The East African nation of Tanzania has continued to make waves in tourism matters. Its largest park, Ruaha has been named as one of twenty-one best places to visit in the world in 2018 by National Geographic. Ruaha, which is located in the southern part of the country, is home to about one-tenth of the world’s endangered African lions.
According to National geographic sustainable tourism initiatives help visitors see the big cats–some grouped in prides of 30 or more–and support wildlife preservation in and around the park.
Other best trip destination in Africa, which were named by National Geographic are Madagascar, the world’s fourth-largest island and Harar, Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, tourism stakeholders in the country have called on the government to invest more on the promotion of available attractions as a way to increase visitors and revenue from the sector. Some tour operators say about 80 per cent of the attractions in the country have not yet been promoted thoroughly including the famous Mt Kilimanjaro and other national parks.
As a senior tourism guide put it, “Tanzania has very unique national parks such as Saadan National Park which is surrounded by the Indian Ocean but has not been well promoted”. He made the point at the third edition of Swahili International Tourism Expo, SITE, held in Dar-es-Salaam last week. He said tour operators have been playing their party but they expect the government to increase its own effort.
Another official, however, said although the industry was picking up the need for government support remained vital as Tanzania is competing with other countries in tourism.
