Alice Manupa, young Tanzanian female running a tour company

The tourism business in Tanzania is male-dominated like so many other fields, but for the last ten years, this young Tanzanian lady has braved all the challenges that would make anyone throw in the towel and count their losses, but she persevered.

Alice is the founder/CEO and also serves as the marketing director for her company, African Queens Adventure. She is one of the Tanzanian tour operators who accompanied President Samia on her unprecedented tourism marketing initiative in the United States. She subsequently hosted more than a hundred African Americans who came for a Safari tour in Tanzania, a direct result of the Royal Tour documentary that drove a trove of Americans to our land.

“African American tourists are a new market for me. Hundreds of them came, and our minister [the minister for Tourism] went to the airport to welcome them. They were very surprised and humbled that a government official of that stature would come to just welcome them. They felt very special and honoured,” said Alice.

The tales of Tanzania’s hospitality did spread across the US, and now almost every week she receives a bunch of African-American tourists. There has been a rise in African Americans travelling to Africa, and they are known to be very good spenders regardless of the cost. They always insist on shopping in Tanzanian-owned small shops so that they can support the local community. Unlike other tourists, black Americans insist on starting their tourism journey in Dar es Salaam and visiting to learn the history of black people because African history is also their history.

Alice started African Queen Adventures in 2013, after quitting the tour company she was working with. “I realised I could do it on my own,” she said. Her first clientele was Chinese tourists. When everyone was looking at the European and American markets, Alice went to China and wooed the Chinese with her marketing expertise. “My trip to China was very successful, and subsequently I expanded to Europe,” she said. Now her biggest clients are Israelites. She received a plane full of tourists from Israel periodically. “I get more than three planes full of tourists from Israel; I just received one in August with more than three hundred tourists,” she added. She also had many tourists coming from Russia before the war in Ukraine. During the covid epidemic, most of her clients came to Russia, which provided her with a lifeline during the lockdown.

Alice named her company African Queen to stand out from all the tour companies that have used animal names in their companies. Her logo has the lioness and cubs to symbolise her fierceness and daring to lead as a woman. “Many women fear getting into this business because they believe it is a men-only business or that to have a tour company you have to be white, so I came forward to break that stereotype,” she insisted. Alice started her business when she was a very young lady, and now she is in the top three of Tanzania’s women-led companies. She attributes her success to sheer confidence in charting her way to new markets and making her potential clients believe that she can provide the service she markets. More important is honesty, she says.

“This business is run on honesty; you have to deliver what you promise diligently,” she added. She implores the importance of honesty as the backbone of growth in one’s business. “Sometimes you would get millions in advance from coming tourists, and some people get tempted to run away with the money, but I have prospered in this business for the years because of my honesty,” Alice insisted.

In this competitive business where every country across the continent fights to attract tourists to their country, Alice wishes the Tanzanian government would do more to support the local tour businesses, mainly run by women and youths. “There are tourism expos held across the world; I wish the government would at least cover the attending costs for the Tanzanian tour operators to participate; without travelling to markets across the world, a tour company can never grow,” Alice mentioned.

It would be tough for any young Tanzanian to start a Safari company if the government doesn’t play a hand in their startup. Bank loans in Tanzania require assets that many young people do not have, and on top of that, the interest rates for these loans are an unbearable burden to any starting business.

Alice felt the pain of paying the bank loans that she used to buy her first two safari trucks. The loan was due, and Covid-19 pandemic had just hit. The repayment of the loans was nearly impossible.

But her perseverance in this business has been remarkable; she has organised several local tourism initiatives. She took nine hundred Tanzanian women to visit Ngorongoro on World Women’s Day. “I did put the price as low as possible so that Tanzanian women can visit our national parks; I didn’t do it to make money,” she said.

Her company has now grown to have more than sixteen employees, whom she supports in every way beyond just paying their salaries. She has helped several of her female friends start their own tour companies and shared with them the marketing techniques she uses to get clients. “More than ten of my friends have started their own tourism companies, and they are all very successful. “There is enough room for everyone to get in this business,” she confirmed.

Alice Munupa is a married woman with two children. Her husband has been the backbone of the business. He motivated her to start the company, and after it was successful, they both joined hands in running it. She attributes her success to her husband being supportive of her work and being confident enough to cheer her on as she strides to higher heights and achievements.