Sadly the rainy season has arrived and it has been difficult
trying to get the client out of the office so we can talk through our ideas
onsite. Though given the torrential downpours we’ve seen over the last few
days, the ground conditions are likely to make any detailed site investigations
difficult in any case.
So instead I’ve been doing some research on a couple of
topics of relevant to the business planning phase of our work – potential
demand for the backpacker hostel, and local handicraft initiatives with whom we
could partner. Interestingly, whilst
there are some really good mapping studies showing backpacker flows around
Australia, South East Asia and South Africa I’ve come across nothing on the
volume or profile of the market in East Africa. So if anyone knows of any work
I might have overlooked, please let me know.
As for the handicraft sector, tomorrow I’m meeting key
personnel in the Ministry of Tourism & Culture with responsibility for a
number of initiatives across the country. Hopefully I’ll come away from the
meetings with enough information to allow us to determine the size of that part
of the development and also, who we could partner with. I am particularly keen
to get the Beza Community Outreach project involved – they work with women infected
with HIV, training them in jewellery production and providing them with an
opportunity to earn a living. Their designs use coffee beans, silver beads and
also the bronze casings from bullets, combining innovative design with
recycling, something that is more and more common in the sector. So to inspire you, here are two photos of recycled
handicrafts – one of necklaces made by Beza here in Ethiopia, and the other a
picture made from Coke cans from the Gambia. Enjoy. 
