Ngorongoro 'top tourist destination'

Arusha. Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is now the leading single destination for tourists to Tanzania.

The rugged terrain in Arusha region, famous for the picturesque craters and the archaeological sites, accounts for over a half of 1.3 million visitors to the country.This year it anticipates to receive a record 750,000 visitors, generating a hefty Sh.156.5 billion, well surpursing nearly Sh.125bn collected during 2017/2018.

“The number of tourists visiting NCA continues to surge and this is heartening”, said the deputy minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Japhet Hasunga here on Tuesday.

Speaking at the day-long Ngorongoro Investment Forum, the deputy minister said there had been a 19 per cent increase of visitors to 601,448 in 2017 compared to 567,983 in 2015.

Revenue generated trend for the last three calendar years stood at Sh. 70.7bn, Sh. 102bn and Sh. 124.9bn in 2015/2016, 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 respectively.

“It is my belief that with increased investments, NCA will be flying in revenue collection”, he told the forum, emphasizing improved environment for doing business. He challenged the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) to establish mechanisms that will support investments and diversification of tourism product.

The 8,292 square kilometre NCA was created in 1959 as a multiple land use area mandated to promote conservation, tourism and pastoralism.

From a remote and poorly accessible site in the 1950s, it is now attracting tens of thousands of tourists with nearly 100 per cent of them descending in its famous 304 square km crater.

Mr Joshua Mwankunda, the authority’s manager in charge of GeoPark project said geological sites will be added among the tourist attractions in the diversification efforts.

This, accoroding to him, has been proven by the recent acquisition by Ngorongoro of the GeoPark status, being the second in the African continent.