Last week we found a great resource for Travel, Tourism and hospitality news in the East Africa region. Wolfgang Thome, a professor and journalist maintains a comprehensive blog featuring travel-worthy news in the region. He was kind enough to write a great article for us. One paragraph resonated for me which shows we are on track to achieve our mission:

“The real good news though is that smaller ‘one property’ companies can now take advantage of the Yellow Masai booking site, without having to spend mega bucks to create their own and often due to the transaction sizes not exactly viable booking engine, or ‘buying into one’ on a shared platform, something the hospitality giants in East Africa can afford but smaller businesses cannot”- WolfGang Thome.

Democratizing online booking and letting the smaller tour operators, hotels be more visible is a core mission. What’s also more exciting is that our partners are recognizing this and sending us packages daily, we literally can’t keep up now. With so many scattered operators with varying websites, look and feel- its just more efficient to find it all in one place.

Some packages are truly unique, such as this 14 day mountain biking safari and cultural package and this Golfing and Zanzibar combination trip. We are now showing over 20 packages on our site and we expect to double that in the next month. We will then start organizing them smartly by categories for different segments e.g. Honeymoon, Family etc… as well as group sizes. Many safaris or packages are really optimized for a certain group size for real value- a topic for a future post.

We are also recognizing that many want custom packages and have responded by creating a page you can put in your inquiry.

An interesting article was released on eTravel News on how Tanzania is switching to ancient methods of using embassies to promote tourism. A move that would herald a return to the command and control economy Tanzania once employed following independence. Rather than rant about how bad this idea is- I wanted to provide suggestions of my own which also hint as to why we founded Yellow Masai to begin with. Whilst the Government cannot do all of these things since the private sector will most certainly be marketing, they can certainly do their part and create an enabling environment.

1. Invest in a better website and online presence across regions and destinations
In today’s world, the first place people increasingly turn to in finding about a destination is a google search. This is especially true for the younger generation who may never have visited a travel agent. The current tanzania destination website can use much needed improvement in supporting more languages, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), going in depth on content and be updated more frequently and maintain a blog and invest in social media channels such as facebook, youtube and twitter. One website is not enough, they should open destination specific ones where it makes sense- it should also do a better job of linking various resources and highlighting various events in the Tanzania travel calendar- for instance, the Zanzibar Film Festival, Serengeti Migration. The Government can also encourage more regional control of tourism. A great example is this Tanga Tourism Guide created by Herman of MamboViewPoint, the Tanga Regional Commissioner and many volunteers and local associations with in an interest. I particularly love the slogan “Tanzania’s secret between the Ocean and Parks”- positioning the region as a place to visit in-between 2 important physical attractions within Tanzania. How many more secrets could be marketed this way?

One great example of the use of social media is what britain has done with it’s LoveUK facebook page which allows travelers to checkin on Facebook and hence gauge the popularity of an attraction and broadcast that on their page- very clever.

2. Attend Tourism related tradeshows: Rather than utilize embassies to promote tourism- they should be hitting the major tradeshows around the world in key markets such as Germany, UK, UAE, Italy, USA as well as emerging ones such as India, China, Russia and Brazil with increasing levels of disposable income.

And of course one that is particularly relevant to Tanzania is INDABA in Durban, South Africa. Where the most serious of safari exhibitors can be found the Government could do a shared exhibit with many smaller tour operators who might not be able to afford it on their own.

3. Collaborate with neighboring countries to market the region: Governments need to stop treating tourism in the region as a zero sum game where in fact most tourists who are coming from a long way or even regionally want to combine visiting several countries. They could establish a single EAC tourism visa to save travelers money, make it much smoother for tour operators to visit several parks at once such as the Masai Mara, Serengeti and Tsavo. Zanzibar should cut the red-tape required for tourists to go through another immigration checkpoint when arriving from mainland Tanzania.

4. Sustain brand advertising on popular channels: A few years ago, Tanzania released a great TV ad that appeared in the news channels capturing global attention. Particularly, the tag line: The land of Serengeti, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar and a focus on the friendly people and great culture. The problem is that the adverts dried up after about 1 year. The same advert can be used online and broadcasted cost effectively and targeted across travel sites such as lonelyplanet.com or national geographic- right now a lot of the ad inventory for Africa on these websites are filled with only airlines and no sign of tour operators and hotels- a opportunity to reuse this great video for better distribution on behalf Tanzania tourism.

5. Promote cultural and “voluntourism”: Given the social challenges that face many African countries including Tanzania, and the growing shared responsibilities all citizens of the world feel in tackling the most pressing social problems such as poverty and global health. we should highlight great NGOs and social ventures that could use interns and volunteers from colleges, gap year students to retirees who are looking for ways to make a difference whilst traveling. This is particularly important as the benefits flows directly to the communities. There are an increasing number of hotels that make a point of showcasing the great work they are doing to help their communities as well as running a sustainable operation.

6. Help dispel the Africa danger myth: Tanzania is one of the most stable African countries compared to neighbors- we should be promoting this fact and do a better job of educating against the common preconcieved notions that Africa is dangerous, this will help attract tourists who want a change of pace and are not necessarily looking for adventure and otherwise put off visiting the region. Especially to destinations such as Zanzibar, Pemba and Mafia which can offer tranquil beach vacations.

7. Take a firm stance on conservation: Tanzania has an enviable record on conservation and with more than 30% of the country set aside as protected land, we are actually globally recognized leader for this. However, recent decisions regarding the Serengeti highway has raised global interest and could threaten this image. Whether one is for or against the highway, it is clear that potential tourists are influenced by the outcome.

8. Showcase new and popular activities: Whilst Tanzania is known for its wildlife and other landmark sites such Kilimanjaro, not everyone goes there just for that. We should do more to draw in the more active segments in those who are seeking thrills such as kitesurfing in the windiest parts of the swahili coast and Group Yoga retreats in peaceful quiet mountain areas such as Lushoto or foothills of Kilimanjaro. One could even promote Kilimanjaro marathon or tap into the growing triathlon movement combing running, cycling and swimming- these athletes are always looking for exciting new destinations and challenges.

9. Collect better feedback : The government should improve their methods of data collecting and gathering feedback from tourists, this will help the country collectively know where we stand on our offerings and what tourists increasingly want- the earlier we get these signals the better chance we have of meeting them in time. Consumer tastes constantly change.

10. Invest in Training: This is a big one. We need to make sure the staff employed in the tourism industry are properly trained- from speaking more languages at the high end in serving new markets to the basics of hospitality management at hotels and lodges- this will help put a premium on both wages as well higher end and more sustainable tourism. The Government, private sector and donors can collaborate to build training centers in the country to address this at the local level.

Over the last month we have been working with some partners to add the first packages on our newly launched platform. The team is now solely focused on this and signing up more and more hotels, tour companies across Tanzania. I wanted to highlight some of our exciting packages available. These 3 packages represent some of the best of what Tanzania has to offer in about 2-3 weeks back-to-back trip typical of tourist visit stay. Fly into Dar es Salaam or Kilimanjaro airport and then use our booking flight search module to find a connection.

Once in Kilimanjaro/Arusha, one can start with a Safari adventure- this package offers best of the northern circuit starting, the package includes 3 parks and spans a total of 6 days- you will experience Tarangire,  Serengeti and Ngorongoro National Parks at $1,400 per person in an affordable camping format so you get a sense of true adventure.

Kilimanjaro is a much sought after challenge for the most adventurous of travelers- we currently have listed 2 complete hiking packages that are inclusive except for tip and personal equipment (which can further be hired). The Machame route (7 days with a minimum group of 5 people is at $1,800 per person) or if you are worried about altitude sickness and want more time to aclimitize, we added a 9 day option via the Lemosho Route for only $300 more per person at $2,100. Both packages are are challenging and offer stunning scenery- best times to climb Kilimanjaro are between July-October, Dec-February- we will write more on our blog about Kilimanjaro tips and preparations soon.

The only way to end an adventure  is to finish at the beach- That’s when this  ideal Zanzibar package comes in for those who want to combine diving and relaxing at one of the best beaches in Tanzania. Amaan Bungalows for 3 nights and get 4 dives from Sensation Divers from $406 per person, if you are more experienced diver and want more peace and quiet (Nungwi is very popular), you may want to check out the Pemba diving near Misali Island package for the same duration (3 nights, 4 dives staying at the scenic Misali Beach in Pemba, Zanzibar’s sister island) at $506 per person.

We will be adding many more packages that show the best, most popular as well as hidden gems of Tanzania. Sign up for our newsletter and like or Facebook Page to keep updated. We allow you to book and pay directly on our site for each package as well the flights, ferry transfers.

Happy New year to all our partners and the world of travelers!
Below are our commission rates for partners signing up on Yellow Masai travel portal. The rates are applicable until June 2011.

YM Commission Pricing List Jan2011

Today Safaricom in Kenya announced upcoming details of their M-PESA ticket service which got us very excited here at Yellow Masai- this is one of the core reasons we believe in serving both the international and domestic market and this service will make it easier for us to connect and light up all our partners with this service especially as we begin to think about entering the Kenyan market in 2011. The partners the service has signed up at launch so far are Air Kenya, Akamba, ALS,Kenya Airways, Safarilink and all IATA Airlines and Hotels. You have to go to a M-PESA store to actually make payments, but regardless this addresses the 20M+ users in Kenya who already use the service. We hope this service will be available for online merchants for doing bookings over the internet.
Right now the service is not available in Tanzania under Vodacom, but since Kenyans are more active traveller across East Africa, we are excited of the prospects of enabling this with Kenyan travelers bound for Tanzania to begin and we will work with out existing partners on providing ticketing via mobilebanking for Tanzanians for M-PESA, Airtel Money, TigoPesa and Z-PESA.

Just wanted to provide an update to our plans here at YellowMasai. We are  (still) nearing launch and have been working around the clock to get content ready on various destinations and get some of our partner packages ready for launch- we had planned on being ready in November, but the difficulties is setting up the ecommerce infrastructure to take credit cards has delayed us somewhat. Meanwhile we have continued to sign up great partners including some hotels in Zanzibar where we were also having difficulty. Whilst delayed, we wanted to reassure you all that we are getting closer to Launch with now over 200 partners.

Wanted to wish all of our partners  and supporters a Happy Christmas whilst we could not help you with your travel plans across Tanzania and East Africa this time- we wish you safe travels and in the new year we hope to see your research and bookings begin here from next year

We wanted to take the time to plug one of our partners in Zanzibar who would appreciate our x-mas image below. Congrats to the team at MamboMagazine, a site dedicated to Zanzibar, for launching their site last month- which looks fantastic.

Merry Christmas from Yellow Masai Team

We are busy doing final integrations and testing before we launch- you will begin to see more areas of the site open up over the next few weeks. The team is working flat out doing final integrations on ecommerce.

I also wanted to bring attention to our Dar Guide article and the beginning of our marketing promotions over the next 3 months.

Yellow Masai Dar Guide November 2010

UPDATE: We have crossed 100 partners

It has been a very busy last few weeks for the Yellow Masai team. Our partners have heard our call for registration and we are only a few more signups away from hitting a big milestone 100 partners.We have also heard that some of our partners have had some difficulty signing up and appreciate that the form being long is probably a barrier to easy and seamless registration- so we will shorten the form considerably to quickly sign up and then partners can manage and complete their profile later- watch for the updates later this week.

Of all the signed up partners, I am very happy to announce that we are working with Coastal Aviation- Tanzania Flying Safari, the most reliable and popular flight charter in Tanzania covering the northern circuit, Zanzibar and the emerging southern circuit including Selous and Ruaha parks. They also own adventure camp properties in the south which we can add to our hotel section. Coastal Aviation operates a fleet of Cessna Caravans that are perfect for landing in grass runways all across the country- they are also extremely driven to integrate technology and become more efficient- for instance, they allow customers to pay by Vodacom’s M-Pesa which as a technology driven travel agent we are very excited that they are as forward thinking as we are.

Coastal's fleet of Cessna Caravans can land on almost any runway- perfect for Africa

We will work closely to integrate our systems with Coastal to allow fully automated bookings by the end of the year.

Another partner that we have been in talks with inc. Hilton Double tree group- who have now opened a couple of hotels in Tanzania, inc. Dar es Salaam. We are are very excited on the momentum- most of our registrations have been in The northern main safari district, soon we will focus our attention to Zanzibar to further increase our reach.

At this stage we are also been talking to other key partners inc. mobile banking side to ensure we set up a great solution that allows seamless bookings Tanzania and Kenya visitors of the site- these inc. the iPay solution out of Kenya and Efulusi in Tanzania. Tanzania alone has now 4 mobile banking solutions after the introduction of TigoPesa last week in addition to Zain ZAP and Zantel’s Z-Pesa and Yellow Masai is committed to working with all these.

We are on track to launch by the end of the month or maybe slightly into October- a big product update is expected in the next week. We will keep you all posted.

We are gearing up to advertise and promote our website and services on local  web properties. Are you a blog or website in Tanzania with a great reach across the country or even East Africa? We define anything with 5,000 unique visitors/month and corresponding page views a month to be a good audience reach- with a majority of users in Tanzania or other East Africa countries such Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda. If you run such a site or no someone who does, we will be interested to talk to you pay to advertise on your site. Feel free to contact us by commenting below on our blog or e-mailing info@yellowmasai.com