New Tanapa conservation commissioner seeks to elevate tourism sector

Arusha. The new conservation commissioner for Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa), Mussa Nassoro Kuji, has hit the ground running as he seeks to ensure that national parks play a key role in the attraction of tourists.

Tourism is Tanzania’s number-one foreign exchange earner, with official figures showing that the country earned $3.3 billion from the sector during the year ending November 2023.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan appointed Mr Kuji as the new conservation commissioner for Tanapa on January 11, 2024.

Speaking while taking the oath of office earlier this week, Mr Kuji said his first task will be to improve infrastructure and attract investors to ensure national parks provide quality services.

“I thank God, the President, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism and the Tanapa Board of Trustees for trusting me to run this key conservation and tourism agency. We will improve infrastructure and attract investors to ensure national parks provide quality services, said Kuji.

Mr Kuji believes Tanzania, with its unrivalled tourist attractions, can surpass Egypt, Morocco and South Africa in both tourist arrivals and receipts.

“We will work with the Tanzania Tourists Board, the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators, the Hotels Association of Tanzania and other players to reverse the trend,” he said during the event that was graced by the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ms Angelah Kariuki.

She instructed Mr Kuji to, among other things, guard national parks at all costs, given the increasing trend of human activities encroaching on them in recent years.

“Liaise with other players and come up with a strategy for more tourists to visit the country and contribute to our conservation efforts as well as to our economic development initiatives,” the minister said.

Mr Kuji is a Master’s Degree holder in Business Administration and a Bachelor Degree in Commerce and Accountancy from the Netherlands-based Maastricht School of Management and the University of Dar es Salaam, respectively.

His first appointment at Tanapa was in 1991, when he served as an accountant before he climbed the ladder to become director of corporate services.

Tourism stakeholders from the private sector are optimistic that Mr Kuji holds the relevant skills and experience in business and financial management that are required for the transformation of the custodian of 21 national parks and its value chain.

“Mr Kuji is the right person at the right moment in Tanapa. He is a down-to-earth person, a good listener, open-minded, approachable, transparent, with a growth mindset, ethics and decisiveness,” the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (Tato) CEO, Mr Sirili Akko, said on the sidelines of the ceremony.

President Samia, who played the role of a tour guide in the Tanzania: The Royal Tour film, apparently was looking for a person who would sync conservation with tourism when she appointed Mr Kuji.

Analysts say the approach intends to motivate the industry players to generate more revenues the State needs to continue to protect national parks and at the same time, to bankroll development drives.

Egypt was ranked first in Africa for international tourist arrivals, accounting for almost 11.7 million arrivals in 2022, trailed by Morocco, with nearly 10.9 million visitors.

While Egypt raked in $12.2 billion, Morocco generated around $9.2 billion during the period under review. Travel and tourism added nearly $13.2 billion to South Africa’s GDP in 2021.

In contrast, Tanzania received barely 1.797 million tourists by November last year, earning the country $3.3 billion, despite dedicating nearly 44 percent of 945,203 square kilometres of its surface area—a land area bigger than Burundi—to conservation.

However, last year’s tourism receipts and arrivals surpass those registered before the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2019, when $2.526 billion was garnered from 1,527,230 foreign visitors.

Going by December 2023 monthly economic review by the Bank of Tanzania, the increase in both revenues accrued from tourism and tourist arrivals resulted from the industry steadily recovering from the pandemic.

Tourism outmatched gold during the period in review, as the precious mineral fetched the country $3 billion worth of revenue by November as opposed to $2,8 billion garnered a year ago.

The tourism growth trajectory renews hope of tourism meeting the 2020 Election Manifesto of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which tasks the industry to woo five million tourists in a bid to generate $6.6 billion and stimulate the value chain and the economy by 2025.j