you, Explanation is also important for a customer to follow instruction and understand the product also to make a choice on what to buy.  Listening is important thing in a communication process let the customer talk and you can provide  batter service.

Tolerance and Attitudes

Tolerance is the another skills in customer service, because in a business you meet with different people with different cultures so that you have to control your emotion in order to provide a good service and never talk bad to your customer. This may be difficult to muster for some people especially if they do not have this in nature, but no matter what you need to control your temper, polite language, positive attitudes, never show ill feelings to customer, stay nice and understanding through this you can sale the product easy.

Knowledge and problem solving skills

If you have a knowledge of the service you provide it will be easy to help the customer with there issues and to be able to solve their problems. this led to improve customer service experience by solving customer problem led the customer to trust the company and service provided.

Importance of  a customer service skills

If representatives have good customer service skills, clients will more likely be happy with their service or assistance, therefore keeping them as clients as well as getting new ones. In tourism services costumer service skills is needed more because the tourist are from different cultures, so by having customer services skills it will be easy to solve it and made the customer returning to your product.

How to build a customer services skill

Building customer service skills is more import to a business, the customer service skills create good first impression of a costumer to your service or product, and this led customer loyal of your company though customer satisfaction, Every business needs customer and each customer may require different needs and attention so through customer services skills is possible. The following are few things in building customer service skills

1.  Greetings,  when the customer come to you business establish greeting, this will led for customer to have a good first impression, you can great while you face the customer this will led the comfortably of the customer, if is through the phone you can start to great by introducing your name and the name of the company you are walk for, make sure that your using the right tone and words.remember to ask for the name of a person you talking to, to feel comfortable or known.
2. In case you will be using the details of the customer (name, address, order details, etc), make sure to verify it by spelling it out to the customer, just to make sure that what you are getting is an accurate data. This is applicable to customer service reps who take in orders via phone or something similar to this.
3. The use of body language; take note of the body language. should always practice professionalism even when it comes to their body language. Simple hand gestures and body movements can irritate customers. At the same time, customer service reps that are always standing straight and not slouching will always create a professional look. 
4. Having intercultural communication skills, this will help the employee to walk nice toward customer and solving their problem by understanding their complaining and how to solve it, customer complaints and other concerns should always understand where the customers are coming from. Reps are expected to listen to every word the customer is saying, so he/she can come up with a good resolution and pacify the situation.

 Returning customer is easy than creating a new customer.

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Udzungwa Mountains National Park

   

Sanje waterfall in Udzungwa Mountains National Park

 Udzungwa Mountains National Park

Is among of National Parks found in Tanzania, Udzungwa Mountains National Park is the most outstanding, pristine, paradise and unique exciting wilderness mountains forested with greatest altitudinal range of forest. It is one of thirty-four “World Biodiversity Hotspot” and one of 200 WWF Ecoregion of global critical importance.

Udzungwa Mountains National Park is part of the Eastern Arc Mountains, which is a series of mountains ranging from Taita Hills in Southern Kenya to the Makambako Gap in Southern central of Tanzania. 

Uniqueness of Udzungwa Mountain National Park 

 The park has second highest birds diversity in Africa behind only the Ituri forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, The Park also has unique as the only national park in Tanzania having close canopy and unbroken forest from lowland rainforest at 250m asl rising to highland forest 2576m asl the highest peak in the park. The park has plants from small plants like Saint paullia to big tree over 30m high like Sterculia appendiculata and Antiaris toxicaria. Sanje waterfall is the highest waterfall found in the park

 

Tourist Attractions
The major attraction is biologically diverse plants, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds , butterfly, and insects of which some of species are found nowhere else in the world. Udzungwa Mountains National Park is the only known National Park in Tanzania with a culturally important natural cave and has survived destruction before gazettement due to traditional taboos and beliefs.

Things to do in Udzungwa Mountain

Climbing, hiking and bird watching and camping Safari are the major activity in the park,Mountain climbing and Hiking being the major activity, currently there are ten tourists’ trails in the eastern and western part of the park.

Eastern trailsMwanihana and Lumemo trails for hiking to Mwanihana peak the second highest peak 2500masl, Sanje trails for hiking to Sanje waterfall, Prince Bernhard trail for hiking to Prince Bernhard and Njokamoni waterfall, Sonjo trail hiking to Sonjo waterfall and Njokamoni Mwaya waterfalls trail.

Western trailsMbatwa trails for hiking to Mwanaluvele cave, Ibito valley and Ng’ung’umbi swamp.

Tourist climbing Udzungwa Mountains National Park

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