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Cancellation of tourism promotion event angers...
2006-03-13 07:41:48
By Mwinyi Sadallah, Zanzibar
Zanzibar government has raised concern over last minute cancellation of a scheduled trip of 150 participants in the Miss Tourism Model of the World, saying the move was unfair and negates ongoing efforts to consolidate the Union.
Executive Secretary of the Zanzibar Tourism Commission Vuai Mwinyi said yesterday that the cancellation of the trip had a negative impact on Zanzibar’s tourism promotion campaign.
He said the models from all over the world were scheduled to visit Zanzibar for one day, during which they would have toured historical sites as part of the Isles’ tourism promotional campaign.
In addition, Mwinyi said, the beauties would have met Zanzibar First Lady, Shadya Karume.
’’The cancellation of the trip is a big blow to Zanzibar bearing in mind that it was a golden opportunity to publicise Zanzibar worldwide,’’ he said.
Mwinyi said Zanzibar had estimated to spend about 30m/- cover to air transport, meals and ground transport for the models.
He said the Tanzania Tourism board had cancelled the trip to Zanzibar on flimsy grounds.
Instead of coming to Zanzibar, he said, the models were taken to Bagamoyo to tour historical sites.
He said the cancellation of the Zanzibar trip did not take into consideration the interests of Zanzibar, bearing in mind that the Union government represents Zanzibar interests as well.
’’We were shocked by the eleventh hour cancellation,’’ he said.
Miss Tourism Model of the World event was held on Saturday night at Ubungo Plaza in Dar es Salaam and beamed to living rooms of millions of people worldwide.
Zanzibar is promoting tourism as part of its economic diversification programme following the collapse of the spice industry, which was the main foreign exchange earner.
Tourism contributes about 20 per cent of the island’s gross domestic product and the sector offers about 42,000 jobs.
It is understood, however, that Zanzibar has all along refused to participate in the national beauty pageants to ’’protect its cultural heritage.’’
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