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Maasai Village Gets New School From Sustainable Excursions
Thursday, 11 Apr, 2010
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A new payment system for tourist cultural excursions in the Masai Mara, Kenya has enabled one village to put thousands of pounds from visitor tours in 2009 back into their community. Funds have been used to build a new nursery school and support families in need.
The new cashless ticketing system for tours to Mara Riante village was set up by Tribal Voice Communications and Maasai elders in January 2009 and enables the villagers to retain 100% of the fee paid by tourists to visit their community, increasing earnings by over 4000%. Previously, Kenya’s driver guides took 96% of the fees, leaving the community with very little.
The new system operates between the village and its closest safari lodges, Governors Camp and Karen Blixen Camp.
Since the new ticketing system for tours was put in place, the village has earned enough to build a nursery school, complete with a toilet and rainwater harvesting system to provide drinking water for the children. The funds will pay for a teacher’s salary when the school opens for the new term in May. Earnings have also been used to support households through a devastating drought in the area, which led to the loss of hundreds of cattle. The need to move cattle away from the village for better pasture meant the loss of one of the village’s staple food sources, milk, and income from the new ticketing system was used to buy essential food.
Philip Muli, Mara Riante’s Financial and Marketing Manager said “In the past villages were losing were losing up to 96% of their revenue. It was not a fair system. But since the beginning of the new system, which now gives our village a 100% of the revenue, we have built a nursery school, a toilet and we are even employing our own people. That is in one year – unbelievable! We hope to expand our projects, supporting education programmes, water projects, health care system and much more."
Similar sustainable ticketing schemes operate for many other villages across the Masai Mara, thanks to an initiative run by Tribal Voice Communications and part-funded by the Travel Foundation.
The Travel Foundation’s Industry Programmes Manager, Julie Middleton said “We’re delighted that this new ticketing concept which we’ve supported for a number of years continues to flourish. It’s only fair that Maasai people whose communities we visit as tourists get a fair share of the entrance fee to their village. So it’s vital that tour operators taking customers to villages in the Masai Mara adopt these new ticketing schemes for excursions. It’s such a simple idea that can be very easily incorporated by tour operators and lodges into their own working practices. And it can create a significant impact for individuals and villages right across the Mara.”
Dominic Grammaticus from Governors Camp who supports the initiative at Mara Riante village said “Governors Camp is delighted that this ticketing system is working so well. We have always worked closely with our community neighbours and will continue to support projects and initiatives that are important to them as far as we can. Governors Camp encourages those Camps and Lodges not using the system to do so as our experience is that it works, and gets the funds where they are supposed to go in an accountable and transparent way. Well done to everyone who has put work into this particular project”.
Official cultural tour tickets can be purchased through the Kenya Association of Tour Operators (KATO), or lodges that support the scheme. For more information go to TRIBAL VOICE
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