• Home
  • Post a press-release
  • Visibility packages
  • Subscribe email updates
  • Event Calendar
  • Contact

For Immediate Release | Official News Wire for the Travel Industry

Where press releases are breaking news

  • Home
  • Post a press-release
  • Visibility packages
  • Subscribe email updates
  • Event Calendar
  • Contact

A new Tourism potential in Tanzania: The Southern Circuit

April 21, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

A new Tourism potential is about to be unlocked In Tanzania. All roads and international air routes will in the near future, be leading to the Southern circuit, as the tour operators have major plans to open new tourism revenue streams.

Complimenting the Government’s drive to transform the Southern tourism circuit, the key tourism players are currently scouting for apt partners to invest heavily in accommodations as part of a strategy to open up the area for travel.

It is understood, the Fifth Government under President Dr John Pombe Magufuli is working overtime to put up hardware infrastructures as it seeks to unleash the full economic potential of the area.

Impressed by the government move to designate Iringa as the Southern circuit hub, Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO) last week deployed a delegation led by its Vice-Chairman, Mr Henry Kimambo to identify new potential members in its effort to establish a chapter in the area to cater for the entire Southern circuit.

“We want to replicate the best practices from the northern tourism circuit to Southern shred,” Mr Kimambo told the tour operators in Iringa during the engagement meeting.

He revealed that TATO plans to bring its services close to its members in Southern circuit, comprising Morogoro, Iringa, Njombe and Mbeya anytime soon.

This implies that the 36-year-old advocacy agency for a multi-billion dollar industry, with its base in northern safari capital of Arusha, will soon have a liaison office in Iringa to take care its Southern circuit members.

Mr Kimambo said that his association was aware that the Southern circuit based tour operators not only have their own different issues but also need strong ties with their northern tourism circuit peers if the tourism potential is to be unleashed.

Presenting the benefits before the Southern Circuit tour operators, TATO Chief Executive Officer, Mr Sirili Akko said lobbying and advocacy is a core service offered by his association.

“Members enjoy the conducive business environment as TATO represent a collective voice for private tour operators in lobbying and advocate towards the common goal of improving the business climate in Tanzania” Mr Akko explained.

TATO also provides unparalleled networking opportunities for its members, allowing individuals tour operators or company to connect with their peers, mentors, and other industry leaders and policymakers.

As a member, one is in the unique position to attend conventions, seminars, award dinners and other related events with like-minded professionals in the field. These events are attended by the brightest minds and are a hotbed of ideas and collaborative efforts.

“An association’s annual General meeting represents an incredible opportunity for members to meet and network with the largest gathering of their peers during the year” Mr Sirili explained.

TATO also trains its members on key issues such as labour laws, tax compliance, corporate social responsibility, conservation issues, among others, he noted.

As if that was not enough, TATO members also enjoy the service of having a platform where they channel their operational or policy related challenges to the government for a solution.

Members are also bonded together as they advocate for their peers and share their challenges and triumphs with one another, TATO CEO explained.

“Indeed, TATO provides members with a competitive advantage because they become active, informed members of their industry” Mr Sirili said, stressing that his members also get updates on all issues on tourism and related sectors by providing resources, information, and opportunities they might not have had otherwise.

Thanks to USAID PROTECT Project for building the capacity of TATO, an umbrella organization with over 300 members, for it to become an efficient advocacy agency for the tourism sector.

Project coordinator, Mr Jumapili Chenga said the scaling up membership base for TATO is one of his scheme’s components.

Iringa Region Tourism Officer, Ms Hawa Mwichaga was grateful that at the long last a strategy to unlock the Southern tourism circuit has stepped up a gear.

Tour operators from Iringa, Mbeya and other regions namely Ernest Luwala, Nancy Mfugale, Modestus Mdemu, Serafina Lanzi supported the idea of joining TATO as a concrete step to spur tourism in southern circuit.

Natural Resources and Tourism Ministry’s officer-in-charge for Southern Circuit, Ms Tully Kulanya said her zone has a great potential for tourism business.

“The Southern Parks are the perfect destinations for travelers looking for plentiful and rare wildlife in a remote area of Africa” Ms Kulanya noted.

The national parks namely Mikumi, Udzungwa, Kitulo Ruaha, as well as Selous Game Reserve, have fewer visitors and give the feeling of being all-alone. Activities include game drives in open vehicles, boat safaris, and walking safaris. These safaris include flights between the parks.

Tanzania’s earnings from tourism jumped 7.13 percent in 2018, helped by an increase in arrivals from foreign visitors, the government has said.

Tourism is the main source of hard currency in Tanzania, best known for its beaches, wildlife safaris and Mount Kilimanjaro.

Revenues from tourism fetched $2.43 billion for the year, up from $2.19 billion in 2017, Prime Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa said in a presentation to parliament.

Tourist arrivals totaled 1.49 million in 2018, compared with 1.33 million a year ago, Majaliwa said.

President John Magufuli’s government said it wants to bring in 2 million visitors a year by 2020.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Filed Under: Press Release Tagged With: and, annual, Annual General Meeting, area, arrivals, Arusha, association, attend, award, Aware, base, based, beaches, benefits, best, best practices, billion, boat, Breaking Travel News, building, Business, capacity, capital, cater, CEO, Chairman, challenges, Channel, Chapter, charge, chief, chief executive, chief executive officer, circuit, climate, close, collaborative, collective, company, compared, competitive, Compliance, connect, conservation, conventions, corporate, corporate social responsibility, Cultural Travel News, currency, currently, delegation, Destinations, different, dollar, Dr, drive, earnings, economic, effort, efforts, engagement, environment, establish, Events, executive, explained, fewer, fewer visitors, flights, foreign, foreign visitors, full, future, game, game reserve, gathering, general, general meeting, goal, government, great potential, Hard, Henry, hub, ideas, in, increase, increase in arrivals, Industry, industry leaders, information, informed, International, invest, issues, IT, John, joining, key, Kilimanjaro, known, largest, last, laws, leaders, leading, LED, liaison, liaison office, like, lobbying, looking, Main, major, meet, meeting, member, members, membership, million, million visitors, minister, ministry, Mount Kilimanjaro, move, Mr, Ms, national, national parks, natural, natural resources, need, network, networking, New, new tourism, Northern, office, officer, only, open, operational, operators, opportunities, opportunity, organization, over, parks, parliament, partners, percent, plans, platform, players, policy, policymakers, position, potential, practices, presentation, presenting, president, Prime, Prime Minister, private, professionals, project, protect, provides, region, regions, related, remote, represent, represents, reserve, resources, responsibility, revealed, Revenue, revenues, Roads, routes, s, safari, safaris, said, scheme, sector, sectors, selous, Selous Game Reserve, seminars, service, services, Share, social, social responsibility, Solution, soon, Source, Southern, strategy, strong, supported, Tanzania, Tanzania Association of Tour Operators, Tanzania travel news, TATO, tax, The National, ties, to, TO BE, told, tour, Tour Operators, tourism, tourism business, Tourism Investment News, Tourism Ministry, tourism potential, tourism revenue, tourism sector, tourist, tourist arrivals, trains, transform, Travel, travelers, Travelwire News, unique, up, updates, USAID, vice, visitors, voice, walking, We, week, wildlife, working, year

Visitors to Walter E. Washington Convention Center encouraged to ask Alexa

April 10, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Through a strategic partnership between Events DC, the official convention and sports authority for the District of Columbia, and Volara, the voice hub for the hospitality industry, visitors to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center are finding their way around the facility and hosted events easier than ever before through an ever-familiar voice.

The new voice-based wayfinding solution atop Amazon Alexa is powered by Volara’s market-leading enterprise-grade conversation management technology. Inside the 2.3 million-square-foot building sits wayfinding kiosks that host the voice assistant. Visitors are encouraged to ask Alexa about happenings within the convention center and ask where to find meeting spaces, food-and-beverage outlets, the closest shoe shine, the business center and more. More than 50 kiosks featuring the Volara-powered solution on Amazon Alexa will greet visitors, and voice commands will extend outside the facility to local businesses, services and attractions.

“At the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, we aim to provide our customers with a memorable experience,” said Samuel Thomas, senior vice president and general manager of Events DC. “Most people are tech savvy, and they want to have real-time access to the information they need in a format they are most accustomed to using. We partnered with Volara to provide wayfinding on voice command. Now event goers can get their questions answered quickly without having to seek out staff; it’s quick and efficient. We aren’t replacing face-to-face employee interaction – customer service is our core value and the reason we engaged in this project. This voice technology enables us to scale personal service and gives our customers the option to get information their way. It’s exciting.”

Wayfinding is just the first step. Thomas said his team is working with Volara to add more commands to the voice assistant with the goal of personalizing experiences for visitors. Show organizers can customize or brand kiosks strategically placed in their event locations. Volara’s conversation management engine will then be leveraged to respond to voice prompts for each event. The convention center is considering selling kiosk sponsorships as a value-added service. An automobile manufacturer, for example, may want to sponsor all kiosks in the Convention Center during The Auto Show, providing a good revenue stream for the facility and making the event more interactive, informative and fun.

“When we tell customers about this voice initiative, they get really excited,” Thomas said. “We are always trying to find ways to reinvent ourselves and provide better services for customers, and technology is at the core. Recently we added smart furniture to the public areas that contain USB ports or standardized plugs to keep people connected. We are one of the first convention centers to offer free WiFi. And, through our strategic partnership with Digital Conventions, we now have the most robust digital signage program in the country. This voice project with Volara is yet another added service that we are providing to our customers. With the flexibility of Volara’s software, the sky is the limit.”

Lasan Coger, general manager of Digital Conventions, said he was intrigued when Thomas approached him about the wayfinding by voice command initiative. “A collaborative team from Events DC, Digital Conventions and Volara met and put our minds together to see how we could launch this program. It was challenging to get to where we are today, but everyone involved loved the challenge, and more importantly, we love the product. When we see the responses from attendees at our events, it validates what we are doing, and we can’t wait to expand this program.”

Volara provides platform agnostic voice-based conversation management software and a secure integrations hub to the hospitality venues. Its software turns the leading consumer voice assistants (Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and IBM Watson) into a business tool that drives more efficient customer service, influences visitors’ behaviors, and improves net promoter scores. Volara is a launch partner for both Google Assistant Interpreter Mode and Alexa for Hospitality.

“We are thrilled to bring wayfinding on voice command to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center,” said David Berger, Volara CEO. “We see Convention Centers, Casinos, Malls, Stadiums, Amusement Parks or any venue that can benefit from wayfinding as an exciting vertical for Volara. This successful deployment is proof that Volara-powered voice assistants can make a venue more visitor friendly, easier to navigate and more efficiently operated. Today we have a waiting list of convention centers that are eager to deploy our solution. The interest is overwhelming.”

To learn more about Volara-powered voice assistant programs, visit volara.io.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Filed Under: Press Release Tagged With: American Travel News, and, areas, Assistant, assistants, attendees, attractions, authority, auto, Auto Show, based, behaviors, benefit, better, beverage, brand, Breaking Travel News, building, Business, businesses, casinos, center, Centers, CEO, challenge, collaborative, columbia, contain, convention, Convention Center, convention centers, conventions, conversation, country, customer, customer service, customers, D.C., digital, Digital Conventions, District, doing, eager, easier, employee, encouraged, engine, enterprise, event, Events, expand, experience, experiences, extend, face, facility, featuring, find, finding, first, food, foot, free, friendly, fun, furniture, general, general manager, goal, good, Google, Google Assistant, grade, GREET, hospitality, hospitality industry, host, hub, IBM, in, Industry, information, initiative, inside, integrations, interaction, interactive, interest, IT, just, keep, kiosks, launch, leading, learn, limit, list, local, locations, love, Make, management, manager, Market, May, meeting, met, million, most, need, net, New, News articles, offer, official, operated, option, out, Outlets, outside, parks, partner, partnership, People, personal, platform, ports, powered, president, product, program, programs, project, provides, public, questions, real, reason, reinvent, Revenue, s, said, savvy, scale, secure, see, seek, selling, senior, Senior Vice President, service, services, Shine, show, sky, Software, Solution, spaces, sponsor, sports, Square, staff, strategic, strategic partnership, successful, team, tech, tech savvy, Technology, Thomas, through, time, to, today, tool, Travel Destination News, Travel Technology News, Travelwire News, trying, turns, US, USB, using, value, venue, venues, vice president, visit, visitor, visitors, voice, Volara, wait, Walter, Washington, way, ways, We, WiFi, working

Search



Recent Articles

  • Grand Hyatt Al Khobar Hotel and Residences Opens, Bringing Luxury Experiences to the Middle East
  • Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation in Thailand as of 17 January 2021, 11.30 Hrs.
  • TAT extends work from home to 31 January 2021
  • Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation in Thailand as of 16 January 2021, 11.30 Hrs.
  • Redefining the way the world goes on vacation
  • Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation in Thailand as of 15 January 2021, 11.30 Hrs.
  • Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation in Thailand as of 15 January 2021, 11.30 Hrs.
  • Quick-witted Wheel of Fortune contestant wins featured trip to Nevis
  • American Airlines Group Announces Webcast of Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2020 Financial Results
  • American Airlines Is First US Airline to Introduce Health Passport for All International Travel to US

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in