Kilimanjaro’s failure to be among the top seven natural wonders of the world was mainly attributed to the poor internet service in most parts of Tanzania which made impossible for most people who would have voted for the feature to vote. This was mentioned yesterday by Mr.Maige Ezekiel Tanzania minister of Tourism and the natural resources and he also added that right from the beginning of the campaign, the number of Tanzanians participating was very small due to the fact that the network coverage was very bad in most areas.
He is quoted to have said that the limited internet service provision in most rural parts of the country made it impossible for those in the villages to vote leaving only those living only the urban center to vote for Kilimanjaro and yet in other countries, almost all the people have got access to internet and therefore were able to vote in large numbers using the internet. He also added that although the government had come to an agreement with the mobile network companies so that the citizen could send short voting messages for free, it was already too late and therefore useless. There were only two features suggested from Africa to join the competition and they included the Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Table Mountain of South Africa but it so unfortunate that none of these two got enough votes to be on the list of the 28 competitors in the whole world though the ministry of Tourism together with the Tanzanian Tourism Board (TTB) had carried out a campaign for Kilimanjaro within and outside Tanzania which in the short run led to its publicity in different countries in the world through the website that was designed, www.new7wonders.com. Maige said sadly.
The minister said all this while he was answering Ali Juma Haji (CCM) the Chaani law maker who was wondering why Mt. Kilimanjaro was not on the list of the new natural wonders in spite of the fact that the government had tried its level best to support the campaign. In Juma’s main question, he wanted Tanzania’s government to explain clearly whether Mt. Kilimanjaro is situated in Kenya and therefore Kenya’s or it’s in Tanzania because the Kenyan government was also casting adverts for it as its own and located in Kenya. He also demanded to know what the government intends to do about the current confusion so that foreign tourists who may wish to visit the mountain can go directly to Tanzania than going through Kenya like the case has been.
In response to the above questions, Maige mentioned that Tanzania is an independent country with Mt.Kilimanjaro on its boarder and Kenya’s. He also made it clear that Kenya has never claimed Mt. Kilimanjaro to be theirs but has always mentioned in its adverts that one can clearly see it while in Kenya than while in Tanzania. He also said that it was not possible for the tourists to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro from Kenya because all the routes leading to the peak of the mountain which include the Rongai, the Mweka, the Londrosi, the Umbwe, the Marangu and the Machame are all in Tanzania. He also mentioned that for any tourists to climb the Kilimanjaro mountain, they have got to go through Tanzania and the Kenyans know so too and that the Tanzanian government is doing its level best to advertise to different countries outside Tanzania as possible as well as in the public buses in the UK, in flights using posters and there are also plans of organizing trips for the news reporters/ journalists from various countries to visit the mountain.
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