S!TE 2015 organizers frantic to fill space

With just over two and a half months to go before the second S!TE tourism trade fair goes underway in Dar es Salaam, the news emerged that less than 60 percent of the available exhibition space has be

With just over two and a half months to go before the second S!TE tourism trade fair goes underway in Dar es Salaam, the news emerged that less than 60 percent of the available exhibition space has been sold. A source from Dar es Salaam in fact suggested that the organizers had gone into deep discounting with tables on offer for a fee of $600 owing to a lack of commitment for fully fledged stalls amid murmurs over the high cost of attendance.

In the process of speaking to the local media, Ms. Devota Mdachi, Director of the Tanzania Tourism Board, was also quoted to have said that last year only 18 hosted buyers had accepted TTBโ€™s invitation to attend the show, compared to over 160 hosted buyers who attended the Magical Kenya Travel Expo in Nairobi – a stark contrast, at the time ably described by Mr. Denis Gathanju of Safari Communications, who attended the inaugural SI!E exhibition and shared his impressions.

It is expected that more local companies will take advantage to exhibit in Dar es Salaam this year and promote Tanzania as a tourism destination.

The challenges are seen as similar to the recent KiliFair in Moshi, where, just a week after a hugely successful Karibu Travel Market Tanzania show, the KiliFair organizers equally had an uphill task to compete with their better organized and longer established competitors.

Regular sources from Arusha in the meantime also expressed some sentiments over the still thin lineup of known keynote speakers and the lack of details for a parallel workshop the organizers of S!TE promised would take place this year, a reminder to the organizers to put all available information immediately out into the public domain if they wish to succeed better this year.

For added information about the fair and how to sign up as an exhibitor click on www.site.co.tz

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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