[b]Travelers fearful of Ebola are avoiding Africa or canceling long-planned safaris, creating dire consequences for the economy in Africa, tourism and government officials said.

More than 13,000 people have become infected with Ebola, and approximately 5,000 have died, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. But the outbreaks are thousands of miles from prime safari spots, tour operators say.

The Ebola panic shows most Americans don't know Algeria from Zimbabwe when it comes to African geography, safari operators say. They point out that those stricken West African countries are closer to Madrid, Paris and London than they are to safari hot spots, such as Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Tanzania in the continent's south and eastern areas.

South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool said jobs affected by canceled vacations reach far beyond the safari workers. Every tourist who visits South Africa generates income for eight jobs in industries such as transportation, hospitality, restaurants and agriculture, he said.

There are no Ebola cases reported in South Africa and the country is 3,300 miles from the nearest outbreak in West Africa.

"Ironically it's not the epidemic of Ebola that is the problem," Rasool says. "It is the epidemic of ignorance that is the problem. Anyone who would even look at a map would know the tourism industry in most of Africa is suffering from an outbreak of ignorance."

Before Ebola, African tourism had soared to an all-time high, said Wouter Vergeer, owner of SafariBookings.com, an online marketplace with hundreds of safari operators. On Aug. 8, the World Health Organization declared Ebola an international public health emergency. Vergeer heard the first reports of trouble from safari companies in mid-August.

"It has taken a huge hit on our industry, and it's getting worse and worse," he said.

SafariBookings.com surveyed 500 safari tour operators in September and found more than half had experienced drops in bookings ranging from 20% to 70% since the Ebola outbreak.

Among the people who considered canceling a long-planned safari vacation to South Africa was Raquel Dambrosi, 29, of Staten Island, N.Y., who fretted on Twitter about her Ebola anxieties. Friends and family worried she would catch Ebola on the airline flight.

Ultimately, Dambrosi decided to go. She leaves Nov. 4.

"I am doing my research and staying up-to-date on the news," she said. "I check online and on CNN every day."

Jake McCormick​, who runs the Shadows of Africa safari company, can't remember an October where his phone wasn't ringing off the hook with customers hoping to schedule holiday safari getaways. This year his phone is silent.

"My worst fears came true," McCormick said. Bookings and inquiries are down more than 70% from last year.

Shadows of Africa books most of its safaris in Tanzania on Africa's east coast and 3,000 miles from the center of the outbreak in West Africa – about the same distance as Alaska is from Texas.

Ashish Sanghrajka, president of Big Five Tours & Expeditions, worries that workers left unemployed from the tourism downturn will turn to poaching elephants and rhinos to make ends meet. The Wildlife Conservation Society estimates 96 elephants a day are killed by poachers, who sell their ivory tusks for $1,000 per pound.

"If we are not careful, we are talking about accelerating the extinction of elephants and rhinos," Sanghrajka said.

Revenue from tourism accounts for nearly 10% of the economy in many of the countries where safaris are popular, he said.

"The entire safari industry has come to a grinding halt," he said.[/b]
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/10/31/safari-ebola-africa-geography/17784729/

Good , less pedophilia on our soil

Tourism is overrated anyway, African govt invest in manufacturing factories , let's extract our minerals ourselves etc etc , let's make our own vaccines .

I don't like pigs on our beaches and in our cities anyway so again good news . Our children are safe

CAMNEWTON4PRES:
Good , less pedophilia on our soil

Tourism is overrated anyway, African govt invest in manufacturing factories , let's extract our minerals ourselves etc etc , let's make our own vaccines .

I don't like pigs on our beaches and in our cities anyway so again good news . Our children are safe

I think it is southern Africa, that are suffering from tourism cause the depend on the Safari industry. The rest of Africa never really depended on tourism so it is no loss for the rest of Africa

anonymous6:


I think it is southern Africa, that are suffering from tourism cause the depend on the Safari industry. The rest of Africa never really depended on tourism so it is no loss for the rest of Africa

East Africa.

vdGeist:


East Africa.

well thats true, the safari industry is big in east africa, or south east like Kenya for example

anonymous6:


I think it is southern Africa, that are suffering from tourism cause the depend on the Safari industry. The rest of Africa never really depended on tourism so it is no loss for the rest of Africa

yeah true .

Places like Gambia and Senegal in W. Africa also attract a substantial amount of tourism. Gambia definitely is feeling the pain.

The way Ebola is being reported in the US is ridiculous indeed. Ignorance + Hysteria is a bad combination.

ThaProphet:
Places like Gambia and Senegal in W. Africa also attract a substantial amount of tourism. Gambia definitely is feeling the pain.

The way Ebola is being reported in the US is ridiculous indeed. Ignorance + Hysteria is a bad combination.

yup many americans think the whole continent has Ebola when it's just 3 countries affected right now. It shows that many Americans don't know the difference from one african country to another, Once they hear Africa that's it.

anonymous6:


yup many americans think the whole continent has Ebola when it's just 3 countries affected right now. It shows that many Americans don't know the difference from one african country to another, Once they hear Africa that's it.

I read about how an American who had visited somewhere in East Africa (Kenya, I think), was not allowed to go back to work until after 21 days. Those folks need a geography lesson.

Ultimately, the ignorance exhibited by these people is a function of the North/South divide and the inequality that shapes it. It is also evident in the education system that shaped their society. It's not even a matter of "dumb" Americans. Even intelligent Americans exhibit such alarming levels of ignorance.

The ignorance problem is deliberately engineered by their media and 'education' system. I once told a 'school teacher' there that I was from Lagos and she asked ''where is that''? A school teacher. So what do you expect from her students? Or from those that aren't teachers? The biggest city in Africa and she's never heard of it. I mean, it's ludicrous.

ROSSIKE:
The ignorance problem is deliberately engineered by their media and 'education' system. I once told a 'school teacher' there that I was from Lagos and she asked ''where is that''? A school teacher. So what do you expect from her students? Or from those that aren't teachers? The biggest city in Africa and she's never heard of it. I mean, it's ludicrous.

Why am I not surprised? I've met people who genuinely think that Africa is a country and even more people who have no idea how VAST Africa is. The latter are the ones responsible for the "Epidemic of Ignorance" talked about here.

ThaProphet:


I read about how an American who had visited somewhere in East Africa (Kenya, I think), was not allowed to go back to work until after 21 days. Those folks need a geography lesson.

Ultimately, the ignorance exhibited by these people is a function of the North/South divide and the inequality that shapes it. It is also evident in the education system that shaped their society. It's not even a matter of "dumb" Americans. Even intelligent Americans exhibit such alarming levels of ignorance.

Like you said it is ignorance and a "I don't care attitude" from Americans of what is going on outside America, which includes the American media. A few years ago theres was a documentary news report on the knowledge of Americans of their country and what goes on outside America, they found out many Americans didn't know the pledge of allegiance, some mixed up what Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln did in history, some had a hard time knowing whether Mexico was in North America or South America, and other ludarcris and embarrassing things. So if they don't even know simple things of their country or care to they won't even try with Africa. It is only in the past few years a small minority of Americans are slowly knowing some countries in Africa and it's because of some big events that have happened internationally that they just happen to find out

Reminds me of some time in 2003 when my Dutch co using came. She affirmed that the impression in the Netherlands was that we still live in trees here.

UyiIredia:
Reminds me of some time in 2003 when my Dutch co using came. She affirmed that the impression in the Netherlands was that we still live in trees here.

lol, nothing surprises me anymore of the western worlds view of Africa

.

Good Less paedophiles

CAMNEWTON4PRES:
Good Less paedophiles

lol

Dey r dumb pple

CAMNEWTON4PRES:
Good , less pedophilia on our soil

Tourism is overrated anyway, African govt invest in manufacturing factories , let's extract our minerals ourselves etc etc , let's make our own vaccines .

I don't like pigs on our beaches and in our cities anyway so again good news . Our children are safe

7 milliom visit south africa
spend about 3k that's 21 billiom. that's overrated ba. epidemic of ignorance true true

anonymous6:
[b]Travelers fearful of Ebola are avoiding Africa or canceling long-planned safaris, creating dire consequences for the economy in Africa, tourism and government officials said.

More than 13,000 people have become infected with Ebola, and approximately 5,000 have died, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. But the outbreaks are thousands of miles from prime safari spots, tour operators say.

The Ebola panic shows most Americans don't know Algeria from Zimbabwe when it comes to African geography, safari operators say. They point out that those stricken West African countries are closer to Madrid, Paris and London than they are to safari hot spots, such as Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Tanzania in the continent's south and eastern areas.

South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool said jobs affected by canceled vacations reach far beyond the safari workers. Every tourist who visits South Africa generates income for eight jobs in industries such as transportation, hospitality, restaurants and agriculture, he said.

There are no Ebola cases reported in South Africa and the country is 3,300 miles from the nearest outbreak in West Africa.

"Ironically it's not the epidemic of Ebola that is the problem," Rasool says. "It is the epidemic of ignorance that is the problem. Anyone who would even look at a map would know the tourism industry in most of Africa is suffering from an outbreak of ignorance."

Before Ebola, African tourism had soared to an all-time high, said Wouter Vergeer, owner of SafariBookings.com, an online marketplace with hundreds of safari operators. On Aug. 8, the World Health Organization declared Ebola an international public health emergency. Vergeer heard the first reports of trouble from safari companies in mid-August.

"It has taken a huge hit on our industry, and it's getting worse and worse," he said.

SafariBookings.com surveyed 500 safari tour operators in September and found more than half had experienced drops in bookings ranging from 20% to 70% since the Ebola outbreak.

Among the people who considered canceling a long-planned safari vacation to South Africa was Raquel Dambrosi, 29, of Staten Island, N.Y., who fretted on Twitter about her Ebola anxieties. Friends and family worried she would catch Ebola on the airline flight.

Ultimately, Dambrosi decided to go. She leaves Nov. 4.

"I am doing my research and staying up-to-date on the news," she said. "I check online and on CNN every day."

Jake McCormick​, who runs the Shadows of Africa safari company, can't remember an October where his phone wasn't ringing off the hook with customers hoping to schedule holiday safari getaways. This year his phone is silent.

"My worst fears came true," McCormick said. Bookings and inquiries are down more than 70% from last year.

Shadows of Africa books most of its safaris in Tanzania on Africa's east coast and 3,000 miles from the center of the outbreak in West Africa – about the same distance as Alaska is from Texas.

Ashish Sanghrajka, president of Big Five Tours & Expeditions, worries that workers left unemployed from the tourism downturn will turn to poaching elephants and rhinos to make ends meet. The Wildlife Conservation Society estimates 96 elephants a day are killed by poachers, who sell their ivory tusks for $1,000 per pound.

"If we are not careful, we are talking about accelerating the extinction of elephants and rhinos," Sanghrajka said.

Revenue from tourism accounts for nearly 10% of the economy in many of the countries where safaris are popular, he said.

"The entire safari industry has come to a grinding halt," he said.[/b]
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/10/31/safari-ebola-africa-geography/17784729/

why wail? more like epidemic of lazy incompetent and indolent hospitality and tourism industry

anonymous6:


yup many americans think the whole continent has Ebola when it's just 3 countries affected right now. It shows that many Americans don't know the difference from one african country to another, Once they hear Africa that's it.

not their problem.

anonymous6:


yup many americans think the whole continent has Ebola when it's just 3 countries affected right now. It shows that many Americans don't know the difference from one african country to another, Once they hear Africa that's it.

not their problem. not their fault that y'all haven't learnt to play the propaganda game. instead nta is busy reporting wedding, and traditional dance instead of representing the black race internationally. smh

mikolo80:
7 milliom visit south africa
spend about 3k that's 21 billiom. that's overrated ba. epidemic of ignorance true true

yeah that's overrated. In America tourims is first done by citizens, they ain't sitting their azzes waiting for some Africans or Europeans to come visit

mikolo80:
not their problem.

Yea it isn't their problem but its a fact

mikolo80:
not their problem. not their fault that y'all haven't learnt to play the propaganda game. instead nta is busy reporting wedding, and traditional dance instead of representing the black race internationally. smh

Yup it isn't their problem lol, just saying facts. Also Black Africans are representing black Africans internationally in Business. African American's are representing black Americans and black race in entertainment worldwide.

anonymous6:


Yea it isn't their problem but its a fact



Yup it isn't their problem lol, just saying facts. Also Black Africans are representing black Africans internationally in Business. African American's are representing black Americans and black race in entertainment worldwide.

yeah but very little presence in medicine, science, wall street,politics things that matter.Just entertainment that only 1% of 1% that's 0.01%Will ever excel at. thereby reinforcing the belief that blacks can only make it through entertainment (basically upgraded sambos and Crispity crunchity Crackily coons, drug dealers and pole dancing /booty shaking)

more media manipulatio
they've got us dead to rights

CAMNEWTON4PRES:
yeah that's overrated. In America tourims is first done by citizens, they ain't sitting their azzes waiting for some Africans or Europeans to come visit

intra tourism between states
each tries to lure 'outsiders ' from other states
same difference
you can't do tourism with out 'outsiders '
Abi you don see New Yorkers do tourism in new york
no be to go another state or others from other states to come to their state
you better wake up in case you become a minister
so you don't end up like akunyiĺi (excellent in nafdac, zero as information minister cos of low knowledge seeking ability)

mikolo80:
yeah but very little presence in medicine, science, wall street,politics things that matter.Just entertainment that only 1% of 1% that's 0.01%Will ever excel at. thereby reinforcing the belief that blacks can only make it through entertainment (basically upgraded sambos and Crispity crunchity Crackily coons, drug dealers and pole dancing /booty shaking)

more media manipulatio
they've got us dead to rights

when it comes to medicine, science, wall street and politics and etc that is up to Black Americans to see that as as a priority, from what I have observe, people in the entertainment industry are more respected then people in medicine, science and etc in the African American community unless that person is President Obama. Now I am not talking about the educated and white collar black Americans(ex. Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Melody Hobson, medical doctors, engineers and etc). I am talking about the many blue collar and ghetto black Americans that uplift the entertainment industry and American sports over medicine and science, and those black Americans are high lighted more and are more in population then the white collar educated black Americans that you don't see highlighted alot. When it comes to Black Africans well their ruling in their own countries in politics but its all about corruption for most black African countries, so Black Africans are not the best with that but There are Africans excelling in business, science and medicine cause Black Africans put priorities in those fields for example besides inside Africa(or course), if you go to any western world especially Canada, America and the UK you will see African doctors, nurses, Pharmacist, engineers, business owners and etc; and you see many Nigerians amongst those Africans. check this link out:
http://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/rich-africans-vs-black-americans/article_408993fd-be44-5cac-8623-8ea4e0151654.html

anonymous6:


when it comes to medicine, science, wall street and politics and etc that is up to Black Americans to see that as as a priority, from what I have observe, people in the entertainment industry are more respected then people in medicine, science and etc in the African American community unless that person is President Obama. Now I am not talking about the educated and white collar black Americans(ex. Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Melody Hobson, medical doctors, engineers and etc). I am talking about the many blue collar and ghetto black Americans that uplift the entertainment industry and American sports over medicine and science, and those black Americans are high lighted more and are more in population then the white collar educated black Americans that you don't see highlighted alot. When it comes to Black Africans well their ruling in their own countries in politics but its all about corruption for most black African countries, so Black Africans are not the best with that but There are Africans excelling in business, science and medicine cause Black Africans put priorities in those fields for example besides inside Africa(or course), if you go to any western world especially Canada, America and the UK you will see African doctors, nurses, Pharmacist, engineers, business owners and etc; and you see many Nigerians amongst those Africans. check this link out:
http://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/rich-africans-vs-black-americans/article_408993fd-be44-5cac-8623-8ea4e0151654.html

that's the power of the media
it's called psychology
that's what all. those research about what ppl like and how ppl think and react is used for
they make sure you see more entertainers on TV (hypnosis) than doctors lawyers welders barbers (these guys are making bank like mad)
that's how they manipulate
not jazz
Just smoke and mirrors
why do you think there is more got talent shows than spelling bees

mikolo80:
that's the power of the media
it's called psychology
that's what all. those research about what ppl like and how ppl think and react is used for
they make sure you see more entertainers on TV (hypnosis) than doctors lawyers welders barbers (these guys are making bank like mad)
that's how they manipulate
not jazz
Just smoke and mirrors
why do you think there is more got talent shows than spelling bees

well true I am not denying outside influences on the black American community but there needs to be a time where enough is enough, start taking responsibility as a whole, and they start pushing against the manipulation in full force and it starts from the home in the end of the day. The Asians did that very well and see where they are now in America. Africans may not have a China town but majority of them don't look up to entertainers like African Americans do, we look up more to Bill Gates, Aliko Dangote and etc then Jay-z and Beyoncé.

anonymous6:


well true I am not denying outside influences on the black American community but there needs to be a time where enough is enough, start taking responsibility as a whole, and they start pushing against the manipulation in full force and it starts from the home in the end of the day. The Asians did that very well and see where they are now in America. Africans may not have a China town but majority of them don't look up to entertainers like African Americans do, we look up more to Bill Gates, Aliko Dangote and etc then Jay-z and Beyoncé.

unfortunately we don'
you can't force child to not watch MTV
unless you refuse to buy TV
they're the ones who will be misinformed not you the parent
oyinbo know what they're doing
personally I hope to get only DVD of history, discovery and Nat Geo channels.
and no we don't look up to business men
only ibos do that (lucky them)
we Yoruba look up to doctors and lawyers etc
while northerners look up to politicians and indolent Civil servants

mikolo80:
unfortunately we don'
you can't force child to not watch MTV
unless you refuse to buy TV
they're the ones who will be misinformed not you the parent
oyinbo know what they're doing
personally I hope to get only DVD of history, discovery and Nat Geo channels.
and no we don't look up to business men
only ibos do that (lucky them)
we Yoruba look up to doctors and lawyers etc
while northerners look up to politicians and indolent Civil servants

well true but in a society that glorifies the Kardashians, I don't see that changing anytime soon

At least igbos, Yoruba and northerners are looking up to something good but I feel yorubas look up to business people to, it isn't only a igbo thing but I guess igbo's are a little better at it.

anonymous6:


well true but in a society that glorifies the Kardashians, I don't see that changing anytime soon

At least igbos, Yoruba and northerners are looking up to something good but I feel yorubas look up to business people to, it isn't only a igbo thing but I guess igbo's are a little better at it.

it will change. America was like that. it took them 200 yrs to achieve what we admire today. it's a process. we Just started ours. we'll get there albeit slowly unless we're lucky to have a Lee Kwan Yew op park chun Hee who will accelerate it