ARUSHA in northern Tanzania will host an international conference dubbed Travellers’ Philanthropy held next month, from December 3 to 5. The conference will focus on the growing trend among responsible tourism businesses to support community and conservation projects in the host countries where they operate.
Amant Macha, director of marketing at the Tanzania Tourist Board, said that about 300 international tourism representatives would be attending. These will hail from tourism companies, as well as experts from development and conservation organisations, representatives from the UN and other international agencies, academics, government officials, the media and others wanting an insight into how responsible tourism can contribute to poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation.
The conference will be held at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge in Arusha near the base of Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Meru that serves as at gateway to Tanzania’s renowned game parks. In addition, leading tour operators in East Africa are providing a variety of specially designed safaris that will include game viewing and visits to community projects. Details about the programme and speakers, the hotel and meeting venue, flight information plus pre- and post- discounted conference trips - open to all attendees and their friends and families - are available on the website www.travelersphilanthropy.org.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, founder of Kenya’s Greenbelt Movement, has been invited to give the keynote address.  Via plenary sessions and workshops the conference will cover a range of current issues including: the role of tourism businesses in supporting HIV-AIDS education and prevention; raising funds from travellers and travel businesses for conservation of wildlife; and parks and protected areas and initiatives to address climate change.
The conference has so far attracted co-sponsors including leading tourism operators (Intrepid Travel, CCAfrica, and Micato Safaris) and NGOs (WWF, Jane Goodall Institute, Counterpart International, Ecotourism Kenya).
The 2008 conference is organised by the Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development (CESD), a US based non profit organisation which hosted a Travellers’ Philanthropy conference at Stanford University in 2004. Contact tel +202-3479203 x414 or email: [email protected] or [email protected] cesd.org The Tanzania stand at WTM is at AF1600.