The Clove Islands turn to tourism

Press, 28 January 1986, Page 16

The Clove Islands turn to tourism

By

ALASTAIR MATHESON,

in Zanzibar

For almost a century the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar enjoyed a near-monopoly of the world clove market from the millions of myrtle-like trees grown between its rows of palm trees.

The long boom has slumped with stiff competition from other Third World countries, especially Indonesia which used to be its best customer but which now cultivates its own cloves. Zanzibaris are trying frantically to diversify the island’s economy from the one crop and are pinning their hopes on new ventures such as commercial fishing and international tourism.

With the nearby example of a flourishing tourist trade on the Kenya coast making Zanzibaris envious, the island rulers have been convinced that the history and composition of their cosmopolitan community can be an even stronger attraction for foreign visitors than just palmfringed beaches and the Indian Ocean surf, which they also have in abundance.

Zanzibar also wants to capitalise on its own chequered past as the centre of the Infamous slave

trade to the East carried on by its former Arab monarchs, by showing relics of the days when the island had the largest share of this cruel traffic in human flesh.

When the Arab dhow trade was at its height a hundred and more years ago, Zanzibar was the busiest port on the Eastern African coastline. Over the centuries the unfailing seasonal trade winds had powered all kinds of vessels on their hazardous voyages across the Indian Ocean to the safe haven of these islands. Each year these winds obligingly reversed direction to blow the ships back to whence they came. Such ships brought successive waves of Assyrians, Sumerians, Persians, and, possibly, Phoenicians to mingle with the original inhabitants who came from tribes in what is now mainland Tanzania. Much later came Portuguese, Arabs and Indians to settle, also some Egyptians, Malays and Chinese to add even greater racial diversity to the half million people now living on Zanzibar.

With all this making up Zanzi-

bar’s colourful background, officials believe that the many relics of the past, together with its deserted beaches stretching mile after mile and the distinctive atmosphere of present-day Zanzibar, will combine to make an irresistible package for those Westerners looking for a destination their friends have not yet visited.

Assisted by the United Nations Development Programme and the Madrid-based World Tourism Organisation, Zanzibar now has a detailed project for building town and beach hotels, new roads to the remoter beaches, and the opening up of historic and unique areas that recall the ancient and not so ancient past. Negotiations are already in progress with foreign investors interested in establishing and operating two 200-bed luxury hotels, one of which would cost SNZIO million.

Another project aims at renovating the historic, but small urban area on Zanzibar known as “Stonetown.” Many of its very old and unique buildings are badly decayed and the Govern-

ment wants to restore the area, especially notable houses such as that in which David Livingstone stayed before setting off on his final journey to Central Africa, dying in what is now Northern Zambia. It plans to turn the house into a museum containing mementoes of great explorers such as Livingstone, Speke, Burton, and Stanley, who all stayed on the island at one time or the other.

However, many problems have to be solved before Zanzibar can ever hope to become a tourist attraction on a large scale. Islanders will have to come to terms with the possible negative effects of foreign tourism. The Chief Minister, Sharriff Hamad, talks of having tourists more or less secluded from the local people by accommodating them at the remoter beaches, but the Minister for Tourism, Al-haji Pandu, hopes visitors will respect the ethics, morals and traditions of the mainly Islamic Zanzibaris, but admits “in the long run they may affect us.” Up to now, the authorities on Zanzibar have not taken seriously the matter of competition from other Indian Ocean resort States. Package tours to coun-

tries like Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Thailand are considerably cheaper and are well established. Island States such as the Seychelles, Maldives, and Mauritius also have a good head start in attracting tourists from Western countries.

At the moment, although the exchange rate for Kenya shillings is on a par with Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania, the British pound or United States dollar buys up to ten times as much on the Kenya coast as in Zanzibar, where local beer is SNZIO a bottle and a very ordinary meal more than the equivalent of SNZ4O. This is the consequence of Tanzania’s battle with the International Monetary Fund, and together with the mainland, Zanzibaris are resisting pressure for a massive devaluation.

Some thought is now being given on Zanzibar to having special exchange rates for tourists, or some such concession. Unless this can be introduced, the present annual influx of 35,000 visitors (including businessmen) is unlikely to increase and the Clove Islands will remain the haunt only of historians and archaeologists. — Copyright, London Observer Service.