Breaking News – History Park planned at/near Olduvai Gorge

HISTORY PARK PLANNED AT OLDUVAI GORGE

Major construction can be expected at and near the prehistoric sites of Olduvai Gorge, where the Leakey family made their famous discoveries of early mankind. More recent finds some 40 odd kilometres away in Laetoli include footsteps dated back over 3.5 million years, but those have until now been kept literally under wraps, since they were discovered partly underground, to prevent destruction through the influences of weather or visitors in the absence of protective measures.

However, news reached now from Arusha that government intends to build a major new museum, or ‘a dome’ as the source put it, to make the discoveries open to visitors, including of course the building of necessary infrastructure like roads, staff housing, power plant and more.

President Kikwete on Sunday during a site visit, launching the ‘discoveries to the world’, gave the directive to implement the 30+ million US Dollars project, but reportedly avoided any questions on the controversial highway across the migration paths of the big herds of wildebeest and zebras at the northern end of the Serengeti.

In this regard an interesting titbit came out of Dar es Salaam, where a senior functionary in government was allegedly overhead saying: ‘this road will be built. Those green activists will have to learn to respect the decisions of a sovereign government and their godfathers in Kenya can forget about succeeding here. We will have our migration in the Serengeti here and are not concerned with other countries lamenting about what we do in our own country and what it might or might not do in theirs.’

Breaking News – Arabian Travel Market to dedicate seperate pavilion to Africa

ARABIAN TRAVEL MARKET DEDICATES PAVILION TO AFRICA

The upcoming edition of the Gulf and Arab’s world most important tourism trade fare will have a new feature for its visitors, as an ‘Africa Pavilion’ will be established for exhibitors coming from the continent and aiming to tap into the hugely important expatriate and citizen travel potential from this economic boom area. With the economic fallout of the global economic crisis behind us, business in the Gulf states has significantly picked up again, bringing expats back into the UAE and other countries. Gulf airlines like Qatar Airways for instance are now flying double daily into the East African region, and with LCC Air Arabia from Sharjah another affordable connection exists. Emirates, Kenya Airways and Ethiopian via Addis too are connecting the main hub airport in Dubai daily with Eastern Africa.

Reed Travel Exhibitions have made a special offer for African exhibitors, who can now purchase an entire package of space, furniture, a carpeted and walled ‘shell plus electricity connection, lights and a facia name board identifying the company. Prices range from as low as US Dollars 2.786 for a ‘standard’ booth but larger spaces are available at added cost. Contact Derek@houstonmarketing.co.za who represents Reeds Exhibitions in Africa or visit their website directly via www.arabiantravelmarket.com

With only three months to go, and considering that previous editions of ATM have been sold out, the time is now to book space and ‘work that market’.