Zainab ANSELL

Source: allafrica March 20, 2012: QATAR Airways will start daily flights to the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) in July this year to almost land tourists in the heart of the northern tourist circuit. The launch of Qatar flights will make KIA Tanzania's second point after Dar es Salaam on the African map. Apart from KIA, other featured passenger route expansions in six months period are Serbia and Myanmar. The lucrative deal is translated into an increased number of international arrivals at the airport that has consistently grown by nearly 15 per cent annually since 2003. KIA currently serves 650,000 passengers per year. Qatar Airways joins other major airlines such as KLM, Edelweiss air, Condor air and Ethiopian Airlines to fly to the northern located international airport. "For Swissport Tanzania, the ground handling services company,the deal would boost aviation activities at the airport, bringing about multiple benefits in terms of reve...

Tanzanian Tourism's Indomitable Entrepreneur I first heard, Tanzanian,  Zainab Ansell speak at the launch of a joint UN Women and UN World Tourism Organisation report that examined the role of gender in sustainable tourism. Zainab was an engaging presence as she took the audience through the growth of her enterprise – ZARA Tanzanian Adventures (a tour operator specialising in trips ranging from safaris to Kilimanjaro expeditions) – and how their forward thinking gender policies both benefitted the community and made sound business sense.  I wanted to find out more about the story of this indomitable woman whose business now employs close to one thousand people. Over a series of emails, I asked her about the beginnings of ZARA. She told me that, when she had been young, her aspirations were “to hopefully get married and have a family” but “in life one thing leads to another”.  “After finishing high school I worked in a leather factory selling ladies ba...