The below is from THE HUNTING REPORT

Tanzania Season Still A Go

As this bulletin goes out, we are being deluged by calls from subscribers who are worried about their 2007 safaris to Tanzania. The reason for their worry is a huge, last-minute concession and trophy fee increase by the Tanzanian Government. Is it going to be imposed this year? Are safaris going to be conducted at all? Should I pay the new fees if my outfitter tells me I have to?

Continuing E-Mail Extra subscribers already know we have been in continuing contact with Gerard Pasanisi of Tanzania Hunting Operators Association (TAHOA), and he says the 2007 season is going forward as usual. He reiterated that message to us again today. He urged us to tell clients that the overwhelming majority of booked safaris are being conducted as scheduled while negotiations with the government continue.

Pasanisi said he was aware that local newspapers are reporting widely on the fee increase from a multiplicity of viewpoints. Also, he conceded that some companies are canceling safaris and/or telling clients that higher fees have to be paid this year. He chalked that up to the fact that some companies are not members of TAHOA and thus are not privy to what is really going on with the fee increases.

"The 2007 season is completely normal," he said. "Please tell your subscribers they should get on the plane and go hunting." - Don Causey

Don Causey had better be right. Lots of folks will, in effect, "wager" big bucks on his opine.

I, however, wonder and have developed the belt and suspenders approach.

Why? There are two increases. First, the trophy fees and secondly, the concession fees.

I'd love to take a lion, a leopard and an elephant and leave Tanzania having paid the "old" prices, relying on Don.... and when time for shipment of my trophies came, I got hit for the huge trophy fee increases before the animals could be exported....that's the first.... and the second, even though you may have come and gone, if the PH doesn't pay the "new concession fee", do you really think that the gov't will allow trophies to be shipped, even if the client paid increased trophy fees but the concession increase is still unpaid?

Before you go, I'd make darn sure that I had a "worst possible scenario" price from my outfitter and PH.

I'm going soon and praying that Don is correct, but I've negotiated a price payable if the new fees stick... one that both I and the PH can survive with unless and until TOAHA suceeds.

Very lucid points Judge G. Your PH's word is one thing but the TZN government is holding the trump card when you return to the US and leave your trophies there waiting for shipment. Could be a very unpleasant surprise!
Bull1

What about next year ? I have booked, & paid a deposit, for a buffalo hunt in Oct. 2008; what's the outlook for 2008 increases ? What's my next move ?

frank I"m the same boat, i canceled. my bet is that we will see large increases for 2008, down some from what we see now, but still making the most expensive place to go even moreso. I'd hate to have my trophy lion tied up this year because the govt. wants another 12000 that i maybe don't have. had than happen to an ele in zim and its no fun at all.