Altezza Travel Named Tanzania’s Leading Tour Operator for the Third Year in a Row

For the third consecutive year, Altezza Travel has been named Tanzania’s Leading Tour Operator at the World Travel Awards. The 2026 award was presented in Zanzibar, where Altezza Travel was represented by Leila Maganga and Diana Zulungu from our operations team.

The World Travel Awards are especially meaningful to us because travellers vote themselves. Modern life rarely leaves people with much spare time – our guests have families, work, responsibilities and countless things competing for their attention. Yet many of them responded when we asked for their support, opened the voting form and took the time to cast their vote for Altezza Travel. We are deeply grateful for that.

We also believe there is a reason why so many travellers feel strongly enough about their experience to do this. A journey through Tanzania is different from many other types of travel. During a safari or a Kilimanjaro expedition, travellers spend a great deal of time with their guides. They spend entire days on the road or mountain trails and experience extraordinary moments together. Over several days, the relationship between a guide and a traveller can become genuinely special.

A knowledgeable guide can explain what you are seeing. A great guide does much more. They understand when to speak and when to give people space. On Kilimanjaro climbs, they recognise when someone needs encouragement, and how to make challenging moments easier and remarkable moments even more memorable. Our guides are trained to turn the time they share with travellers into memories that can remain with them for the rest of their lives

We believe this human connection is one of the main reasons why travellers continue to support Altezza.

People are behind every journey

While good equipment matters, comfortable tents, reliable safari vehicles, good hotels and carefully planned itineraries, and efficient logistics all matter, none can replace people. It is them who welcome our guests, answer their questions, drive the vehicles, prepare meals, guide them through national parks, help them climb Kilimanjaro and deal with the hundreds of details that make a journey work.

This is why taking proper care of our team has always been one of Altezza Travel's core principles. We remain committed to paying some of the highest salaries in the Tanzanian tourism industry and attracting talented people who want to build their careers with us. We want good professionals to see tourism not simply as temporary work, but as a serious career in which experience, knowledge and responsibility are recognised and rewarded.

In 2026, we launched the Altezza Academy, an internal learning and examination platform for our employees. Both existing team members and new candidates complete examinations designed to test the knowledge required for their roles.

For guides, this includes subjects that go far beyond simply recognising animals or knowing a route. Tanzania has an extraordinary natural and cultural heritage, and we want the people introducing visitors to the country to understand it deeply. That means learning about wildlife, ecology, geography, history, culture and the many other subjects that can transform a good trip into a meaningful one.

However, testing people without giving them the opportunity to learn would make little sense. For this reason, we also opened the Altezza Library. We began collecting books about Tanzania and East Africa, including works on wildlife, birds, plants, history, geography, culture and exploration. We purchased virtually every relevant book we could find and made this collection available to our team.

For our mountain guides, examinations are only one part of a much larger training system. They regularly take part in practical training and assessments throughout their careers, including Wilderness First Responder certification. In addition, they study our own medical and safety curriculum, developed together with wilderness medicine specialists and tailored specifically to the conditions and risks of Kilimanjaro. This helps ensure that our guides are prepared not only to lead the route, but also to manage altitude related issues and respond effectively when something goes wrong.

The same approach applies to our safari guides. We want them not simply to identify the animals visitors see, but to understand the ecosystems, behaviour, history and culture behind the experience. Tanzania has an extraordinary natural and cultural heritage, and a guide who understands it deeply can turn a wildlife sighting into a story that travellers remember long after they return home.

This means that much of their education takes place outside the classroom. In November 2026, for example, our safari guides will spend four days in Tarangire training with entomologists. They will then continue to Rubondo Island for another four to five days, where they will study the island ecosystem and observe its chimpanzeesRubondo itself provides a fascinating lesson in Tanzanian conservation history. Chimpanzees are not native to the island – between 1966 and 1969, chimpanzees that had previously lived in European zoos and circuses were released there as part of a conservation project led by Bernhard Grzimek and the Frankfurt Zoological Society. Genetic research has since shown that their ancestors came from both West and Central African chimpanzee populations. The animals adapted to the island, reproduced and established the population that lives there today.. The purpose of programmes like this is to give guides direct access to remote places where they can develop knowledge through observation. A traveller may not have Rubondo Island on their itinerary, but they can still enjoy the story while travelling through the Serengeti. A guide who has visited Rubondo and learned about its chimpanzees first hand can bring that knowledge into the conversation, adding stories and context that make the journey through Tanzania more interesting, even when the place being discussed is hundreds of kilometres away.

The Academy and Library are still developing, but they represent something that has become increasingly important to Altezza as the company grows. Higher standards should be supported by better opportunities for people to reach them.

Growing responsibly

The same principle applies to the way we approach the growth of the company itself. Altezza Travel remains Travelife Certified and a Certified B Corporation. We also continue our partnership with the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, the UIAA, working together on responsible mountain tourism and supporting the spread of stronger sustainability practices in Tanzania. 

For us, these standards should not stop within our own company. We try to share the same values with the businesses we work with across Tanzania, including partner hotels and fellow tour operators. When we meet with industry partners, we regularly speak about the standards behind Travelife, B Corp and other sustainability programmes, explain our own experience, and encourage other tourism businesses to consider certification as well.

We believe that responsible tourism becomes much more effective when companies work in the same direction. The more hotels, tour operators and other tourism businesses adopt clear social and environmental standards, the greater the positive effect can be on employees, local communities and the destinations where we all operate.

An award for the whole Altezza team

Only a few people can walk onto a stage to collect an award. In Zanzibar this year, Leila and Diana did so on behalf of Altezza Travel. But Tanzania's Leading Tour Operator award belongs to everyone behind the trips our guests experience. It belongs to our mountain guides, safari guides, porters, drivers, cooks, travel experts, hotel teams, mechanics, operations staff and all the other people whose work makes those journeys possible.

The new trophy will return to Kilimanjaro and join our previous World Travel Awards at the Kilimanjaro museum. There, everyone on our team will be able to see it, hold it and take a photograph with an award they helped earn.

Want to know more about Tanzania adventures?

Get in touch with our team! We've explored all the top destinations across Tanzania. Our Kilimanjaro-based adventure consultants are ready to share tips and help you plan your unforgettable journey.

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