Using social media to attract attention on southern tourist sites

Social media platforms have completely transformed how the world communicates. Numerous people across the globe have shared their exciting daily life activities with their followers, and Undule Mistry has used the platform to show the world the beauty of Tanzania, especially the southern highlands tourist attractions.

These have, for decades, been overshadowed by the much-hyped Northern Circuit, which boasts of Mt Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti, and Ngorongoro.

Undule has constantly posted his photos with amazing scenery to prove that the Southern Highland regions can offer an amazing experience if only one would visit. Professionally, Undule is a computer scientist and a software developer.

His jobs avail him of constant opportunities to travel across the world, and wherever he goes, he explores tourist attractions. While in Tanzania, for most of his travels, he is accompanied by his family.

“In June, every year, we go to the north, in Arusha, and in December, we go to Mbeya,” he explains. On the way to Mbeya, he makes several stops for a few days in Mikumi National Park and in Iringa to explore its tourist attractions before reaching the Mbeya region.

The Southern Highland Circuit tourism attractions have always been overshadowed by the Northern Circuit’s humongous tourism promotion, but now social media has conveniently made it easier for any Tanzanian to reveal the beautiful hidden beauty that this country possesses, and Undule is doing just that.

“There are so many attractions in the South; I went hiking in the Uluguru Mountains, and there are many waterfalls there too,” he said.

Undule feels Mbeya has the most beautiful beaches. Having travelled to many parts of the country, he hasn’t come across a cleaner beach like Matema Beach in Mbeya.

“If you hold the sand from Matema Beach in your palm and pour it back on the ground, it leaves no dirt sticking to your palm; the sand is white and the cleanest I have seen in the whole of Tanzania,” he claimed.

Matema Beach is one of the rare beaches located at the bottom of a mountain, with the spectacular Livingstone mountain range overlooking the white-sand beaches.

It is still a puzzle to him why the South underperforms when it comes to attracting tourism. It could be a lapse in the marketing strategy or some other unknown reason, but he believes once that is solved, the South will get the attention it deserves.

The south is exceptionally blessed with landscape tourism attractions in places like Rungwe and Kitulo National Park, a plateau known by the locals as ‘The Garden of God’ or as referred to as ‘the Serengeti of Flowers’ by other travel enthusiasts.

“I feel more promotion should be done so it’s not forgotten,” he says. Social media has given travellers like Undile a platform to give the world a glimpse of what the Southern Highlands are like.

“Whenever I post, people come to my DMs and ask me about the places I have photographed, and some are attracted to go and visit,” he elaborated.

He recently visited Matema Beach coming from Ipinda, a distance that would only take a thirty-minute drive, but he took four hours on the road because he would constantly stop and take pictures on the way, and when he posted them, people couldn’t believe that the pictures were taken in Mbeya.

He had to reassure them that these beautiful places were in Mbeya. “I am not a professional photographer; I just use my iPhone 15 Pro Max, but if I was, the photos would have been even more amazing,” he said.

Undule says that Mikumi offers closer proximity to animals like lions than Serengeti, according to his experience having travelled to both places, and that gave him a chance to take better pictures.

“Social media is strong enough to effectively promote the South,” he firmly said.

Undule has made it his tradition to travel with his family to Mbeya once every year during the holidays.

While in Morogoro, they hiked and visited the waterfalls in the Uruguru Mountains, and they visited Isimila stoneage sites when they arrived in Iringa. This gives his children an opportunity to learn about the history and heritage of Tanzania and view the beauty that it has.

“My kids have fallen in love with travel,” he says. Undule not only takes his family to the Southern Highlands, he still visits the Northern Circuit as well, and he took this family to see the popular giant elephants at Tarangire National Park and later went to Ngorongoro National Park.

Undule says that regardless of your line of work, one can always find time to travel if that’s their passion. He has travelled to India, Cape Town, and Dubai for software exhibitions, but he has also used this opportunity to extend his stay just to see their tourism attractions.

Undule insists on using local and international social media influencers to promote Southern Highlands tourism. The power of social media is vast and impactful, and we could soon see the arrival of more tourists when we effectively promote what the South has to offer.

The gap in the marketing of the southern tourist attractions could offer the tech-savvy youth an employment opportunity if they can decisively convince the tourism ministry to employ their talent to promote the hidden attractions locally and beyond our borders.

"That's an opportunity to get money for the youth who can take on the task of promoting Southern Highlands tourism, because not many people do it; even the tour and Safari companies here are not as many as in Moshi and Arusha,” he added.

Travelling with his children has helped Undule create a stronger bond with them, to understand them better and get closer to them, which is hard to do when they are in the busy city life of Dar es Salaam, and that bond has played a big role in cherishing his travels.