Macon: 63-year-old American who summited Mt Kilimanjaro 50 times

“I have always been physically fit and a proud and constant gym attendee. The journey to the summit was interesting and challenging, but I reached the top of the highest mountain in Africa and I have the pictures to prove it.

“It was no small feat, that is until I met a 63-year-old American who has summited Mt Kilimanjaro 50 times, that is 50 times going through the tortuous ascent under the burning sunlight and chilly nights as you reach the top,” says Macon Dunnagan, an honorary Tanzanian tourism ambassador to the United States.

As I was sipping my tea on this cold morning at the Zara tours offices in Moshi, Mr Macon walked to me and my cameraman and shook my hand, a very firm handshake.

“Sir, are you a former military man?” I asked him. In all seriousness I expected a yes in confirmation. “No, I never served” he said as he sat down.

Macon is an honorary Tanzania tourism ambassador to the United States, a smart move by whoever in Tanzania’s government decided to bestow him that title.

Surely, he has done so much for Tanzania’s tourism, in a time when ingenuity is much needed to sway the tourists to choose Tanzania as their vacation destination over other countries.

Having Macon as our tourism ambassador befits him. Any man that can climb that mountain 50 times can definitely convince Americans to visit Tanzania for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

Setting foot in Africa

Macon, a resident of Charlotte, North Carolina, first came to Africa by sheer luck in 1999 when he won a trip with South African Airways to travel to Cape Town.

He was given an option to choose a second destination, and that’s when he chose to come with his wife to Tanzania, that was 23 years ago, and on his first trip to Tanzania he used the Marangu route to climb Mountain Kilimanjaro all the way to Gilman’s point, 5685 meters above sea level.

“It was a beautiful experience but very challenging,” Macon said. “Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro is the hardest mental and physical challenge you will voluntarily do in your life” he insisted.

But amazingly enough, Macon kept coming back, and on his second time he brought a friend to climb with him.

On his third time he came with two friends, and he kept using different routes to ascend to the peak.

“They told me they are more routes not only Marangu, so after six months I came back and used the Machame routes,'' he narrates.

By now, he has used all the available routes.

To prepare himself he does physical workouts, he has a gym in his garage and is also a member of the popular Planet Fitness gym in the United States.

Shoulder surgeries

Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro 50 times was never his set ambition. It just happened. Macon has had two shoulder surgeries and a hip replacement but none of that has slowed him down one bit.

With that milestone, Mr Macon will be back to climb for the 51st time next year on February 12th.

In 2002 he wrote a book “Sons of Kilimanjaro” talking about his experience climbing the mountain.

His effort to selflessly promote Tanzania didn’t go unnoticed by the government and in 2012 they made him an honorary Tanzania tourism ambassador to the United States of America.

His role is basically to promote Tanzania as a preferred tourism destination, he does travel shows across the world starting with his home country across several cities from New York, Chicago to Atlanta.

Macon surprisingly meets people who still presume Mt Kilimanjaro is in Kenya and it is in these incidences that he correctly them.

“I always tell them no, it is in Tanzania,” he laughs. “We have to market Tanzania every day, every single day, you can never stop,” he insists.

Promote Tanzania tourist attractions

He is a firm believer in evolving and doing new things to promote Tanzania’s tourism to the world,.

“You cannot assume the world knows what you have to offer. “You always have to come up with new ideas, that's why I'm so in favor of having Tanapa (Tanzania National Parks ), TTB (Tanzania Tourist Board), and all tourism stakeholders sit down and come up with new ideas,” he says.

He believes the agencies have to promote Mafia Island and the scuba and whale shark diving that is actively gaining momentum on the island.

Whale shark diving is becoming favourable among tourists because they get to go snookering with the great whales at Pole Pole Bungalows in Mafia Island where you get to swim with the whale sharks, an experience that would attract any thrill seeker.

Macon said for those who want a more secluded experience with less traffic and less populated, Selous National Park is the best destination.

 “Selous is very quiet,” he said. People would always be pleasantly surprised when he would tell them Zanzibar has scuba diving, and he would invite them to try it out.

That has been his role in gradually introducing Americans to what Tanzania has to offer beyond just Mt Kilimanjaro and Serengeti which is worldwide known.

“Tanzania is an adventure vacation. Whatever a tourist wants to do we can offer that,” he said.

Currently, Macon is promoting Tanzania as a honeymoon destination and he is already advertising in wedding magazines in the US, targeting the wedding market, all to have many more people come to Tanzania, with available packages that will cater to different desires that the married couple would want.

To fully reach our potential in attracting tourists the cost of vacationing in Tanzania has to be reduced and with so many middlemen who act as tourist agents and add their commission.

An American coming to Tanzania ends up paying a higher price than the actual cost of vacationing in Tanzania.

On this, Macon insists on due diligence on a tourist’s part. And with the availability of internet, a tourist can book his or her trip to Tanzania directly from a Tanzanian tourism company and eliminate all the middlemen and save money.

Countering misinformation

As a Tanzania tourism ambassador, Macon deals with misinformation on occasions when civil unrest or communicable disease is discovered in a neighbouring country or any African country for that matter.

It affects the tourism sector in almost all African countries because for tourists from the West who have never been to Africa, there in a notion that Africa is just one country and Mr Macon has to politely educate them on this.

During the Ebola outbreak, Mr Macon had to show them a map of Africa just to show how far apart Tanzania is from the epidemic.

“I had to show them that even if you wanted to fly to that country from Tanzania it would take you seven hours, and they would always call him to seek his travel advice,” he said.

He has all the social media accounts to help the potential tourists and with the help of social media, he has been able to educate many of them and help curb the misinformation that would hurt our tourism.

Macon’s demographic is what Tanzania’s tourism board is targeting, Americans with disposable income who can come to Tanzania for vacation.

The goal is also to get Americans to stay in Tanzania for a long time, preferably a month and the initiative is well in the preliminary stage. The goal is the longer you stay the less you pay.

“We want Americans to stay here longer and not just two weeks but for a month,” he said, adding: “If I can climb Mount Kilimanjaro 50 times, you can come to Tanzania and climb it once.”