Daniel Joachim’s raw determination to promote coffee tourism in Arusha

Today we look at an aspect of tourism that has been overlooked in Tanzania but has proven very lucrative in countries like Ethiopia: agritourism.

It is described as agricultural production and/or processing combined with tourism to attract visitors to a farm, ranch, or other agricultural business to entertain and educate the visitors while generating income for the farm, ranch, or business owner.

Daniel Joachim, a young man from Arusha, has now made a name for himself as a coffee tourism guide.

Tourists fly from across Europe, Japan, and the United States just to visit his family-owned coffee farm, where they stroll through the columns of coffee plants.

Afterward, that’s when the fun begins; they get to pick their coffee beans, grind them, and make their very own coffee.

Some adults in the West make coffee a mandatory drink in the morning for them to function throughout the day. So it was very surprising when an American lady who had drunk coffee her whole life but had never seen coffee beans, let alone the plant.

Popular morning drink

Daniel started as a ‘fly catcher’, a term that refers to the young guys who hang around the Arusha city centre, by the clock tower, and help tourists walking by with any information they would seek or directions around Arusha.

That was in 2007, and Daniel was still in secondary school, but his fate changed when he met an American from California called Leakey.

He helped Daniel master the English language fluently, which enabled him to communicate better with tourists.

He also introduced him to coffee tourism, which was already lucrative in Ethiopia.

Daniel transformed their home farm in Tengeru, Arusha, into a coffee farm with homes to attract tourists. “I take tourists to the coffee farm that is in our home, in Singisi, Tengeru,” he says.

“When you get there, just ask for Selekta; that’s my nickname that everyone knows,” he added.

Daniel got his alias during his music-making days. He would later leave music for a better and more profitable business in agritourism, a reality not many youths in Tanzania have realised.

Many young people in Arusha who studied in various tourism colleges, upon seeing the progress Daniel has made in his coffee farm tourism, decided to explore it too.

Before the explosion of social media, Daniel and his friends would place their handwritten posters at popular restaurants across Arusha, advertising their services to their contacts, and that was his humble beginning.

To his amazement, tourists started reaching out to him, and later on, he felt the need to go for further studies about agritourism.

Coffee tourism in Arusha peaked in 2013. Tourists who were in Arusha town resting after their safari tours would opt for a coffee tour as they unwind after a wild ride.

Coffee tourism is still underrated in Tanzania and is not yet considered a mainstream tourism activity. “Out of two hundred tour companies, only ten offer coffee tourism,” he said.

It is evident that tourism is multifaceted, and Tanzania is yet to grapple with the whole scope of what tourism has to offer; even cultural tourism is still on the back burner as the country vehemently promotes safari and national park packages.

Cultural tourism, simply put, is for foreigners to see what an ordinary Tanzanian lives like—an invitation into a Tanzanian way of life, away from the wild animals and the snow-capped Kilimanjaro.

With the diverse tribes and cultures in Tanzania, we have huge potential on our hands. One of our ways of life is farming, and Daniel is proud to show the coffee farming in his backyard to foreigners from across the globe.

“We show them the ripe coffee bean that is red and the green bean when it’s not ripe; we take the ripe ones and grind them and show them the whole process, and later we drink with the tourists,” he elaborated.

It’s evident coffee is central to the everyday morning routine of adults in the West, but as most have never seen a raw coffee bean, Daniel was more than obliged to show them the whole process from the farm to the hot coffee cup.

Before coffee tourism in Arusha gained popularity, whenever one would google coffee tourism, it only showed Ethiopia, so Daniel decided to constantly post online about the availability of coffee tourism in Tanzania, and he had to improve his services to distinguish them from what was offered in Ethiopia.

“We started offering local cooking on top of coffee tourism,” he mentioned. Daniel and his crew started cooking Ugali and nyama choma (roasted meat) for the guests, who would eat and drink coffee as they relaxed on the coffee farms in the cool Arusha afternoons something that they were sure no other country offered.

Tourists from Japan would specifically ask for boiled food; they didn’t want anything fried, so they made them a food called trupa, which was composed of boiled bananas and boiled meat.

Some guests would ask for popular Tanzanian cuisine, and Daniel would have to book the food on-site. “They would watch us cook the food and later feast together,” he said.

Tourists from Arab countries prefer spiced coastal food, so they cook pilau for them and add enough spices to their liking. Daniel has only survived in this tourism business thanks to social media platforms, where he can reach his audience worldwide. But being a small-scale tourism agent helps him to fully focus on his clients.

The people who book him insist on his presence during the tour, and he says this is the only thing that keeps him afloat.

“Most of these big tour companies don’t advertise on social media as much, but as for me, I have to constantly post and micromanage every client’s visit so I can be sure they get the best service,” Daniel says.

Tourists take note of that as well; they know that small tour companies pay better attention to clients because they are not distracted by the massive numbers of tourists flocking in. I just love my country, Tanzania, and I promote our tourism regardless of the monetary benefit; I just want people to know Tanzania,” he concluded.

As the agriculture sector grows, there is still a huge potential to tap in creating employment to the youth because, as the adage goes, agriculture is not just farming.

The digital space swamped by the youth could offer a marketplace for agricultural produce.

It can also be a platform to advertise Tanzania’s agritourism, and the hope is that Daniel’s initiative will be a spark that can transform the tourism sector and broaden the tourism attractions that the country has to offer.