Tourism boost as 60 tourists arrive aboard luxurious train

MARY RAMADHANI

OVER 60 German tourists arrived in Dar es Salaam yesterday afternoon aboard one of the most luxurious tourist trains in the world, the Rovos Rail from South Africa.

The Rovos Rail took a 15-day journey from Cape Town to Dar es Salaam’s Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (Tazara) station, carrying 64 tourists from Germany said, Fuad Abdallah, the Tazara Regional General Manager.

“The day before they arrived at the station, the tourists were able to visit Selous Game Reserve and from here they will visit various tourist attraction centres in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar.

“The train comes to Tanzania five times a year and one needs to do its booking three months before travelling, with its fare starting at $10,000 US dollars per person,” he said.

Speaking to reporters, Ms Anne Marie and Mr Diecknann expressed their excitement, saying, “we can’t wait to tour the country as we have plans to visit some national parks, climbing Mt Kilimanjaro and visiting Zanzibar.”

“I am very pleased with Tanzanian hospitality and kindness, people waiting to see and meet us, something which is very rare in Germany,” said Ms Anne Marie.

Mr Diecknann said that, “I have been following Tanzanian news from Germany and we are pleased with the present Tanzanian President who is shaping the country in a positive way and is different from other African presidents.”

Giving a tour of the train to the media personnel, Mr Lawrence Zulu, Deputy Manager of the Rovos Rail, said that the train has the capacity of carrying 72 passengers.

“The train that arrived today has two locomotives and 16 carriages. The carriages are divided into three classes Royal suites, Deluxe suites and Pullman suites,” he added.

Speaking on the bigger view point, Mr Abdallah said that this is a very good opportunity and not to Tazara alone as in every one kilometre that the train moves Tazara is paid, but rather Tanzania as a whole is to benefit a lot from this in various ways, from hotels, tourist sites, game reserves and various transportation services that they will use.

“Tanzania provides the best tourist destination services and through such activities we are able to advertise it even more,” he explained.

He elaborated that before taking on any journey, the train first looks at the amount of tourist attraction places a country has, considers the safety of the railway and if it is of required standard; and finally if it has reliable and proper communication services.

The train will be on its way back to Cape Town on the 4th of September, carrying 53 tourists and expecting the journey to take 15 days as well. Most of the tourists are from Netherlands, others from Germany, United Kingdom and South Africa. Rovos Rail is expected to return to Tanzania on the thirteenth of October, this year.

“This shows that Tanzania tourist sector is growing as tourists from around the world visit the country and its rich tourist attraction centres; and when they go back to their respective countries, they will be ambassadors of our country.”

Moreover, he added that the government is investing more on Tazara giving an example that for three years, the government has been paying salaries for the employees; and as of recent we are carrying a lot of cargo to Congo and Zambia. “

Yesterday night, there is a train that left with about 40 carriages and on Monday a train will leave with more than 1100 tonnes heading to Congo and Zambia.

For the past three years, we have carried 87,000 tonnes and expect to carry two and a half to three hundred thousand tonnes, while next year we expect to carry over five to six hundred thousand tonnes. And, we carry about 2.5 million commuter passengers per year,” explained Mr Abdallah.