Zanzibar's island idyll under threat....

Travel down the east coast of Zanzibar on board an Arab dhow, and the spice island seems not to have changed for centuries. A row of white surf, open sand and coconut palms marks the shoreline.

For miles, there is no intrusion from anything man-made, save for the triangular white sails of other dhows, so graceful and slender that they seem entirely as nature intended.

From time to time, the thatched, conical roofs of a handful of relatively small hotels appear among the palm trees. But the Indian Ocean's turquoise waters still lap a largely undeveloped coast.

This may not be true for much longer. Prodded by the central authorities in Tanzania, Zanzibar's semi-autonomous government is promoting the development of big hotels along the eastern shore.

The idea is to change the focus of the island's tourism. At present, Zanzibar benefits from a high-value, low-volume model where most visitors come to the spice island after a safari in Tanzania's national parks. They stay for an average of five nights in a few, comparatively small hotels, often directly overlooking the sea.

But Amani Abeid Karume, the president of Zanzibar, wants to change this. The idea is to make Zanzibar a mass destination in its own right – independent of "bush and beach" visitors who go on safari first. This means lower prices, more hotel beds, more tourists and, perhaps inevitably, an end to the undeveloped beauty of the east coast.

"Sadly, the government of Zanzibar has this idea that they have to be like Kenya and Mauritius and they need big investors to build big hotels," says one local operator. "Zanzibar might end up being a cheap destination for mass tourism."

If so, small retreats, like Ras Nungwi Beach Hotel on the island's northern peninsula, will become rare exceptions. Set on a perfect tropical beach, where the afternoon tide brings turquoise water lapping against honeycombed rocks and white sand, Ras Nungwi has only 32 rooms.

Most are found in thatched rondavels, often directly overlooking the ocean. Ras Nungwi was built before a new regulation came into force, specifying that all hotel rooms must be at least 250ft from the high-tide mark.

If you stay in the Ocean Suite, you will have a small beach to yourself, complete with your own two-storey house with more than 2,000 sq ft of living space.

Elsewhere in Zanzibar, seaweed and cloudy waters can make the beach disappointing. At Ras Nungwi, however, the sand could scarcely be finer nor the water clearer.
"There is a big turnaround of oceanic currents here, which gives us our clear water," explains Chris Goodwin, the general manager.

If Zanzibar eventually succumbs to the mass tourism model, small and intimate havens such as Ras Nungwi will become rarer.


Telegraph

Tawi la CCM Chokocho

Tawi la CCM Chokocho Pemba, katika uzinduzi wa kampeni za CCM Pemba mapema wiki hii.

Tanzanian ruling party presidential candidate for Zanzibar launches campaign

Tanzania's ruling revolutionary party of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) presidential candidate for Zanzibar Ali Mohamed Shein has launched the party's election campaigns in the Indian Ocean archipelago with a commitment for agriculture development through use of modern farming technology and maximum use of irrigation.

At a registered turn up record on Saturday in Zanzibar, Shein noted that his government would maintain good governance, noting that CCM is in a position to apply good governance in its leadership, the local newspaper Daily News reported on Sunday.

He said that he would uphold and implement CCM's manifesto and policies and that he would sustain two-government structure of the Union government and Zanzibar government, opposing the Civic United Front (CUF)'s three-tier government.

The CCM's policy has always upheld two governments for the past 46 years and he will continue to uphold this in order to protect the Union for the public benefit, said Shein.

With the attendance of CCM high level officials, from Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar, the campaign rally were preceded by songs, dancing and reading of poems and Shein also promised to continue bringing development to the Isles if voted to leadership.

In Zanzibar, 66.4 percent people in Tanzania's Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar voted in favor of the formation of government of national unity after the amendment of the constitution in July, indicating that rivalry witnessed in the previous elections since 1995 will be unlikely after the election this year.

Under the proposed structure of a government of national unity likely to be formed after the next elections, if Shein wins the presidential election in Zanzibar, CUF's Seif Sharif Hamad would become First Vice-president of Zanzibar, and the second vice president would come from CCM.

Tanzania is considered Africa's most politically stable country, where the ruling party CCM has been in power for the past 49 years and there have been four successive transfers of power.

The local, legislative and presidential polls on Oct. 31 are the country's fourth since the re-introduction of multi-party politics in 1992 in the east African country with the current population of more than 40 million.


Xinhua

Dr. Shein na tovuti yake

Tovuti rasmi ya Mgombea urais kwa tiketi ya CCM Zanzibar ipo hewani sasa... Tembelea hapa