MTWARA may be located far from Arusha but the country’s tourism industry pivoted around the Northern Circuit will never be the same without added value from souvenir antiques sculptured in the southern region.
“It has become a tradition that after
any Safari experience in either Serengeti or Ngorongoro, tourists need
to top up with artefacts from curio shops,” revealed Mr Kilian
Mwakulomba, the Manager in-charge of African Galeria, the largest curio
shop located at Manyara section, between Mto-wa-Mbu and Karatu.
As it happens, large and small curio
shops keep cropping up and lining along the entire road stretch from
Arusha via Makuyuni junction, all the way to Loduare gate, the entrance
to both Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park. Each
of the establishment depends on the tourist vehicles taking visitors to
and from various attractions.
“During peak season more than 100 tour
vans drive into this curio shop for visitors to buy souvenirs ranging
from Makonde sculptured traditional arts and crafts, locally made
printed T-shirts, wooden trays and cups and Maasai attires,” revealed Mr
Mwakulomba, pointing out that it is actually the products from Mtwara
that top the bill.
Mwalukomba was of view that, it has now
become a tradition for tourists coming back from the parks to crown each
safari trip with arts and crafts souvenirs bought from curio shops.
The two tourist destinations of
Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park, with Lake Manyara thrown
in between, account for more than 600,000 tourists per year.
Already international parcel shipping
and handling companies such as DHL, UPS, TNT and Fedex have opened
branches inside a number of curio shops to ensure that tourists who buy
bulk consignments of arts and crafts can be assisted to ship them to
whichever destination, right from the store itself.
However, for another curio shop
operator, Mr Asantaeli Mbise of ‘Lake Manyara Wayside Gallery,’ there
has been large exportation of arts and crafts items from Arusha to
overseas countries of late, something which may jeopardize the business
in future.
“In the past it was tourists carrying a
few pieces of traditional crafts with them, but now we are seeing the
products being transported on large trucks, put into shipping containers
and sent floating to China, Asia, Europe and the United States,” said
Mr Mbise, pointing out that once the Makonde arts saturate overseas
markets nobody will be buying them here again.
“And we have started to feel the pinch,
the number of tourists who drop by at the shop to buy souvenirs has
reduced while those who eventually come, either complaining or sneering
that the same products could be bought at much cheaper prices abroad,”
revealed the Arts Gallery operator
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