Ethiopia: The Rare Ethiopian Destinations to See in a Lifetime

By Eden Sahle

Ethiopia has proved itself as a place for seasoned travellers. The country features beaches, stunning green valleys, as well as Fire Lake filled ravines. A peaceful tranquillity flows in Ethiopia, a country known for its historical sanctuaries, temples, palaces and stunning natural creations. Step into this paradise a natural extravaganza where you witness the country's rare and breath-taking destinations and lavish amenities in some of the world class accommodations in the most elegant hotels in the country. Do not miss out on Ethiopia's extreme locations as it takes adventure to the next level.

Erta Ale one of the five global extreme wonders with active bubbling volcano lies at the North-eastern part of Ethiopia famously known as Afar State. It existed since the beginning of the 20th century. The stunner fire sea floor bubbles 2,011-feet revealing a fire shore. The fire mountain is known as "the gateway to hell" due to the active fire floor. It's the most amazing natural feature in the land of East African Rift Valley. Although there is active volcano bubbling to the top it is perfectly safe to visit and even take a closer look to the fire lake. The golden sparkling molten rock has an awe-inspiring view especially during the nights. The flow of lava from deep in the ground creating a river of liquid fire is truly an unrivalled view.

Erta Ale presents one of the hottest average temperature on earth topping 34 centigrade each day and climbing to 55 and above centigrade. It's good to avoid visit from May to August as the place heat might be overwhelming Travel Destination experts say. On the other months it's advisable to visit when the sun is down in order to avoid overheating. However, the three hour walk from the nearby village to the top of the volcano is not challenging and allows a close-up view of the magnificent landscape.

The best part of visiting this place does not end there; Afar people are hospitable and traditional. It is their culture to carry rifles and protect their guest who is considered as family from any danger. They are respectful and quite accustomed to hosting visitors treating you as very important person despite your background or where you come from. Everything about the place and the people way of life is so exclusive that it will inspire any seasoned traveller.

Stay in this region for one more daring adventure at Dallol for a fascinating colourful adventure. It lies over 400 feet below sea level receiving less than 200 millilitres of rainfall annually. The place is one of the hottest place on earth featuring from earthquakes, volcano fountains to colourful salt hills. Dallol crater is one of the lowest known volcanic vents in the world at 45 meter below sea level. The hot springs in Dallol depict bright colours, a palette of ferrous chloride and iron hydroxide emissions forming deep colours.

From the sun above, and bubbling sulphur from the ground below, Dallol the scorching colourful hot town in the Afar Depression holds the record for having the highest average annual temperature ever recorded at 96˚F heating all year around. Dallol is another gorgeous place that has led many by surprise taking visitors to extreme adventure admiring the stunning green, white and brown salt lake. You can safely visit the hottest paths interacting with locals taking a camel back rides. Visit has to be accompanied by armed guards who are accustomed with the place. There are no places to lodge or dine at the desert hence it is important to pack bottled water and foods that will last for four days along with sunscreen and hats.

Source: Ethiopia: The Rare Ethiopian Destinations to See in a Lifetime

Firefighter dies in South Africa's coastal blazes

JOHANNESBURG –  A firefighter in South Africa has died after suffering severe burns in fires that swept through part of the Garden Route, a tourist destination on the southern coast.

Firstcare Wildfire Support, a non-profit group, says the volunteer firefighter died in a hospital early Friday.

A total of 10 deaths have been linked to a storm that hit Cape Town and the surrounding coastline on Wednesday, causing floods and high winds that fanned deadly blazes.

The fires in the town of Knysna and nearby areas destroyed hundreds of homes and forced the evacuation of thousands of people. Authorities say most of the fires were contained by Thursday night.

Source: Firefighter dies in South Africa's coastal blazes

Soft drink cold chain delivers vaccines to Africa’s most remote corners

A bright idea turned into reality: vaccines are getting to where they are needed, even in the most remote places in several African countries, thanks to specialised refrigeration support from Coca-Cola.

The expansion of  Project Last Mile project to deliver life-saving medicines to the hardest-to-reach communities was announced today (8 June) at the European Development Days. The project is a public-private partnership that makes use of Coca-Cola's supply chain management and expertise to support African governments in reaching the "last mile" to deliver vaccines.

Project Last Mile works in partnership with The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Making vaccines available to a given African country is not the end of the story. Even when they are available, vaccines are often confronted with "thermostability" issues, meaning they should be transported in the cold chain. Pharmaceutical companies make sure that the vaccines they produce can survive a few days outside of it.

"Because ministries of health struggle to distribute drugs, we are working with them to train their technicians on not only to get drugs to where they need to be but getting them in the state they need to be, helping them with refrigeration, Susan Mboya, president of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, told EURACTIV.com.

A company like Coca-Cola has the capacity to penetrate African countries down to the most remote areas, providing cool drinks to its clients. Governments could only dream of a cool chain to deliver vaccines of the kind the soft drink company has.

"We don't put vaccines in the same fridge, but it's a good symbiosis," says Mboya, who is a philanthropist and the daughter of one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Kenya, Tom Mboya.

She said that in Tanzania, Coca-Cola has lent technicians to the country's health ministry, to train it to procure refrigerators, how to maintain them, and how to distribute them to the hospitals that need them, when they are needed.

EURACTIV asked Adrian Ristow, director of Project Last Mile, who had the idea of the symbiosis between the Coca-Cola cool chain and the safe delivery of vaccines.

"I think it was generated in discussions with the Gates foundation," said Ristow, who recalled that in the early days of the project, Melinda Gates gave a TEDx talk, in which she exclaimed, "how can you find a Coke, but not medicines at the same destination". This led to follow-up meetings in the US, between the Coca-Cola company, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Fund, to explore whether there was some opportunity to learn from the experience of the soft drink company in Africa, to address typical challenges in medical supply chains.

"Coca-Cola maintains a huge asset base of refrigerators across Africa, this is hugely important for this business. So we started analysing the effectiveness of these refrigerators working all the time, and we compared that to the effectiveness of refrigerators working with vaccines, and the required temperature range which I believe if from 2 to 8 degrees," he said.

What was found is that the performance of Coca-Cola system was a lot higher than of those maintaining vaccines refrigerators, with far fewer breakdowns.

"Coca-Cola had a much more structured process providing preventive maintenance, and being able to identify whenever there was a problem with a refrigerator, how quickly it could be fixed. The minute there is a problem there is a technician who has the necessary spare parts and goes to fix it. This leads to the Coca-Cola refrigerators working virtually all the time," he explained.

For sharing those practices, a pilot project was first launched in Tanzania, then Ghana. The principle is that the government learns from the experience of the private company in the maintenance of coolers, or procurement and repairing procedure practices.

More recently, Project Last Mile has been working in Nigeria, a country that has had huge problems keeping its refrigerators for vaccines running.

"As you can imagine, a country as large as Nigeria requires a huge amount of competent people around the country," he said, explaining that the Project Last Mile provides training, helping local experts identify and solve the problems.

Ristow said Project Last Mile was also learning from each country it works in, and sharing its knowledge.

"Conditions in Nigeria are very different to Tanzania for example, (where it) might be the road infrastructure, (or) might be the climate. We refine the processes and share those best practices with whatever government agency responsible for vaccines works with us," he said.

Asked if work with USAID was negatively affected by the Trump Administration, he said that as the memorandum for cooperation was signed in 2014 for 5 years, and runs to the end of 2019, that the commitment remained in place.

The total amount invested in  Project Last Mile by partner organisations is $21 million. The countries covered by so far are Tanzania, Ghana, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Liberia and Nigeria.

Source: Soft drink cold chain delivers vaccines to Africa's most remote corners

Air Arabia sees Armenia becoming a popular GCC holiday destination

Air Arabia's flights to Armenia are fast filling up as the destination has become popular for GCC families, especially Indian citizens living in the Gulf, thanks to the latest visa-on-arrival policy that the country implemented earlier this year.

Armenia appeals to a wide spectrum of holiday-goers, from thrill seeking adventurers to those looking for more family-orientated trips, Yerevan is an exciting destination for many groups. Situated at the centre of the natural beauty that is the Caucasus Mountain Region, Armenia's natural surroundings make it a highly attractive option for the likes of backpackers and the more adventurous traveller. Air Arabia commenced operations to Armenia in 2013 and, today, flies to Yerevan four times a week from Sharjah. Flight times are approximately three-hours, with the route being served by an Airbus A320. In addition to flights, the carrier's tour operating division, Air Arabia Holidays, also offers holiday packages at affordable rates , while maintaining a level of flexibility that allows passengers to tailor their trip to their unique requirements. A country steeped in history, Armenia features landscapes that are punctuated with breath-taking mountains, forests, lakes and waterfalls. With historic sights and ancient architecture also among its many appeals – as well as having one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world – Armenia offers countless sightseeing opportunities and cultural experiences, making it a unique holiday destination for GCC residents. Air Arabia currently operates flights to 125 destinations in 35 countries from five hubs across the Middle East and North Africa.    - TradeArabia News Service 

Source: Air Arabia sees Armenia becoming a popular GCC holiday destination

Shocking!! UN Economic Commission for Africa, finds that about $1 Trillion has been stolen from Africa to western countries.

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) says an estimated 50 billion dollars leaves the shore of the continent illicitly mostly to the Western countries, every year.

Mr Adeyinka Adeyemi, a senior adviser at ECA, told our Correspondent in New York that illicit financial flow had serious negative development impacts on the continent.

Adeyemi also said that at least one trillion dollars had left the continent illicitly over the last 50 years, saying the figures were arrived at after decades of research on the issue.

Vera Songwe, new Chief of UN Economic Commission for Africa

The UN official said African countries did not need aid from developed countries if the illicit assets from the continent over the decades are repatriated.

He, therefore, challenged the destination countries to hold their in exchange for the return of these illicit assets to their countries of origin, mainly from Africa.

"The issue of illicit financial flow is very serious in terms of the negative development impacts on Africa.

"If you look at when we say 50 billion dollars leaving Africa every year illicitly, in the last 50 years we estimate that one trillion dollars left Africa illicitly.

"This is roughly equal to the total amount of so-called aid that Africa received at the same time.

"So if you do the math, hold on to your aid, we would still be okay and we would keep our money and we would our priority," he said.

Adeyemi, who was the Focal Point for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), said the issue of illicit financial flow was very important to the international community, they are talking about it.

He added that the Financing for Development meeting in Addis Ababa spoke about it but stressed that the pace of action currently was not yet where Africa wanted.

"We think that if we have the necessary action today, we can stop a huge chunk of these flows because what it thrives on is very simple – it's secrecy.

"Secrecy knowing that you will not get it; that's why it's illicit; you will not know it. They do it with the complicity of government officials and all these other stuffs.

"Our study, however, shows that only five per cent of the flows can be traceable to official corruption," he said.

Adeyemi, who is in charge of the Regional Integration and Infrastructure Cluster in the Capacity Development Division, blamed the developed countries and other international financial institutions of complicity illicit financial flows.

The UN official also rejected the idea that returning stolen wealth from destination countries to countries of origin on conditionality.

"Every time we go somewhere and speak, we hear 'you people are corrupt', 'Africa is corrupt' but this is not supported.

"About 75 per cent of these illicit flows are directly traceable to the behaviours or actions or inactions of our trans-nationals.

 

"When we look at only trade mis-invoicing, we found that this is huge and weighty.

"So if the international community wants to help Africa, let us stop this unnecessary conversation that's going nowhere on why we should link illicit financial flows with other things, with governance, with aid.

"These things are very important but this is not where the issue is. Africa is the only region in the world that has African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

"This is a governance mechanism where Presidents tell themselves 'you have been bad, go and improve yourself'.

"My point is that the World Bank and the IMF have very little to teach Africa in terms of governance in this kind of stuff because we are already doing something," he said.

APRM, founded in 2003, is a mutually agreed instrument voluntarily acceded to by the Member States of the African Union as a self-monitoring mechanism.

Ex: NAN

Source: Shocking!! UN Economic Commission for Africa, finds that about $1 Trillion has been stolen from Africa to western countries.

SA tops tourism rankings as best business events destination

South Africa remains one of the world's most popular tourist destinations and continues to top the rankings on the World Economic Forum Travel's global travel and tourism competitiveness index.

This was also confirmed at the weekend by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), which said that the country continued to excel as one of the top business events destination in Africa and the Middle East. Tourism Minister Tokozile Xasa said the country continued to give its counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa and globally a run for their money as it topped both regional rankings and the global index. South Africa still leads the pack when compared with other Brics member countries.

"We are also one of the world's top 10 long-haul destinations for hosting international meetings and conferences," Xasa said. Speaking at the annual Southern Africa Association for the Conference Industry Congress in Pretoria, Xasa said South Africa hosted about 1 million business delegates every year and that the average business traveller spent seven days in the country, with five of the days being spent attending a business event.

"Hosting more major international business conferences will help develop our intellectual capital and position us as a world-leading knowledge economy," she said. In 2016, South Africa hosted 17 more international and regional conferences than in 2015, bringing the total to 125 ICCA-recognised conferences. "These conferences generate a direct economic benefit for our country, which includes what delegates spend on hotel accommodation, food and beverages and souvenirs. "There is an indirect benefit as well. The business event delegates that we host annually return home to sell our country to others by word of mouth and many will return here on holiday and some may even consider investing in South Africa," Xasa said.

She said return visits were dependent on the country providing quality services and products to tourists. "It's clear that our position as a magnet for business events is certainly strong, but it is a position that we need to vigorously defend and improve on." Xasa said the government would like to see South Africa's smaller towns and cities bidding for smaller meetings, where it was easier to meet the hosting requirements. "Our challenge is to shift more of our national and international business events to our smaller towns so we spread the benefits geographically across all regions of our country," she said.

-KUTULLO MADISHA|kutullom@thenewage.co.za

Source: SA tops tourism rankings as best business events destination

Geneva nominated as 'Europe's Leading Destination' at WTA

Geneva has been nominated by the prestigious World Travel Awards (WTA), for the 2017 European's Leading Destination Award as well as the European's Leading City Break Destination Award - regarded as the "Tourism Oscars" in the industry.

Ideally located in the heart of Europe and known as one of Switzerland's most spectacular landscapes, Geneva is a dream of a city thanks to a unique setting on the shores of Western Europe's largest lake and with a dazzling view on the Mont-Blanc.

In 2016, Geneva experienced over 250,000 guest nights from GCC visitors, making it the most popular Swiss destination for the GCC and amongst the most popular in central Europe.

The quality of life is exceptional and the city knows how to welcome her guests with great activities, ultimate experiences as well as Switzerland's most refined tables. This makes her a charming city with a unique and most famous landmark, the Jet d'Eau that all travellers wish to discover. Consi dered as the capital of peace, as well as a city truly international in scope and humane in size, no visitor remains immune to her charm. Her assets make it the perfect nominee for the 24th edition of the World Travel Awards.

Established in 1993, the World Travel Awards honours and rewards excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry-offering one of the most prestigious and comprehensive awards program in travel and tourism, recognized worldwide as the hallmark of industry excellence. The Wall Street Journal has heralded WTA as "the Oscar of the travel industry."

The winners are determined by an online vote cast carried out by hundreds of travel professionals and consumers around the world. The winners of this award will be announced on September 30, 2017 in a ceremony held in St-Petersburg, Russia. Nominations can be voting for at www.worldtravelawards.com and voting closes on August 6, 2017. - TradeArabia News Service 

Source: Geneva nominated as 'Europe's Leading Destination' at WTA