“The aim is to improve services and motivate local tourists alongside those from outside the country to visit the attractions.”
According to him priority areas, with their respective regions in brackets, are Katavi, Kitulo (Mbeya), (Katavi), Mikumi (Morogoro), Mkomazi (Tanga), Ruaha (Iringa), Rubondo (Kigoma), Saadani (Coast and Tarangire (Manyara) - pointing out that they are rarely visited by tourists, compared to long established ones, largely because of lack of proper accommodation. And this is despite their big tourism potential.
For his part, the Director of Tourism, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Ibrahim Mussa said: “Improvement of tourism sector is not solely the task of investors but also of TANAPA, which is supposed to encourage and motivate locals surrounding national parks so they can feel they are part and parcel of the national parks.”
Of late killings of elephants for ivory was on the increase, about which government officials said they will use available resources to combat poachers.
They said more than 950 poachers were arrested in the past two months alone, adding that the people surrounding the national parks and game areas would be motivated ‘to feel they have an important role to play.’
Cooperation between the locals and TANAPA can help indentify poachers, engaged in massive killings of elephants for their ivory which is smuggled abroad.
However, it is true that the national parks located in the southern part of the country miss tourists because of bad infrastructure, shortage of power, shelters and accommodation. There is undoubtedly a need to improve them for tourism business to thrive.
Another challenge is that most locals believe that visiting national parks is expensive affair that only foreigners can afford while many of them wrongly think they are required to pay costs in foreign currency.
Clearly, they need more awareness about the possibilities for them to visit the parks. Once local people are educated they will visit the parks, where they can have comfortable sleep in the tents.
Additionally, their entrance fees to the parks could be lower than that paid by foreigners given their low purchasing power. It is established that community tourism has big direct impact to the livelihood of the people.
As things stand at present there is little relationship between the tourists coming to visit Tanzanian national parks and the development of the community surrounding the areas.
Not only the lowering entrance fees but also hotel accommodation cost, especially for low income majority of Tanzanians. It is common in Tanzania for inhabitants close to national parks or game areas not to know what is inside them. The entrance fee cost factor is also being cited.
The country has several parks that surround the communities but because the latter lack tourism knowledge they fail to make use of the opportunities from the industry.
But it should not always be that way. As an example, in Arumeru District, Arusha Region, a local investor Said Chidi says he will build a modern school near Laroy Crater only ‘discovered’ recently.
He says the school will indirectly improve the living standards of the local people, adding: “Two per cent of the revenue that will be collected from tourism activities at the crater will be donated to Laroy Village as a way of empowering the locals as well as making them.”
Similar projects that contribute to the living standards of communities near parks and game areas could be started in other parts of Tanzania. Such measures would go a long way in promoting tourist areas.
A sense of belonging to conservation on the part of the locals will promote community tourism and this in turn will make them feel the loss resulting from poachers’ illegal activities in the national parks or game areas.
In making the latest initiates, TANAPA is spreading more evenly tourism business in the country and that is to say not just encouraging the sector in Tanzania’s northern parts, forgetting the south, which has huge potential for the business.
It is a logical move in a country known worldwide for its forests, animals, national parks, rivers, lakes and craters scattered around the country.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
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