KIROYERA TOURS on the take off

 

Bukoba is generally off the beaten path of tourists to Tanzania though the region clearly has high tourism potential. Kiroyera tours is a new tour and Safari company that opened in Bukoba town in mid June 2002. 5 women natives of Kagera Region own this company. Ms. Mary C. Kalikawe who has arrived in Bukoba with many years of experience in the field of tourism and environment issues is the company’s resident managing director who is also the Editor of the KIROYERA Newsletter. The company has 2 permanent and 3 non permanent staff.

 

Tourists in Bukoba

During this year’s tourist season, one can estimate an average 10 tourists per day walking around in Bukoba town. Tourists come from many areas mostly enroute through Uganda and on transit through Bukoba to Mwanza. They take the ferry (MV Victoria) to Mwanza from where they proceed to the major attractions of Tanzania including National Parks such as Serengeti and on to Arusha and Kilimanjaro. Others take the train from Mwanza to Dar es Salaam on to the famous Island of Zanzibar. Well other tourists arrive in Bukoba after having visited these renowned attractions and still get taken by the timeless beauty of Bukoba and its environment.

There are a number of visitors who are visiting friends , aid organizations or missionaries in Kagera. These simply walk around, go hiking around Bukoba environs while sometimes their friends may take them to some known sites such as Musila island (just off the Bukoba Lake shore), Bugonzi water falls in Kamachumu, the legendary Lake Ikimba or to the many sand and rock beaches of Lake Victoria that abound near Bukoba.

There is demand for visits to Rubondo island National Park on Lake Victoria and to Burigi game reserve. Of late there is talk of Kantare forest which is rich in bird, butterfly and reptile life among many other wildlife.

 

Marketing and Tourists patronage to KIROYERA TOURS

Marketing

Kiroyera Tours marketing campaigns have included an active web site (www.kiroyeratours.com), attending the Arusha KARIBU TTF. annual tour operators and trade fair that was held in Arusha end of May 2002. More than 150 companies attended the fair from East Africa. The company has bought space in the magazine “Countrywide Destination Tanzania” issue No 008 of June – August 2002. Our advert appears on page 40. Kiroyera tours has an office in Bukoba with illuminated sign boards just within the busiest part of the town near the Bukoba main Market. The company car has a big LOGO and many fliers and brochures have been distributed to major centers visited by tourists within Bukoba. These include hotels, lodges and guest houses, the Airport, the harbor, popular bars and the Internet cafe.

In these early stages Kiroyera tours has been lucky to do 5 tours one being an overnight cultural and historic tour and 4 being trips to Musila Island.

 

Cultural trip 

The cultural trip took us through the admirable ruins of Kanazi palace (the constitutionally non functional Chief /King still lives in the palace with his mother), we proceeded on to the Ngono river which flows majestically meandering through a wide beautiful valley. Here there were a group of Hippos in good view, we then viewed legendary Lake Ikimba before taking a walk through a typical village with mud huts and grass thatching among coffee and banana plantations. We ended up at the giant cave of Mulorwa on the cliff face of Kamachumu escarpment. We rested and spent the night at Kamachumu Inn a truly modern Hotel. The next day we visited an historic traditional Grass house “Omushonge” at Kanoni and proceeded to Bugonzi water falls (water falls over a length of more than 150m). On this trip we were with a group of 3 Belgians one resident and two were his friends visiting. Their response was that this area has great tourism potential, that many of the beautiful attractions are unknown that the sighting and walks through typical villages and the visit to the Kanazi palace was quite special and above all they were happy to see places in their “prestine” form rather than the common highly commercialized attractions in other well known tourist areas. Other attractive sites round this area include Kyeibanga cave which looks like a sitting room with a drawn curtain made of a water fall on one side of the open beautiful open cave. There is also the Ibale museum of the Kianja Monarchs and a cute picnic site of “Pebini gardens”. Our price per person sharing is US$75.00 per night and US$45 if we do not spend a night. This price is fully inclusive of transport, food, accommodation and destination fees. A trip requires a minimum of three people or an equivalent price.

 

Musila Island 

All our trips to Musila Island begin at Spice beach Motel which is a neat place beautifully placed right on the lake shore sand beach. Of our four trips to Musila Island the first one was with a Bukoba born Tanzanian who is a student of tourism management in London, the second was with two Austrians and one French man who were in Bukoba waiting for the ferry to Mwanza. The third group was of 7 Americans 2 of them resident in Bukoba, 2 enroute waiting for the ferry and 3 on short visits to friends and missionary work. The 4th trip was with a group of visitors from Sweden who had come for celebration of (HEDEMORA DAY)- 10/8/2002 at a rural Secondary school that Sweden supports. This celebration had even brought the ambassador of Sweden to Tanzania to Bukoba and to the school.

The response of visitors to Musila is that they are happy to meet with the villagers at the fishing village, the colourful fishing boats, the walk through the grass huts and the wonderful peaceful view that can be enjoyed on the summit of the island. Here you see fishing boats venturing out for the night’s fishing trips, you see an array of various big and smaller islands some almost on the horizon. The one menace that may be on the climb and descent of the island’s summit is myriads of lake flies that are sometimes present. However the culmination of enjoyment of the visit to the island is the boat ride around the Island. One views high cliffs with abundant wonderful bird life. The fish eagle, cormorants. King fishers, weavers, Geese and pelicans are present. In some of the caves at the base of the high cliffs we see otters! When luck is with us. The whole visit to Musila Island takes two and a half hours. Our price to Musila Island is Tsh 6000/= per person and a trip will be a minimum of four people or a cost of at least Sh 25,000/=. 

 

THE PRODUCT

Hotels

The hotel industry in Bukoba is made up of relatively small accommodation facilities (average capacity 20 beds) but they are modern enough though at the moment they reflect the low level of tourist demand that has been prevailing. This industry is now growing and new hotels are coming up in different corners. Accommodation charges are less than Tsh30.000/= in the best available accommodation facilities.

Bukoba town has a number of vibrant festivals. Those that fall within the major tourist season are the arrival of the “Mwenge wa Uhuru” the torch of Unity that runs through all parts of Tanzania (This was Mwalimu Nyerere’s idea); There is the “Nane Nane “ trade fair which is indeed colorful and held with the serious spirit of a trade fair with international flavour. Companies from Uganda attend the fair. There is the Beauty pageant for Miss Kagera which also attracts a lot of fun fare.

 

Transport

The Uganda road from Mutukura to Biharamulo is under construction by a Chinese company. This new development has brought wonderful hopes to development of tourism in Kagera. A ride on public transport from Kampala to Bukoba will cost roughly Tsh 12,000/=, which is about US$12. Precission Air still provides good and admirably reliable almost daily flights out of Bukoba to the rest of other major airports. A flight to Kilimanjaro Airport for instance will cost you Tsh 130.000/=. This is about US$130.00. The ferry with MV Victoria is highly reliable it leaves Bukoba on every Monday. Wednesday and Friday evening at about 9:30pm and arrives in Mwanza the following morning. It then leaves Mwanza back to Bukoba on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays again at 9:30pm to arrive in Bukoba very early in the morning. The fare on the ferry is Mwanza to Bukoba or Bukoba to Mwanza 1st Class Tsh12,500/= plus Tsh 500/=port entry fee, 2nd class is sh10,200/= and 3rd class is sh 7,100/= both with sh 500 additional port entry fee. 

For those proceeding to Dar es Salaam by train the fare is Bukoba Dar es Salaam 

1st class aaaash 57,100

2nd class aaaiish 42,800

3rd class aaaash 19,400

All plus port entry fee of sh500/= 

Note that the ferry and the train are run by the Tanzania Railways corporation and you can therefore purchase your ferry and train ticket in Bokoba.

 

Kiroyera tours ongoing efforts

Surveying new attractions

We are now surveying new routes to many other sites with wonderful attractions. Look out in our next newsletter what other wonders we will have on offer for you! 

 

Region Tourism Kagera committee

Kiroyera tours is on the secretariat of the Kagera Region tourism development technical committee. This committee was founded before Kiroyera tours arrived in Bukoba. It focuses on addressing the needs of tourism development for the Region of Kagera. No efforts are saved in trying to put Kagera and Bukoba on the tourism map of the word.