THE CULTURAL TOURISM PROGRAMME

BACKGROUND

The cultural tourism programme is a community based organization. The Netherlands Development Organization initiated this cultural tourism programme in the year 1996, the village authority of in Mto wa Mbu village blessed the operation of this fantastic community based organization.

Mto wa Mbu ward has three villages and it in these villages the cultural tourism programme in Mto wa Mbu is operating. These villages include Migombani, Losirwa and Barabarani.

 In the year 1997 cultural tourism was operating with a full gear under the supervision of the S.N.V experts. Wesley Hans Kileo was the first cultural tour guide in the village, as the industry was growing faster other Eco-tour Guides were invited with an approval from the village authority and it is where terms and conditions were laid down.

The S.N.V experts were providing advisory support, technical support workshops and trainings.

In the World the cultural tourism programmes aren’t only in Tanzania but also other countries especially the third world countries. In Asia, Latin America like Peru Ecuador and so forth and some other African countries like Ghana, Tanzania and so forth. They are caring different names in their respective countries but they all belong to the same philosophy of S.N.V far most each module depends very much on the available resources within its area.

OBJECTIVES OF S.N.V

S.N.V aimed at facilitating eco-tourism, but this was just the cover inside it there were very strong reasons of establishing these cultural tourism programmes in the third World countries like Tanzania and many others. The target of S.N.V was to make sure that the following major concerns were abided by these cultural modules anywhere

Poverty alleviation was the major concern towards establishing cultural tourism modules in the third world countries that most societies depended very much on direct support from their governments while many resources of which the government wanted to exploit are within these societies. So it was to help people exploit their resources and hence they can utilize the profit obtained.

Secondly S.N.V wanted to eliminate gender discrimination in these societies. For example women were ignored by the majority of the society from performing any economical activities and hence the economic input depended very much on a single gender. Instead now women could be involved in these cultural tourism programmes by any means so that the input power should maximize the out put in terms of commercial products and agricultural products.

Thirdly the other motive and of grave concern of establishing cultural tourism programme was to maneuver over any environment degradation. Those societies have to participate in different environmental activities. But it badly aimed at making sure that the present environment is left undestroyed so that the future generation shall enjoy our beautiful environment if and only if undestroyed.

ACITIVITIES OF CULTURAL TOURISM

The cultural tourism programme activities are purely tourist although it some times engages in other social activities. Tourism is now a broad sector in our country and it generates much of the government income. But this type of tourism industry was not popular as it is today, with good supervision and marketing now is a popular tourism business and it helps very much local societies to generate their own income for their own projects and hence less dependence to the government help.

Activities by the cultural tourism are purely touristic and they depend very much on the location the cultural module. Example in Mto wa Mbu cultural tourism programme the resources available makes it more popular than any other modules in Tanzania

Mto wa Mbu is home fro more than 28,000 people in which there are about 120 tribes or so, about 1117hectares is irrigatable and cultivable land. It is boarded by Lake Manyara National Park to the south and the west Escarpment of the great East African rift valley. there are deep soils in the village supporting 30 varieties of banana and all types vegetables and few fruits, the area is green throughout the year, Maasai people makes the cultural content of the area complicated and fascinating to visitors. The tourist attractions in the area are of cultural aspect.