As a family business with a very close and personal connection to Tanzania, we are very proud of our background and our company history. In the early 1990s, Tanzania was not yet the developed tourism destination it is today. For example, we only had a fraction of the accommodation options that we have today and at that time only one European airline served Kilimanjaro Airport. What started as a hobby for us in the late 90s quickly developed into a full-time job in step with the popularity and growth in tourism in Tanzania.
Since our foundation, we have always presented Tanzania to our travel guests as we know it and as we love it - always with the aim of passing on our passion for Tanzania to our clients.
Today we are not only one of the very few true Tanzania connoisseurs, but also one of the first Tanzania tour operators with more than 23 years’ experience on this market.
Our team
was born and grew up as a son of coffee farmers on the slopes of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. After having studied Engineering in London he came to Germany and worked for a well-known company, both in Europe and overseas. During this period, he frequently travelled to East Africa which enabled him to stay in contact with his home country. As a passionate nature and Africa friend he started over 40 years ago to plan and arrange tours to Tanzania for friends and colleagues. His love for Africa and especially for Tanzania led to him forming the tour company ITST Tanzania Special Tours in 1999 together with his wife, offering safaris off the beaten track, mountain hiking, cultural tours and beach holidays in cooperation with a Tanzanian partner.
In 2003 he invested in building a tourist lodge in northern Tanzania with the plan to train young Tanzanians in Hotel Management together with a gastronomy foundation based in Germany.
He is a keen photographer, knows the African wildlife and fauna well and has intensive knowledge on the vast number of different tribes living in Tanzania. He speaks the national language Kiswahili fluently. It gives him great pleasure informing and advising clients about the possibilities in Tanzania and to put together exceptionally interesting and beautiful tours for them.
Annegret Veit was born in Stuttgart / Germany, studied languages, is by profession an interpreter and has a keen interest in people from all over the world. For 35 years her focus has been on Tanzania, a country that she has traveled extensively, whose national language Kiswahili she speaks and which she has grown very fond of.
Above all she is passionate about bringing our guests closer to this wonderful country with its unbelievable variety and abundance of wildlife and the extremely friendly, open people. With great enthusiasm, she plans tailor-made safaris and beach holidays for customers in extensive telephone or personal consultations. Thanks to Annegret Veit's numerous contacts, personal encounters with professional colleagues of our guests can also be arranged during their tour in Tanzania.
During her visits to the country, she regularly has the opportunity to maintain old, valuable contacts and make new ones. She also takes part in trade fairs at home and abroad to stay informed. In Tanzania she enjoys visiting markets, talking to the locals, walking along Zanzibar's long beaches or reading a good book in front of her safari tent.
Unlike his parents, Richard never lived in Tanzania, but through many safaris from his early childhood he got to know and appreciate the country and its people from different perspectives. Born and raised in Stuttgart/Germany, Richard Veit became a safari fan at a very early age through annual stays in Africa and has spent countless visits to Tanzania over the past 30 years.
Since 2013 he has been running the family business together with his mother and is thus continuing the Tanzanian tradition of the Veit family. His enthusiasm for Tanzania knows no bounds. In addition to the unique landscape and the beautiful wildlife, he was impressed by the large variety of accommodation. We really value his wide-ranging experience, as he has visited over 200 different hotels, camps, lodges and beach resorts in Tanzania since the 1990s. These are always inspected by us at regular intervals and tested for our guests.
What he enjoys most is intensive, personal consultations with our customers, in order to then design the ideal tour to Tanzania for each individual private group. When he is not traveling through Tanzania or sitting at his desk, as a former sports journalist he likes to spend his free time editing video films.
These always deal with the experiences and new discoveries in Tanzania during the trips together with his wife Shalini.
Shalini was born in France and completed her studies in “Luxury Hospitality Management” in Paris. On the other hand, she spent her childhood and youth in Africa before working in various hotels around the world. The further course of her life always led her back to her roots.
She has always been drawn to both cultures through her Mauritian father and French mother. Many years ago she fell in love with Tanzania. Besides the turquoise waters that seduced her, it was above all the discovery of the land and wildlife that sparked an endless passion for Tanzania. She was fascinated by the people, the culture and the wealth of fauna and flora. Because of her job in luxury hotels and the attraction of this country, she decided to make Tanzania her home for four years. There she managed her family's hotel on Pemba Island, Tanzania.
Thanks to this adventure, her path crossed with Richard Veit, who is now her husband. Since the mutual love for Africa is the foundation of their relationship, the successful cooperation quickly became a matter of course. Today she is proud to be part of this big family, the ITST family. Shalini is a generous and caring person, but she is also fascinated by different cultures, which is why she now speaks four languages and is far from finished.
Trust in our many years of experience in Tanzania and the first-class advice from ITST Tanzania Special Tours. Have safaris, cultural encounters, sporting activities or beach holidays on the East African coast put together individually according to your wishes. Whether as a couple, with friends, as a family or as honeymooners - we organize your Tanzania trip individually and privately just for you!
Thanks to our wealth of experience with accommodation, national parks, processes and conditions in Tanzania, as well as the relationships and experiences of our family, we are able to respond specifically to the different ideas and wishes of our customers. We maintain friendly relationships with the owners and managers of the respective accommodations and airlines, are in daily telephone contact and know 24/7 that our customers are in the best of hands. Reliable and well-known partners from Tanzania, with whom we have been working since ITST was founded, support us in the implementation of our trips.
