The Poverty-Weather-Suicide Correlation

I’m enjoying the conference I’m currently attending because there are people here from all over.  Aside from me there are only two Americans, but there is a large contingent from Europe and Africa.  Since I am a bit unusual as I haven’t left Africa for the past year a number of people have approached me and asked a variety of questions about my time here on the continent.  Today I had a conversation with someone about poverty in Africa.  I told her that most government officials in Africa regard poverty as being out of their control, something they simply can’t change.  Just like they can’t predict or influence the weather, they can’t influence or change the occurrence of poverty.

Botswana is considered an upper middle income economy, but according to the World Bank 32.9% of the population still lives below the national poverty level.  Of course, Botswana is the wealthiest country in sub-Saharan Africa.  I know I’ve mentioned some of the unemployment issues in countries like Nigeria (54.7% of the population lives in poverty) and Zimbabwe (72% poverty), that Lesotho (56.6% poverty) used to be so poor that one of their primary exports was human blood, and that Congo (71.3% poverty) is so unfortunate they can’t afford to eat the cassava and instead they eat the leaves from the plant.  Poverty alleviation is a huge key term which you hear all over the place.  But the truth is most African leaders don’t think poverty can be cured, so they don’t really sweat it.

It should be noted that poverty alleviation is different from economic growth.  I have a friend who works for the World Bank.  His job is to identify aspiring entrepreneurs, give them micro loans- typically $1,000 or less- in an effort to get them to improve their socioeconomic status.  He can’t GIVE this money away!  He told me about a conversation he had with a fisherman.  The fisherman said he caught three fish each day and then sold them; that would meet his needs.  Mr. World Bank explained he would loan him money to buy a new boat, or new nets, or whatever he needed to improve his business so he could catch more fish.  The fisherman’s response: “I don’t need to catch more fish.” Mr. WB explained if the fisherman caught more fish he could send his son to university, or have the money if his wife got sick, or maybe just buy some milk for his family.  The fisherman said he didn’t need money in case those things happened.  He said when his wife got sick he would just catch five or six fish that day to buy her medicine or pay the doctor.

The reason the fisherman in the story didn’t want to earn extra money is because he would never get to save that money, so it was pointless.  The challenge with elevating Africa out of poverty and improving standards of living is because the culture here does not encourage future planning.  Family ties are important and everything is communal.  This means if the fisherman catches 10 fish and suddenly has more money his aunt in the village will show up and ask for the money to pay her medical bills.  If he catches 20 fish he won’t see any profit from that either because his distant cousin in the next village will ask for the money to pay the bride price for her son’s upcoming marriage.  If he catches 50 fish then the niece of his neighbor’s granddaughter in the country next door will show up on his doorstep asking for a loan to pay for her father’s funeral announcement.  And the cycle continues and never ends.

As I continued my conversation with the woman at the conference today she asked me how Africans are able to withstand so much poverty, violence, government instability, persecution, disease and everything else they put up with.  Just last night I finished the book David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell.  In his book, Gladwell states that happiness is measured on a sliding scale in relation to one’s peers.  He states that Switzerland has the happiest people in the world.  However, Switzerland also has one of the highest suicide rates.  By contrast, Africans are significantly less happy because of all the challenges associated with living here, but since everyone else here is miserable (at least in terms of material possessions, wealth, etc.) the suicide rate is very low because they can’t look at others and be envious since everyone is in the same (sad) boat.

Presidential Protocol

If you’ve been following my blog for a while and read my posting back in December about How to Make a Speech (in Africa) then you probably already know where I’m going with this title.  If you missed that blog you can read it here.

As I mentioned yesterday I am here in Mauritius for the Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Marketing and Management Conference.  The fun thing about going to conferences in Africa is that the organizers take them very seriously, so they often bring high ranking public officials to be keynote speakers or guests of honor in order to show attendees how much the country values the topic of the event.  For instance, at the opening session of the conference today the President of Mauritius was the keynote speaker.  In the past year I have seen President Khama of Botswana, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, President Sata of Zambia and now President Purryag of Mauritius at conferences.  In the last 35 years I have NOT seen Presidents Carter, Reagan, Clinton or Obama.  I did have breakfast with former President Bush Sr. when he was a speaker at an event I did in Vegas and while I didn’t meet W. (George W. Bush) I did ride in his limo when he did an event of mine while I was working at Disney- though that was before he became prez.  To put this in perspective, I have a 100% presidential citing average at conferences in Africa.  Considering the fact I have probably organized at least 500 events over the years that means I have seen presidents at 0.004% of my events in the U.S.

Of course, having a president, or any well-known public servant attend an event here calls for protocol.  First there is a red carpet.  I didn’t take a picture of today’s red carpet because it wasn’t one of the nicer red carpets I’ve seen in the last 12 months.  But, you can see Mugabe’s red carpet here if you like.  Of course, before the official of note shows up there is the corralling of all the staff at the hotel, as well as the entourage.  Mugabe travels with a presidential escort of 60 vehicles and hundreds of personal guards and staff.  I didn’t witness the line of all the hotel employees standing outside the hotel for inspection upon arrival by President Purryag today, but I know it happened based on reports by other conference attendees.

Once the official arrives there is the playing of the national anthem, then the seating ceremony.  Now, up until this point I follow along like a well behaved guest.  I only reveal my true colors once the speeches begin.  And today was no exception to the rule.  Each time someone spent five minutes saying hello to all the honored delegates and then stated, “Protocol observed” it was all I could do not to burst into laughter. Again, if you don’t know what I’m talking about with the “protocol observed” you REALLY need to read this blog post.

All in all the visit from President Purryag was positive.  He had a lot of good comments regarding tourism in Mauritius and Africa as a whole.  Plus, it was fun to have one final reminder about protocol and speeches before I head home.  Thanks for the memory President Purryag!

Mauritius, Not Madagascar

As I am writing this I am sitting in bed in my hotel room watching the television show, The Good Wife, which is dubbed over in French.  For the past year I have been travelling around Africa and each time I’ve checked into a hotel I have hoped for two things: 1. air conditioning and 2. television.  This is the first time I’ve had both and naturally, now that my prayers have been answered I am no longer interested.  I’m at a beautiful beach resort in Mauritius for a conference and it just seems wrong to be using the air con or watching tv.  In order to help you understand why air con and television is criminal here (and to make you a teeny bit jealous) here is my hotel room:

And this is the view from my balcony:

I arrived in Mauritius yesterday and my conference started late this afternoon.  If you haven’t heard of Mauritius before, that’s ok, very few people have.  But, given the fame of the Disney film, Madagascar, I’m sure you have heard of Madagascar.  Well, Madagascar is not Mauritius.  But they are neighbors.  Madagascar is a very large island located off the south-eastern coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean.  Mauritius, Reunion Island and Rodrigues are three very small islands east of Madagascar.  That brings us to the end of today’s Geography lesson. Any questions?

Mauritius was invaded/ruled/colonized by all the major players in Africa: first the Arabs in the 10^th century, then the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French and finally the British.  Due to its location in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius was a major stopover point between Europe and the East, causing a significant influx of immigrants.  Today 70% of the island’s 1.2 million people are Indian with Chinese, Africans, and Europeans making up the remaining 30%.  So far I have only seen Indians here.

I’m looking forward to my conference as there are a lot of researchers and presenters here from across Africa.  Plus it’s nice to have a good excuse to visit Mauritius as it is a very popular, high end tourism destination here in Africa.  Weddings and honeymooners are the primary tourism target market here.  And I can see why.  Here is the view from my breakfast table:

And the view from my seat on the beach this morning:

And the lobby of the hotel:

It’s kind of a waste to come here alone.  It reminds me of Hawaii, though not as humid.  In a way it is almost a terrible place to come for a conference because once you see the views all you want to do is sit on the beach.  But then again, I would have never come here if it weren’t for my conference.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed my beach time today and am looking forward to starting work tomorrow.

Preaching to the Converted

As I mentioned in some of my past postings, I am here in Nairobi to attend a conference, the Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference.  (Yes, I agree, the Department of Redundancy Department must have been responsible for the naming.) For the last several days I’ve been attending workshops, presentations and other networking events with both industry practitioners and academics.  Today as I was sitting in one of the sessions I began reflecting on the conference and feeling very Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

On the one hand I am definitely enjoying the conference.  I’ve certainly learned a lot, particularly about ecotourism efforts here in Africa.  If nothing else I have plenty of examples now which I can use in my teaching.  I always feel as if I don’t know enough about tourism here in Africa, and since I teach here I consider that a bit of a personal weakness.  But being here has exposed me to a lot of different industry approaches and ideas I haven’t seen before in the U.S. 

However, on the other end of the spectrum I have been looking at the research discussed here and think it leaves a lot to be desired.  If all the academic researchers were from Africa I would be a little more understanding, but most of them are from the U.S. Now, I should note there is only one conference attendee from the Hospitality and Tourism Management field. But he’s not presenting.  All the academic presenters are from Parks and Recreation departments.  Apparently the expectations are quite different between HTM and PR research, because nothing that I’ve seen thus far would ever get published in an HTM journal.  The research I’ve seen here has been a lot of participant observations and interviews, which is practically impossible to get published in top tier tourism journals. And many of these presentations don’t even address data collection or methodology, they are conceptual, or opinion pieces.  So, from where I stand the rigor seems to really be missing.

The other thing about the research is that many of these “studies” fail to provide managerial implications.  That is something we always emphasize with empirical research.  I guess after ten years of doing research if I don’t hear, “I found ABC which means hotel managers/ tour operators/ restaurants/ etc. should do XYZ” then I can’t quite comprehend the point of the study.  Yesterday I listened to an Associate Professor give a presentation on how nature is amazing and the chameleon’s ability to adapt and hide from predators is a miracle.  The entire time I was sitting there thinking, “So what? How does this help my bottom line if I am the Director of Tourism for a destination?”  Then again, maybe I have tunnel-vision.  But I frequently find myself listening to these presentations, and thinking that the speaker is preaching to the converted.  If the speaker really wanted to be helpful he would give people suggestions on how to help other properties become more ecofriendly and sustainable.  Sadly this topic has never been broached.

As I mentioned, there is one other HTM professor and he is from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.  I visited HKPU when I was in China in April.  That is the most amazing program I have ever seen.  The resources and faculty they have are top notch and the research they do can’t be duplicated.  I would consider them the absolute benchmark in Hospitality and Tourism programs worldwide.  The reason I mention this is because the HKPU professor is here as an observer, not a presenter.  This leads me to believe that perhaps HKPU is going to add an Ecotourism track, or at the very least, some Ecotourism classes to their curriculum.  I know for a fact this professor doesn’t do Ecotourism research and he is an administrator, which is why I suspect this.  HKPU tends to come up with good ideas and then other programs follow its lead, so I wonder if other hospitality programs may start offering Ecotourism courses soon.  I think doing so would certainly be beneficial, but at the same time more HTM academics will need to start doing rigorous Ecotourism research.  Perhaps the tides will start turning in that direction.  But either way, it will need to be approached from a different direction instead of attempting to preach to the converted.

My Newest Million Dollar Idea/ I’m Going to be in Charge Now

I’ve had more than one million dollar idea over the years.  When I lived in Vegas I realized there were a lot of people who brought their kids on vacation without considering there was nothing to really do with their offspring once there.  I remember telling a girl in one of my graduate classes at UNLV, “You know what someone should do?  Open a babysitting service.  The babysitter goes to the hotel, hangs out with the kid while Mom and Dad go see Cirque du Soliel, charge $50 an hour, BAM! The person that starts that business could become a millionaire.”  She started that business and yes, she is a millionaire.

When I got to Texas Tech I couldn’t believe there was only Chick-fil-A in town and it was at the farthest point possible from campus.  For two years I told my classes, “I will GIVE YOU the money to start a Chick-fil-A within walking distance of campus.  It is a gift, not a loan.  Then we split the profits 50/50. After a year, if you want out, you can leave.  I just want you to commit to running it for a year.  If you decide after a year you don’t want to do it anymore, I will find another manager.”  Guess how many students took me up on that offer? NONE. Now, there is a Chick-fil-A across from campus.  I don’t know who owns it, but I bet that guy is a millionaire.

My latest million dollar idea revealed itself to me today.  We need an EFFICIENT tour operator here in Africa.  This million dollar idea brings me to the second half of my blog title… I’m going to be in charge now.

Years ago, before Southwest Airlines began issuing numerical boarding passes people would fight their way into gates hours prior to a flight to get the best possible spot in line.  This led to mass chaos, and frequently the line would get out of control, taking over walkways, neighboring gates and other public areas.  I remember once walking through an airport and seeing a mass of people in a “line” which went from boarding gate, cut directly across the terminal corridor and into the area of the gate directly opposite.  This meant anyone trying to walk through the corridor was prevented from doing so because no one wanted to risk someone else line-jumping them.  I did not work for Southwest, but apparently I should have.  I noticed the inconvenience this was causing, walked up to the people in line and kindly directed them to adjust themselves so the line was perpendicular to the corridor as opposed to dissecting it. Problem solved.

Today was a replay of my pro-bono Southwest customer service.  The conference which I am attending here in Kenya has a local tour operator with which it has contracted to offer tours of surrounding attractions to attendees.  The customer service which is being offered by this tour company leaves a lot to be desired.  I was the first in line today to speak the tour manager, Paula, told her which tour I wanted to take and was told, “Well, I right now the tour can’t happen because there needs to be a minimum of five people.” I had to explain to her that if she started a list of interested parties perhaps the five person minimum could be reached.  But, if she didn’t start a list none of the tours would occur. Despite her disgust at my suggestion she finally succumbed to my pressure and began a list.

Since I really wanted to take a tour, each time I met someone throughout the day I told them about the tour options.  “It’s your first time in Africa, you should take advantage of this opportunity, and you will get to feed the elephants at the elephant orphanage!” Later in the afternoon I stopped by to see Paula.  Amazingly the list idea worked.  Four out of five of her tours were fully booked.

As I was sitting there waiting to speak to Paula who was on the phone I began talking to other conference attendees and tried to get them to come on another tour, this time over the weekend camping in the Masai Mara National Park. (Paula was booking one-day excursions for tomorrow and then weekend trips after the conference concludes Friday.)  Since Paula was stationed next to the conference registration desk when attendees would arrive the staff would point them in our direction if they were interested in a tour.  I suppose I looked somewhat official explaining the tour details because new people would surface, ignore Paula entirely and ask me if they could book a tour.  By the time Paula had gotten off the phone I had made five new friends, briefed them all about the details of the weekend camping trip, filled out the paperwork with all their details and collected their money. 

I was careful to tell everyone that I was technically not in charge, even though my demeanor and actions suggested otherwise, thus if they didn’t like the tours they shouldn’t blame me.  Several people asked how I had fallen into the role of pseudo-tour director.  They are now all familiar with the concept of TIA.  Now, for anyone who might be interested please feel free to take this million dollar idea, as I will not be pursuing it myself.

Happy to be on the Ground in Kenya

I made it to Kenya in one piece… barely.  Here is a picture of me getting ready for my trip last night:

As you can see, I was happy, smiling and overall just projecting an expression of excitement as I was looking forward to my trip.  Here is a picture of me when I arrived in Kenya this morning:

I’m not sure if that picture needs a caption, as I think my expression and purple hue says it all.

Needless to say it was a rough trip.  I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the idea of a 1am flight in the first place, but since that was my only option I took it.  The nice thing was that when I arrived at the Botswana airport I realized one of my neighbors was on the same flight.  We sat and talked until the flight boarded, so it was nice to have someone to visit with and since he’s from Ethiopia he gave me a lot of suggestions about where I can visit there.

After boarding the plane I looked in the seat pocket in front of me and saw this on the air sickness bags:

I thought it was a nice attempt to be funny.  Little did I know that those bags would be used so frequently on that flight by those around me.  The turbulence was terrible for the majority of the flight.  I don’t generally have problems flying but my stomach was pretty uneasy.  Since I couldn’t sleep and I felt like I was on a never-ending roller coaster ride, I was thankful that Kenya Airways had individual tvs at each seat.  That was a very pleasant surprise.  I ended up watching Gatsby (the new one with Leonardo DiCaprio) until I finally fell asleep.  In the end I think I only got about an hour of sleep on the plane, but fortunately, when I arrived at my hotel around 8am I was able to check in right away. 

I have to say, that is one thing I really appreciate here in Africa.  In the US it is practically impossible to check in to a hotel before the posted time, even if they have a room open. If check-in is at 3pm you are lucky if you can get a room by 1 or 2.  But here, if there is a room available you can have it, no matter how early you arrive.

Go siame Botswana, Jambo Kenya (Goodbye Botswana, Hello Kenya)

In a few short hours I will be leaving to catch my 1am flight to Kenya.  If it had been up to me I would not be taking a night flight.  Actually, I originally booked a flight for noon, but Kenya Airways decided to cancel all noon direct flights from Gaborone to Nairobi “until further notice.” Thus, this is my only option.

I am going to Kenya for another conference.  This one is about Tourism Development and Ecotourism which is right in line with what I am teaching here in Botswana.  And I already know of at least one friend who will be attending, so it will be nice to see a friendly face from back home.

Kenya has been in the news quite a bit recently.  First there was a fire at the Nairobi airport about a month ago.  More recently there has been a lot of attention on the illegal poaching of elephants for their ivory in Tsavo East national park. Oh! And the Maasai warriors have formed their own cricket team.  In case you were curious, yes, they wear their traditional attire when they compete.  Apparently the team has been quite successful because they have an ingrained skill set which makes them well-suited to cricket.  As one team member told a CNN correspondent in a recent interview, “It is just like throwing a spear.”

For those of you who may be geographically challenged, Kenya is in east Africa, bordering Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania.  In this map Kenya is green:

I was telling one of my colleagues about my upcoming trip to Kenya.  He is Kenyan and has been a professor here for several years.  But I figured I would ask him for pointers.  He told me, “Everyone will ask you about Obama.  They are very proud to have a Kenyan as President of the United States.  Maybe I can be the next U.S. president!” This could be interesting.

Less talk and more pictures from the UNWTO

I realize my blog posting from yesterday was longer than usual and didn’t even contain any pictures.  So I will take this opportunity to show you a few pictures from the UNWTO conference.

In my previous post about the Opening Ceremony I mentioned that President Mugabe of Zimbabwe was staying at my hotel.  And one of the comments I made was that each time he entered or exited the hotel the staff “rolled out the red carpet.”  Well, in case you thought I was exaggerating, here is his red carpet waiting for him to exit the hotel again:

In the same post I stated that his car was parked right out front and babysat, while the rest of us had to go through security.  As you can see here is his car with the Zimbabwean flag on the front, along with the security person responsible for the car in the white shirt on the right side, and if you look at the top of the stairs there was the metal detector and security personnel checking all guests entering the property:

Since it wasn’t clear in the previous picture, here you can see the license plate on President Mugabe’s car reads “Zim 1,” kind of like Air Force One, but a vehicle:

In yesterday’s post I mentioned the brand new BMW motorcycles for the police as seen here:

 And then you have to look closely inside the police car, but you can sort of see through the open window the plastic coverings still on the seats:

Here is a shot of the actual building where all the general session meetings were held.  It was easier to take this picture when no one was in the building because when it was full of several hundred people it was just incredibly hectic and difficult to get a good shot:

Finally, here are the dignitaries who attended and spoke during the Closing Ceremony.  The Minister of Tourism and the Arts from Zambia, Secretary General of the UNWTO Taleb Rafai, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, President Sata of Zambia and Vice President Guy Scott.  By the way, Vice President Scott  is white.  As he said in his speech, “You are probably surprised to see I’m white. In fact, I am the only white vice president to serve under a black president with the exception of Vice President Biden and President Obama.”  In this photo President Sata was giving his address:

 

Reflecting on the 20th UNWTO General Assembly

Today was the final day of the 20^th UNWTO General Assembly.  After six days of meetings, resolutions, voting and social events the delegates seemed quite pleased with themselves regarding their accomplishments.  Throughout the week frequent reference was made to the UNWTO’s priorities: air connectivity, travel facilitation and youth tourism.  Boiled down this means that member states have agreed to make airline services and airports more widely available in order to allow tourists easier transport into and around their countries.  There is also a big push to capitalize on the youth market.  According to UNWTO statistics, youth travelers comprise 300 million of the worldwide 1 billion international tourists annually.

“Travel facilitation” was the phrase used in reference to visas.  This discussion seemed the most unrealistic to accomplish as so many visa regulations are based on reciprocity, meaning it becomes a “we won’t let you play with our toys unless we can play with yours” argument.  For instance, only 14 African countries allow Chinese citizens to enter their borders without a visa.  Those 14 countries are actually quite generous. The remaining countries in Africa require Chinese citizens to have visas to enter simply because China requires visas from nationals of ALL African nations.  In order for the UNWTO to truly accomplish their goal of easier travel facilitation someone, or more accurately, some country, will need to blink and open it’s borders first.  Perhaps when that happens things will become a bit easier.

Speaking of cross-border travel, this week was a first for Zambia and Zimbabwe.  Since both countries were hosting the UNWTO conference they suspended visa regulations this week for conference attendees only.  Typically the border between the two countries is closed, thus anyone entering either country must carry a passport and possess a valid visa.  That may actually change soon.  The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) is an organization sponsored by the World Bank and incorporating Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  In addition to the environmental and wildlife initiatives, KAZA is attempting to make travel between the five countries easier.  In an effort to do so the Victoria Falls border is scheduled to be “opened” in January 2014 to encourage travel to national parks in both countries.  If that pilot test is successful KAZA anticipates within the next year one visa will be issued and encompass all five countries.

Overall the UNWTO conference as an event was quite successful, by African standards.  I say that because as a person who lives here my standards are a little different from those of outsiders.  I don’t believe I attended a single session or event which actually began, or ran, on time; but that’s normal here.

The same can be said for some of the organization.  Exiting the closing ceremony I had to leave the hotel in Zambia where it was being held and get transportation back to my hotel in Zimbabwe.  I was instructed to take a shuttle to a neighboring hotel where a bus was allegedly waiting.  After arriving at the second hotel the staff put me back on the shuttle and sent me to the entrance gate of the property where I was told I could catch a ride.  When I arrived at the gate there was a group of about 8 press correspondents who had been walked to four different buses and still couldn’t get anyone to help them. I joined them as we were taken to yet another bus.  The bus driver refused to take us anywhere.  As we walked back to the main gate all 8 press correspondents (none of which were from Africa) voiced their frustration and exasperation at the lack of organization.  When one of them asked what I thought all I could respond was, “TIA. This is Africa.”

Despite these challenges, I would have to say Zambia and Zimbabwe certainly made a valiant effort.  Back in April Zimbabwe was facing serious financial trouble and there were talks that it was soliciting other African countries for a bailout.  I asked several representatives from neighboring countries whether any of them had provided the money Zimbabwe needed and they all said, “No.” But you know who did? Who else? China. China gave Zimbabwe a $150 million loan.

And I can tell you exactly where that $150 million went. When I arrived at the Zimbabwe airport last week there was a full sized bus specifically for UNWTO delegates to transport us to our hotels.  It looked brand new.  I mention full sized and brand new because the few buses you see in southern Africa are often old, without air conditioning, smaller than what we are accustomed to in the West and generally filthy.  As I entered the bus I noticed indeed it was brand new, as evidenced by the fact the plastic seat coverings from the factory had not yet been removed. A few days later I saw a police convoy.  The motorcycle officers were on BMW motorcycles, while again, I saw 6 police cars, all with the plastic seat coverings still intact.  If Zimbabwe has nothing else to show from the conference, they now have a fleet of vehicles other African countries will no doubt be jealous of.

Despite Zimbabwe’s recent money troubles, accusations of human rights violations and alleged election rigging, I think they did the best job they could with the resources they had.  The one aspect I think they did excel at was human resources.  Both countries brought in hundreds of temporary workers for the two weeks surrounding the conference.  All these temporary workers were Zambian and Zimbabwean citizens who came to Livingstone City and Victoria Falls, respectively, and were responsible for assisting the conference attendees.  Some were elementary school teachers from Harare who were earning a little extra money before starting the new school year next Tuesday.  A few were business owners who took time off to “see all the excitement” and one I spoke to was a mother.  I just hope once the last UNWTO delegate leaves they use those shiny new buses to take them all home.

A quick shower and a free drink

Right now I am in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe for the UNWTO General Assembly.  While I do have a pretty packed schedule of meetings, all work and no fun makes for a dull time.  Fortunately, the conference program includes several side trips and extracurricular activities for attendees when meetings are not in session.

On Sunday afternoon before the Opening Ceremony I went to Victoria Falls along with a number of other UNWTO delegates.  It is currently winter, which means it is dry season here in Southern Africa.  As a result Victoria Falls is quite low.  There is still plenty of water flowing over the Falls, but to put in perspective the difference in seasons, during the rainy season about 500 million liters of water fall each minute.  In the dry season the water level drops to 10 million liters per minute.  As an amateur Vic Falls tourist this means absolutely nothing to me, but since I can do math a 50-fold increase between seasons sounds like a lot.  I was very impressed.  I even got a little wet from the spray off the Falls.  But, I may have to schedule another trip back here in high season to see the difference for myself.  Here are a couple of pictures for your viewing enjoyment:

 

Yesterday I had some free time before our meetings began in the afternoon, so I booked a tour with one of the many tour companies here in town.  It was a game drive through Zambezi National Park followed by a canoe trip down the Zambezi River.  The Zambezi River is the fourth-longest river in Africa behind the Nile, Congo and Niger Rivers.  It flows from eastern Angola into Namibia, through Botswana, along the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, flows over Victoria Falls, then into Mozambique and finally empties into the Indian Ocean.  Here is the Zambezi River with Zimbabwe on the left bank and Zambia on the right bank:

As for the game drive through Zambezi National Park it was great.  I finally saw an elephant, lots of them actually, so I now feel like I’m in Africa.  There were also plenty of giraffes, warthogs, water buffalo, kudu, hyenas and vultures.  The vultures and hyenas were actually feeding on the carcass of a dead buffalo and they made a quick meal of him.  According to our guides the buffalo was killed by a lion and the hyenas and vultures were just finishing him off.  Sadly though we did not see any lions.  Maybe next time.

After the game drive and canoe trip we were departing the park and right as we reached the gate we saw an elephant was blocking the entrance.  We sat there waiting for him to move, which he didn’t for nearly 10 minutes.  The reason he was so hesitant to surrender his real estate was because the park rangers were watering the lawn directly out front.  One of them abandoned the hose and walked away, during which time an elephant wandered up and took advantage of a free drink:

UNWTO Opening Ceremony

Last night was the Opening Ceremony for the UNWTO General Assembly.  To sum up my experience in just a few words: “fun, chaos, long speeches, hungry attendees.”

Since the UNWTO is being co-hosted by Zimbabwe and Zambia that means there is twice the protocol, twice as many VIPs,  and twice the opportunity for confusion to occur.  As many of those of you reading this blog know, I formerly worked in the events industry and I often teach courses in event management to my students back in Texas.  Last night’s event highlighted practically everything I tell my students about in that class.

The Opening Ceremony was held at the historic Victoria Falls Hotel which is about 5 miles from where I’m staying.  Buses were transporting attendees from the official delegate hotels, including mine.  However, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe has been staying here at the Elephant Hills Hotel, which makes things infinitely more challenging.  We have to go through metal detectors and have belongings x-rayed each time we enter the hotel.  His car is parked right out front with a team of security surrounding it at all times, along with about 100 police scattered around the property, and each time he arrives and departs they roll out the red carpet.  Literately!  There is a red carpet which he walks on from the entrance of the hotel out to his car.

Due to the President being here all the buses from my hotel were forced to wait until he left, thus we all arrived a bit late for the event.  Not that it mattered, because there were about 5,000 people at the Opening Ceremony which meant arrivals took a considerable amount of time.  However, since we arrived later than most empty seats were difficult to locate.  Fortunately I was with a friend who convinced a server to bring us two chairs and then we found some other people we knew and joined their table.

But, before we could eat we had to witness the official arrivals and welcomes.  First the Zimbabwean VP arrived, then the Zambia VP, then the UNWTO Secretary General, then President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, then President Sata of Zambia, and finally the other Heads of State.  Once they were all present and introduced we listed to the Zambian national anthem, and then the Zimbabwe national anthem.  See how this was a little long?  At this point no one had even made a speech yet.

To expedite this description I will just list in order what happened next: prayer for dinner, safe travels and a productive conference; welcome remarks by Zimbabwean Minister of Tourism and Hospitality; remarks from the Zambian Minister of Tourism and Arts; remarks from the UNWTO Secretary General; address from President Sata; address from President Mugabe; lighting of the Victoria Falls Bridge and fireworks; address from VP of Zimbabwe.  Then we were told we could eat.  According to our program dinner was supposed to begin at 8:00pm.  Dinner was finally served at 9:42pm.  Better late than never?  I guess.

Overall, I would say it was very interesting.  Some of the comments made by the politicians were quite comical.  For instance, President Mugabe referred to President Sata as his “Siamese president.”  I suppose that is because the two of them have relatively good relations now and are “joined at the hip,” at least for the conference.

The Opening Ceremony took place outside, thus my pictures aren’t particularly good since it was nighttime.  But here are a few I thought you might enjoy.  Here is the caravan of vehicles which comprised President Mugabe’s motorcade:

This is the backside of the Victoria Falls Hotel with the Presidents and other Heads of State arriving through the arch and lots of tables in the forefront of hungry delegates:

Apparently most conferences here in Africa involve a ribbon cutting.  Instead of doing this, the Victoria Falls Bridge was illuminating in the distance and fireworks were set off to announce the official opening of the conference:

 

The animals are WILD. They might EAT YOU.

Today was the first day of meetings here at the UNWTO General Assembly.  The first event of the day was a lunch hosted by the Zambian Minister of Tourism and the Arts.  Naturally, this meant the lunch was held in Zambia, at the Zambezi Sun Hotel just over the border.  When we arrived we were greeted by a traffic jam caused by about two dozen zebras which had wandered into the parking lot of the hotel and weren’t particularly interested in moving.  Animals always have the right of way here no matter how inconvenient they may be, so we just waited until they moved off to the side of the parking lot where there was lunch waiting for them- grass:

 As you can see, they also aren’t particularly phased by humans:

 I wouldn’t go so far as to try to pet the zebras, but I figured standing a couple feet away and snapping a picture wasn’t a big deal.  However, at the lunch the very first thing the introductory speaker told the group was, “Please, do NOT get out of your vehicles to take pictures of animals.  They are wild.  They will chase you and may hurt you or try to eat you. It is better to remain in your vehicle and take the picture through the window.  It would be very bad if anything happened to someone here at this conference, so please stay away from the animals.”

Just for the record, this announcement was not a result of my zebra paparazzi tendencies.  Rumor has it some snappy happy delegates from a country that LOVES to take pictures of EVERYTHING (yeah, that country that just popped into your mind, you are correct) had a close encounter with an elephant yesterday.  So, to cover their bases they decided to give all of us a talking to.

As for the Minister’s lunch, it was great.  I met the Ministers of Tourism from Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya and Colombia, as well as the Ambassador to the UN from South Africa and a number of other supporting staff members from these countries. 

After lunch the Commission for Africa had it’s meeting which I attended.  Most of it was rather general, relating to committee membership and priorities the countries want to focus on over the next few days.

Following that meeting I had the brilliant idea to walk back to my hotel.  Not my best decision ever. Keep in mind, I was in Zambia for the lunch and meeting.  I am staying in Zimbabwe.  There is a giant bridge in between the two countries.  But the gym at my hotel is closed for renovations, so I thought I would see some sights, take a few pictures and get in my exercise for the day.

As a side note, I normally don’t wear a pedometer.  But, I have one and for some reason I decided to pack it when I moved to Africa.  Since I don’t have a vehicle here I’ve been wearing it daily to record how far school is from home, or the distance to the mall.  Well, I wore it today and when I checked my distance it turns out I walked 9 miles through the African heat.  Fortunately I came prepared with a hat, sunscreen and sunglasses.  But what did I forget? Water! Oh well, lesson learned. 

I’m going to Victoria Falls!

Tomorrow at 6am I board a flight to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.  While this technically is not a pleasure trip, I definitely plan to enjoy myself when I’m not working.  I am going to Victoria Falls for the United Nations World Tourism Organization General Assembly.  The General Assembly is the annual meeting where all the Ministers of Tourism from the member countries come to discuss tourism policy.

In honor of my upcoming trip I recently read “Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone” and “The Life & African Explorations of David Livingstone.” For those of you who may not be familiar with Dr. Livingstone, he was the inspiration behind the name of my blog, Dr. Phelan, I Presume?  If you haven’t read the details behind my blog title you can read about it in this post.

I’ve also been busy reading the several hundred pages of documents related to policy discussions which will take place during the UNWTO.  When I heard the UNWTO was being held in the countries right next door I contacted the UN and asked if I could attend.  Fortunately I did this way back in March because it took them several weeks of deliberation to determine whether or not I could participate.  I was eventually told, “This is an unusual request.  We have never had a professor ask to attend the UNWTO.  But given your appeal we would be happy to invite you to attend as a special guest.  Please find your invitation and credentials enclosed.”

Check this out- I am a Special Guest:

I always love attending conferences because I inevitably learn things and meet people I would never have expected.  Hopefully this one will as interesting and as much fun as I expect.

Meetings, Conferences and Research in Sub-Saharan Africa

For the last three days the Faculty of Business here at the University of Botswana has been hosting a research conference.  To say the least, this was a very interesting learning experience.  At first glance, by looking at the program, I expected the conference to be very similar to other international conferences I’ve attended.  But this was quite different from any other I’ve attended in the U.S. or abroad. First of all, here in Africa time is no object.  Meetings typically don’t start on time, and despite this being a conference with a schedule, time still did not provide any barrier.  I foolishly showed up promptly at 8:45am this morning for the first session which was scheduled to begin… at 8:45am.  I was the ONLY person in the entire building!  Fortunately, I brought a book which I proceeded to read until others wandered in close to 10am.

The research was also quite different.  All the attendees were from southern Africa; primarily South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and a few other surrounding countries.  Since all the attendees were from Sub-Saharan Africa their research naturally examined hospitality and tourism issues in these countries.  So, from that standpoint I learned a lot about the industry in this region.

However, the research was not what I expected at all.  Most of the research did not actually involve data collection.  Instead, it was more of a compilation of literature review, and findings from other authors, not the people who were actually presenting.  Some of the presenters did interviews or collected surveys, but were not particularly scientific in how they analyzed their data.  I was very surprised because we put such a high priority on statistical significance, large sample sizes and being able to demonstrate the value of our findings.  If a researcher in the U.S. wanted to publish a paper using qualitative data (i.e. interviews) there would have to be some serious explanation as to why the method was appropriate, that the measurement was valid and reliable, and that some real, tangible results were generated.  Here that is not the case.

The other thing I found interesting was that every paper included multiple authors.  And when I say multiple, I mean a lot. As in six or seven people!  That is practically unheard of in the U.S. unless it is a $5 million grant funded by NSF trying to find a cure for cancer, necessitating half a dozen scientists to run lab experiments.  Generally, any publication in a U.S. or U.K. journal with more than three or four authors is considered highly irregular and frowned upon unless it is truly groundbreaking.

While I have some mixed feelings about the conference, as a whole I’m happy I attended.  I definitely learned a lot about hospitality and tourism in Botswana and the surrounding countries. I’m also thankful I had this experience at the very beginning of my stay here so that I have a slightly better idea of what to expect in terms of research productivity and collaboration while I’m here.

My favorite reason for attending conferences, aside from the social aspect of course, is that they always give me new ideas about what I want to work on next and gets me excited about my new projects.  I will say this conference has given me a lot to think about and I am definitely looking forward to starting some new assignments right away.