tourism – Chanters Lodge Livingstone

Zambezi Queen

Check this from the New York Times:

Ever since Katharine Hepburn declared “I never dreamed that any mere physical experience could be so stimulating!,” African river boating has been a booming industry.

The Zambezi Queen a new 150-foot-long river boat described by its owner, Tony Stern, as a “five-star floating boutique hotel,” is a far cry from Hepburn’s African Queen. But it does offer a luxurious new way to explore one of the lesser-known waterways of the continent: the Chobe River in Botswana. The mighty river, which runs through Chobe National Park, supports an array of wildlife, including elephants, waterbuck, giraffes, zebras, impalas, wildebeests, kudus, warthogs and giraffes.

The Zambezi Queen bills itself as eco-friendly, with solar-heated water, jet propulsion (instead of propellers) and no air-conditioning. All 14 suites are appointed with private balconies, modern colonial-style decor and plenty of mosquito netting. The ship also has a bar, reading room and plunge pool.

Tours are two or three days, and cover 20 miles of the river, with prices ranging from $800 to $3,600, depending on length, time of year and accommodation.

Looks stunning doesn’t it?

10
FEB

Africa, Botswana, hotels, tourism, travel, wildlife

Mukuni Big 5 Safaris

Check that amazing photo of Tando Malunga, a friend of my son Michael Chanter, at work with lions at Mukuni Big 5 Safaris. Bit too much of a lion encounter for my liking! Mukuni have a range of activities, and Guests at Chanters Lodge who have had the Mukuni Big Five experience have been delighted with their activities, so here’s rather more detail:

Lion Walk
US$120 per person, two morning collections and one afternoon. Transfers are included and the activity lasts about 3 hours under expert guided supervision.

Cheetah & Caracal Interaction
US$85 per person, collections as above.
The Mukuni Big 5 Safaris’ cheetah research programme is committed to the preservation of the cheetah. A percentage of the project’s proceeds will help to sponsor a mobile clinic and to educate the local population, by means of interaction and lectures, on the preservation and protection of this wonderful endangered species. The Cheetah!

Combo
Lion, Cheetah and Caracal combo price US$170 pp

Mukuni Big 5 also offer an Elephant Ride at US$150 pp.

Of course we’d be delighted to handle your activity reservations.

22
JAN

activities, Africa, Chanters, guests, tourism, wildlife

The Real Livingstone Bicycle Tour

One of the lesser known activities on offer to Guests at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone is The Real Livingstone Bicycle Tour. Organized by Mrs Hermine – who, incidentally also has a smashing garden nursery located in ‘217’ – two tours are offered. Bicycles used are Raleigh MTB.

The Real Africa Township
This 3 hour guided tour takes visitors to Maramba and Linda districts of Livingstone and affords Guests the chance to see where Livingstone residents play sport, pray, live, shop and eat, as well as seeing some local culture, education facilities and the care of the not so young. The tour takes in the local markets, Lubasi Old Peoples’ Home as well as one of the local schools and the cost is US$25 per person.

The Victoria Falls
Crossing the Maramba River through part of the Mosi-o-Tunya National Park to the Zambezi riverside and the mighty Victoria Falls. This tour is also 3 hours and the cost is US$30 per person which does not include the entry fee to the Falls.

Tours are morning 09.00-12.00 hrs or afternoon 14.00-17.00 hrs.

Bicycle Hire
The bicycles are also available for hire at US$15 per day.

The Real Africa Township Tour has proved very popular with our Clients. They have delighted in being able to see a side of Livingstone and Africa that few tourists experience and have commented that it is indeed the real Africa!

The picture? Maramba Market.

19
JAN

activities, Africa, Chanters, education, guests, livingstone, tourism, Zambia

Whale Sharks, Ras Mbisi & Barefoot Luxury!

I love the blog from RasMbisi and @RasMbisi on Twitter too for that matter. Michelle, her husband and young family emigrated from UK a few years’ ago to set up their fabulous lodge on Mafia Island off the coast of Tanzania. Just how exciting and adventurous is that?

To prove my point, check Michelle’s latest blog about her Guests swimming with whale sharks:

“Kaskasi (northern trade monsoon) finally dropped slightly today, the sea looks like a mill pond this morning. Wageni (guests) off first thing to swim with whale sharks, armed with Bacon rolls, homemade pastries and strong coffee. Ibra our Dhow skipper spent 3 years working with a marine research programme and therefore has an extremely strong code of conduct regarding the Whale sharks, all guests get a lecture before he will allow them in the water. He and Johnson then swim with the guests watching out for the weaker swimmers whilst Bakari looks after the boat and gets the coffee and snacks ready for everyone when they get out. Hot coffee is always welcome after snorkeling even in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.”

If, like me, you’re ignorant about whale sharks (whales or sharks? I asked myself) here’s about them:

“The whale shark, Rhincodon typus, is a slow moving filter feeding shark, the largest living fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of 12.65 metres (41.50 ft) and a weight of more than 21.5 tonnes (47,000 lb), but unconfirmed claims report considerably larger whale sharks. This distinctively-marked fish is the only member of its genus Rhincodon and its family, Rhincodontidae (called Rhinodontes before 1984), which belongs to the subclass Elasmobranchii in the class Chondrichthyes. The shark is found in tropical and warm oceans, lives in the open sea with a lifespan of about 70 years. The species originated about 60 million years ago. Although whale sharks have very large mouths, they feed mainly, though not exclusively, on plankton, microscopic plants and animals, although the BBC program Planet Earth filmed a whale shark feeding on a school of small fish.”

Michelle blogs her menus too, and sometimes Tweets them – don’t blame me if they have you drooling and already checking flights to Mafia Island. “Barefoot luxury” they call it “omg, smh” as they say on Twitter!

Awesome!

16
JAN

Africa, guests, hotels, Tanzania, tourism, travel, uk, wildlife

Strobinos And Blue Nile Falls

I had this lovely e mail this week from previous Guests at Chanters Lodge:

“Hi Richard !

We hope you are well.

We wish you and your family a great 2010 hoping to meet you again some day.
As you know, we are regular readers of your blog. Congratulations for the great extension works you have undergone in your lodge !

Here are some pictures taken during our last trip to beautiful Ethiopia and specially some of the lovely Blue Nile Falls, nothing to compare of course with your mighty Victoria Falls !

With our warmest regards.

Hélène and Jean-Michel Strobino”

They sent that lovely photo too!

The Blue Nile Falls are a waterfall on the Blue Nile river in Ethiopia. They are known as Tis Issat in Amharic, when translated, means “smoking water” They are situated on the upper course of the river, about 30 kilometers downstream from the town of Bahir Dar and Lake Tana. The falls are considered one of Ethiopia’s best known tourist attractions.

The falls are estimated to be between 37 and 45 meters high, consisting of four streams that originally varied from a trickle in the dry season to over 400 meters wide in the rainy season. Regulation of Lake Tana now reduces the variation somewhat, and since 2003 a hydro-electric station has taken much of the flow out of the falls except during the rainy season. The Blue Nile Falls have isolated the ecology of Lake Tana from the ecology of the rest of the Nile, and this isolation has played a role in the evolution of the endemic fauna of the lake.

A short distance downstream from the falls sits the first stone bridge constructed in Ethiopia, built at the command of Emperor Susenyos in 1626. According to Manoel de Almeida, stone for making lime had been found nearby along the tributary Alata, and a craftsman who had come from India with Alfonso Mendez, the Catholic Patriarch of Ethiopia supervised the construction.

7
JAN

Africa, guests, tourism, travel, Zambia

TOURISM ZAMBIA 2010

This from African Manager

As 2009 came to a close, the Zambian leadership was upbeat that tourism will play a pivotal economic role for this landlocked country in the coming year, when investments sunk into the sector begin to bear fruit.

“The tourism sector continues to rank high on my government’s development agenda, as it holds great potential in the diversification of our economy,” Zambian president Rupiah Banda told his nation in a published message Thursday.

Indeed, the diversification of the Zambian economy from mining to agriculture and tourism is part of initiatives that were started by late president Levy Mwanawasa and which attracted financial support from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Banda built on these initiatives and it is now expected that his commitment to the dream will significantly yield results in 2010.

Specifically, more tourists are expected to visit Zambia’s wildlife sanctuaries in the South of the country, the Eastern parts of the country and the relatively central Kafue National Park. Building on the original plans, Banda has shifted focus from Southern Zambia, he art-throb of Zambian tourism, to the new area of Kasaba Bay where he intends to commercialize parts of Mbala airport which presently is an Air Base, so it can handle civilian air traffic as well.

Consequently, while legislation is being changed in parliament to accommodate this economic necessity, the Zambian government has already gone ahead and increased the overall allocation for tourism to K77.6 billion from the K26 billion of 20 0 8. [US$1 = K4, 680]. Of this amount, K24 billion has been allocated towards rehabilitating the road c onnecting Mbala Air Force base near Lake Tanganyika to the resort area of Kasaba Bay. A further K11 billion has been allocated towards the construction of a terminal building at Mbala Airport and an airstrip at Kasaba Bay on the banks of Lake Tanganyika.

PITY THEN, THAT THE ZERO RATED VAT ON ACCOMMODATION IN LIVINGSTONE HAS APPARENTLY BEEN WITHDRAWN, MEANING EITHER A 16% PRICE INCREASE TO BE PASSED ON TO GUESTS OR AN EQUIVALENT SLASHING OF PROFIT, AND THAT NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE TO REINTRODUCE VISA WAIVERS FOR BONA FIDE TOURISTS.

6
JAN

Africa, hotels, livingstone, tourism, World Cup 2010, Zambia

Forecast 2010

Here’s a dose of reality this Wednesday morning courtesy of Travel Weekly

“The financial crisis is continuing to damage the travel industry with the number of global arrivals this year to be worse than originally predicted, according to the World Travel Market (WTM) Global Trends Report. The report, produced by Euromonitor International, revealed that global arrivals are expected to decline by 8% by the end of the year, while flight and hotel sales are expected to be down by 14% and 16% respectively.

Worse yet, a full recovery for tourism is not expected until 2013. Presenting the results of the report at the WTM Forecast Forum, BBC journalist Thalia Pellegrini said: “The global financial crisis is taking its toll on the industry – falling expenditure, lack of credit and rising unemployment caused a slump in confidence and demand.” She added that while the swine flu epidemic had been contributed to the global tourism decline, demand would continue to be inhibited by low consumer confidence and rising unemployment.

Euromonitor International global travel and tourism manager Caroline Bremner said the UK’s Air Passenger Duty will affect recovery and be a “major inhibitor for growth” as this is “making the UK appear uncompetitive”. However, the recession had already opened up a new market in the North America market called the ‘funemployed’ – increasing numbers of cash-poor and time-rich people who are deciding to use their redundancy to finance travel. While in Africa the ‘Obama effect’ is driving the growth in “roots tourism” especially from the US, which has a high number of African American citizens.

In the UK, the effect of the recession has been to drive the hotel market to look at building pop-up hotels as demand for good-value accommodation increases. The report also revealed that travel sales online are expected to grow by 4% whereas the total travel market is down 1%. Bremner added: “This also due to the fact consumers are booking later.”

Zambia needs to act to remain competetive too! I guess most of the “roots tourism” mentioned will head for West Africa.

The picture? Mafia Island, Tanzania. An hotelier friend on the Island, recently had a guest complaint that their beach was mud! If so, from that picture, take me to the mud! lol!

11
NOV

Africa, hotels, Tanzania, tourism, travel, trends, Zambia

Bungee – Whoops!

As he hurtled towards the water at 80mph on a bungee jump, Rishi Baveja anxiously awaited the moment when the elastic cord snapped him back aloft. It never came. The harness around his feet worked free and he continued accelerating until he hit the surface of a Thai lagoon.

Fortunately he managed to take the full force of the impact on his chest, escaping catastrophic head injuries. But the Cambridge graduate still suffered a ruptured spleen, torn liver, collapsed lungs and massive bruising. Surgeons, who likened his injuries to those of a car crash victim, had to remove the spleen and he spent a month in a Bangkok hospital before he was well enough to return to his home near Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

‘All the doctors were staggered that I lived,’ he said. ‘I’m very lucky. If I had landed head first I would be brain damaged or dead.’ Mr Baveja, whose father Amarjeet is a GP, was in Phuket on a month-long holiday to celebrate gaining a 2.2 degree in engineering. He paid £50 to make the jump at the Jungle Bungy centre in Kathu. A crane took him to a 165ft platform where a harness was placed around his feet and fastened to a bungee cord with several wraps of material.

A video of the jump records his yelp of fear just before he hits the water, while an instructor appears to say ‘Oh’, as the realisation of what is happening dawns on him. Mr Baveja said it was not clear how the harness was able to work loose and he would not be suing the operators because he feels there is little prospect of success. ‘I knew the jump would be scary but I didn’t think it was dangerous. I had a long phone conversation with my mum telling her it was safe.

‘She only believed me when I told her that the website of the jump centre claimed it had a 100 per cent safety record. It still says that. I didn’t need to do that jump. I wish I hadn’t.’ Mr Baveja’s parents flew out to his bedside when they were told of the accident. Despite losing his spleen he hopes to return to full health – and has not been put off extreme sports. He plans to go skydiving when he has recovered.

Well at least it wasn’t in Zambia! I like the bit where he says if he’d hit the water head first he would have been ‘brain damaged’ mmmmm…..yes!

The picture? Not Baveja – Kwameh Anyona doing a safe one at Vic Falls! He stayed in accommodation provided at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone. In my years in Livingstone there has never been a bungee accident!

8
OCT

activities, tourism, uk

Review Sites

This from Tnooz and posted by Kevin May UK on 28 September 2009

There is a dilemma facing many travel companies when they decide that implementing online user reviews is one of the best ways to improve their content and trigger some user interaction.
European tour operating giant Thomas Cook Group’s Direct Holidays division is the latest in a seemingly endless line to have found itself with such a problem – create a review platform from scratch, borrow reviews from a friendly affiliate or white label an existing service?

In this case, despite the opportunity to borrow a large number of hotel reviews from the main thomascook.com site, Direct Holidays has decided to build its own service. So far, so good – there are plenty, probably hundreds of travel sites on the web with their own user review system. But where Direct has deviated away from the norm, perhaps, is in its decision to host the reviews on a totally new domain, with its own brand.

Clearly in its infancy, The Big Picture Direct boasts 500 reviews from customers across its portfolio of destinations and includes ratings according to cleanliness, food, hotel service, location, room comfort and price value. A Thomas Cook Group spokeswoman says Direct has a distinct strategy of its own and therefore wanted to create a service “unique” to the brand, rather than borrow reviews from the mothership or throw in TripAdvisor content in the same way arch rival Thomson did in 2007.

The formation of a new and separate brand for reviews is an intriguing move – and one that would concern some in the SEO community given that the unique content associated with user reviews is, existing protocol says, best placed on the main website. Maybe what is being planned for the site in the coming months, as managing director Steve Barrass explains, throws a brighter light on the strategy.

The Big Picture Direct will be “further personalised to offer features such as an online chat facility, giving customers the opportunity to catch up with friends they made while away or ask any burning questions that travel brochures and traditional review sites don’t cover”. That sounds more akin to plans for a Lite social network, rather than a straightforward review site.”
There’s no doubt is there that Client reviews on line are shaking up the whole tourism and hospitality industries!

7
OCT

reviews, tourism, travel, trends, TripAdvisor

Botswana Currency

Do you need to know this?

The Bank of Botswana introduced a new family of bank notes in August. The old notes will be exchanged for new ones via Botswana Banking Institutions until 31st December 2009. From 1st January 2010 to 31st December 2014 old notes will only be exchanged at the Bank of Botswana.

4
OCT

Africa, Botswana, money, tourism

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