Responsible Tourism Tanzania brings to you for the first time Tanzania, an award ceremony to be held in Arusha in 28th June 2018 at Kibo Palace Hotel for the purpose of recognizing the shining stars of responsible tourism in Tanzania.
As well as the awards ceremony, we are also providing you a day of discussion, learning, engaging and networking for responsible tourism practices, our tourism for tomorrow in Tanzania.
The day is divided into two main sections, a full day of seminars, learning, discussion and debating and in the evening the awards event.
The seminar will bring you topics, experts and speakers focusing on:
1.The Global Tourism Market Trends:
World tourism market trends – How Sustainable Tourism is shaping tourism for tomorrow- what is the market demanding, what is modeling the future of our traveler, who is the traveler of tomorrow and how can prepare for this.
2.Tourism for poverty reduction:
Tourism supporting Farmers. Tourism plays a vital role in poverty reduction, this discussion will explore the number of initiatives are in place in Tanzania where tourism companies are supporting local farmer groups, what have we learned from this experience?
3.Tanzania solution to a climatic change:
Climate change, Tanzania has a solution- how does the tourism industry play a role? What is happening inn the world of climate change; why is there mounting pressure to do something? Our customers are becoming more aware and want to see tourism companies responsible, what are the solutions here.
4.What’s shaping Africa’s sustainable tourism growth:
Certification or Responsible Tourism, how this has provided a road map for success, and how have some tourism companies changed the way they work; reduced operating costs, improved employee satisfaction and retention and have a stronger marketing message. Hear from experts in the field who are sharing their experience to becoming certified, learn from them how to change the way you do business every day.
5.Best Practices in Responsible Tourism in Tanzania:
A round table discussion: Is sustainable tourism changing attitudes in Africa? What is happening in the region, what is Botswana doing or Kenya or any other country for that matter? There is a regional growth for certification of sustainable tourism products in Africa, the round table will discuss and explore what is shaping Africa’s’ growth in sustainable tourism.
MEET THE SPEAKERS:
Chris Pilley, Director Bush2Beachs Safari.
Chris Pilley (1969) – co-founder/director of Bush2Beachs Safari, Isoitok Camp Manyara, Summit Oxygen and African Root Foundation (AFR) and Gold medal winner of the UNWTO award for innovation in an enterprise in 2015.
As qualified cabinet maker and furniture designer, Chris Pilley arrived in 2000 in Tanzania with a life full of travel and working in adventurous sports and tourism industry.
One of Chris’ beliefs and core values in life has always been that tourism should go hand in hand with a symbiotic harmonious relationship with the environment and local culture. The business concept of Isoitok Camp is based on a holistic, responsible and sustainable approach that a business can be successfully run to protect, nurture and respect the local cultural traditions and beliefs.
By continuous support and community developing projects in balance with their Masaai neighbors, Chris and his team have proven that responsible tourism is the future of travel.
‘One’s destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things’
Dr. Fulvia Farinelli, Projects Coordinator UNCTAD.
Fulvia Farinelli works at UNCTAD since 1998.
Her academic background focuses on issues related to entrepreneurship and SME development, including innovation, business linkages and global value chains.
She is currently coordinating a project on Sustainable Entrepreneurship and a joint UNCTAD/IOM/UNHCR project on Entrepreneurship and Migration.
She holds a Ph.D. on Economic and Policy Studies on Innovation and Technical Change from Maastricht University, the Netherlands.
Judy Kepher Gona, Director STTA.
Judy is a sustainable tourism advocate, planner, advisor, assessor and trainer with over 17 years experience in working with the tourism sector, communities, conservation. She has made significant contributions, locally in development of criteria and standards for sustainable tourism certification, key among them being the Kenya eco-rating scheme for accommodation facilities, the Kenya Safari Codes, the Eco-warrior Awards and Green Destination Guidelines for Kenya. In recognition of her competencies, Judy has served as a judge and assessor for the Kenya/s Eco-Warrior Award, World Travel and Tourism Council, Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, from 2008-2012 and National Geographic Nat Geo World Legacy Awards and Unique Lodges of the World.
Her expertise, passion, and commitment have also seen her serve in several profiled positions. At global
and regional level, she has served in Advisory Board of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) for more than 5 years, served as the board of Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and was part of conceptualization of Africa Sustainable Tourism Alliance. She is a board member of FTT. In Kenya, she serves as Director at African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW), Trustee of Basecamp Foundation Kenya (BCFK) and is a chairperson of Mara North Conservancy.
In 2013, she founded Sustainable Travel & Tourism Agenda (STTA) an organization that uses education, research, and training to promote sustainable tourism. She believes that leveraging opportunities presented by environment and social conscious growth is Africa’s greatest opportunity to compete with developed destinations while protecting our heritage because it is good for people planet and profit.
Judy is the convenor of Green Tourism Summit Africa since 2015.
E-mail: judygona@sttakenya.org
Kai Partale, International Tourism Advisor.
Kai is an international tourism advisor and associated with the benchmark: services in Germany.
Kai began his career as consultant at the European Tourism Institute in 1998 and managed a range of tourism research, training and master planning projects in Europe, worked as director in Switzerland and chief representative in China, followed by assignments on behalf of the EU, UN, WB and GIZ in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
With more than 18 years of professional work experience in leading positions and providing technical assistance to the tourism and hospitality sector, governmental and non-governmental institutions, he gained worldwide experience in a number of sustainable destination development programmes and responsible tourism projects.
Kai received his M.Sc. in Applied Tourism Geography with majors in business management and sociology from the University of Trier. His core competencies are in the fields of destination development and marketing, vocational education and training, sustainable development and investment promotion.
Marc Baker, Director of Carbon Tanzania.
Marc is the founding director of Carbon Tanzania, a Tanzanian company that develops forest conservation and climate mitigation projects. Marc has worked in conservation and ecotourism in Tanzania since 1998. He has worked as an environmental planner and wildlife specialist for Danida, Care International, the Wildlife Division of Tanzania and Nor-consult, and has a broad understanding of a range of environmental practices leading to business management for sound ecological practice. Marc advises companies and organizations wishing to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by measuring the impact and linking it to community-based carbon forest projects in Tanzania through verified emission reductions.
Masoud Ali Soud, General Administration Assistant.
Masoud Ali Soud is a General Administration Assistant at Chumbe Island Coral Park in Zanzibar. Completed his bachelor degree in Law in ZANZIBAR UNIVERSITY in 2010 and is fluent in Swahili and English.
He started working at Chumbe as reservation assistant Officer and was later promoted to the post of General Administration Assistant. His major responsibilities are to Market Chumbe island and Support the Project Manager in Labor Law and Human Resource issues.
Prior to Joining Chumbe Island, Masoud worked at a Zanzibar based travel agent as a Reservation officer.
Mafila Richard Malesu, Manager for Botswana Ecotourism Certification
Mafila Richard Malesu is Environment and Eco-Certification Manager for Botswana Tourism Organisation, responsible for promoting the best environmental management systems across all tourism industry sectors with a view to facilitating tourism development that is environmentally sustainable. He is responsible for implementation of Botswana Ecotourism Strategy and the Botswana Ecotourism Certification System.
He facilitates nomination of Okavango Delta Ramsar Site (ODRS) for Sustainable Tourism Destination. Followed by Chobe, Makgadikgadi & Okavango Delta Ramsar Site as the winner of World Travel & Tourism Council, 2010 & 2017 Tourism for Tomorrow Sustainable Destinations Award and Top 100 Sustainable Destination Awards for 2014, 2016 and 2017.
Timoth Mmbaga, Director ACT.
Mr. Timoth Mmbaga is the Director of Policy Planning and Advocacy in Agricultural Council of Tanzania (ACT). Mr. Mmbaga was born on 5th September 1970. He is Married and a Father of two children. Mr. Mmbaga is a holder of B.Sc. Agriculture General (Sokoine University of Agriculture 1993-1997) and MBA-Agribusiness (Sokoine University of Agriculture 2007-2009).
From August 1st, 2016 to date he is employed by ACT as new Director of Policy Planning and Advocacy.
From 2006 to 2016, before joining the ACT, he was working with the Ministry of Agriculture in the Department of Policy and Planning. During that time, he managed to hold different positions such as Head of Multilateral and Bilateral Cooperation Unit in the Department of Policy, Officer in Charge of Parliamentary issues in the Ministry, Personal Assistant to the Deputy Minister and Personal assistant to the Minister.
From 1998 to 2005, Mr. Mmbaga worked with two different Agricultural development programs namely Soil and Water Conservation Program and Participatory Irrigation Development Programme (P.I.D.P). In the Soil and Water Conservation Program Popularly known as HIMA which was funded by DANIDA, he worked as a program facilitator from 1998-2002. From 2002-2005 Mr. Mmbaga worked as a programme Manager for the Participatory Irrigation Development Programme which was financed by IFAD.
From 1997 to 1998 he was hired as a Research Assistant by Economic Research Bureau (ERB) of the University of Dar es Salaam dealing with research on coffee value chain and in line with the performance of cooperative societies as an assignment from the Ministry of Agriculture and financed by European Economic Community (EEC).
Mr. Mmbaga has a wide experience and exposure in Policy related issues in Agriculture sector within Tanzania and outside due to the fact that he has participated in different National and International forums, workshops, negotiations, lobbying, etc. He has also conducted different Agribusiness research and consultancies.
