MUMBAI: Rajiv Desai, co-founder of Swahili Safaris, organised the NRITYA SHAKTI’s Dance Across the World: Tantalizing Tanzania featuring Shakti Mohan. The event has been designed keeping to celebrate the beauty of Tanzanian culture through the lens of dance. It has been organized in collaboration with Swahili Safaris, the Tanzania Tourist Board, Zanzibar Commission for Tourism, and the High Commission of Tanzania, New Delhi.
Talking about what Tanzania means to him, he says, “Tanzania is more than home to me, it is the reason for my existence. I was born in Nairobi and have grown up in Tanzania (30 years of my 39). As a toddler my parents would take me into the world’s best national parks even when road infrastructure wasn’t in existence. My love affair with Tanzania’s and Zanzibar’s wilderness both land and sea started at the age of 3. Today, the accessibility to most of these national parks and marine parks has improved and the government is working hard to make it world class. Our endeavour is to make Tanzania and Zanzibar affordable and our vision is to make it the most sought destination in India and the rest of Asia.”
He adds, “We collaborated with Shakti Mohan as the government's vision was to promote not only leisure and adventure but Culture, Heritage, and Sustainable tourism. Tanzania and Zanzibar have it all and it has been depicted in the short film beautifully by Shakti.”
Founding Swahili Safaris was also quite the journey, he recounts. “I am grateful to both my Presidents, Her Excellency Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania and His Excellency Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi, President of Zanzibar have supported our vision to promote Tanzania and Zanzibar in India.”
He adds, “My partner Dhwani and I moved back to India from East Africa to ensure we take forward the vision of Tanzania in early 2023. We strategically planned our approach and after aligning the factors that could lead to success we sought for a like minded partner in Mr Gaurav Karnik who has 16 years plus experience in the travel industry. I was in no mood to grow organically as the destination we are marketing has the most number of natural crafted adventures and breathtaking sights in the world.”
Talking about his company, he adds, “ Swahili Safaris is promoting the most diverse combination of bush and beach in the world and we have infinite content to entice travellers in a country of 1.4 billion people.”
As for future plans, he says, “We have a packed calendar next year where we are associating with many celebrities and content creators to showcase the numerous facets of Tanzania and Zanzibar.”
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