President Jakaya Kikwete is concerned about the increasing number of hotels in national parks. He said yesterday the construction of "too many" hotels in the State-run parks posed a serious threat to tourism and should be stopped.
He was speaking in Serengeti District where he inaugurated the Bilila Lodge Kempinski.
The new lodge adds to the six hotels and four tent camps in the Serengeti National Park, which in 2006, was voted one of the seven new wonders in the world.
A study by Hart Howerton in 2006 advised the Government that the Serengeti could safely accommodate 10 new hotels.
But President Kikwete directed the Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa) and ministry of Tourism and Natural Resources to “go slow” in implementing the study’s proposals.
He said: “ Don’t implement it at a go. Maybe we can have one or two more hotels and stop for a few years to assess the impact of the new structures before adding others."
He warned Tanapa and the ministry not to “turn national parks into hotel parks". He said no investors should be allowed to build a hotel in a national park without a thorough study.
Swarming animal parks with hotels could negatively impact on tourism, he said, adding that the parks played a pivotal role in the country's economy.
He also said there was need to protect national parks "at any cost" against dubious investors who build second-class hotels and lodges. Apparently, President Kikwete’s stance signals a shift in the Government’s attitude towards the building of hotels in national parks.
In July 2007, the then Prime Minister Edward Lowassa said the Government wanted the construction of more hotels in national parks to boost tourism.
Mr Lowassa, who was speaking in Parliament, lashed out critics of the idea, saying the Government would not bent to their desire to frustrate the growth of tourism.
He hinted that the campaign against building more hotels in Tanzania's national parks was being propagated by competitors in neighbouring countries.
Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in Tanzania, accounting for 17.2 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 25 per cent of the country's foreign currency earnings.
In the past three years, it has been growing at 12 per cent before it was devastated by the global financial crisis late last year.
Due to the crisis, the Tanapa was reportedly forced to trim down its 2009 tourism earnings forecast by 32 per cent. However, early last month, President Kikwete said the Government had taken serious measures to rescue the tourism sector.
Among the rescue measures to be taken with immediate effect were cutting down visa fees from $100 to $50 per tourist entering Tanzania.
The reviewing of visa fees makes Tanzania compete with other African safari destinations including neighbouring Kenya, which had reportedly slashed its visa fees to $25 per visitor.
