Why Lake Natron gets low number of tourists

Arusha. Lake Natron, a salt and soda lake, receives a small number of tourists annually because of a poor marketing strategy, it has been revealed.

The vast basin is the main breeding ground for hundreds of thousands of lesser flamingos and an active Oldonyo Lengai volcanic mountain. It currently receives a paltry 4,000 visitors per year.“There is no strategic plan to grow tourism there.

Attractions are plentiful, but the potential remains untapped,” said Mr Lota Melamari, a consultant with the recently launched Lake Natron Ecotourism Project. He told The Citizen on the side-lines of a meeting organised by Nature Tanzania, a newly formed lobby group based in Arusha, that the situation has been aggravated by poor trans-port network and tax barriers. Tourists and nature lovers travelling to the site, some 300 kilometres from Arusha, have to go through fee collection gates started by the three districts bordering the basin;

Monduli, Longido and Ngorongoro. Mr Melamari, who served as the director general of the Tanza-nia National Parks (Tanapa) from the 1990s to early 2000s, said the Lake Natron basin can attract between 10,000 to 15,000 tourists a year if well marketed.He said although the con-struction of a paved road from Mto wa Mbu to Loliondo would boost the numbers, there was a to take more effective measures to promote the area.Discussions are underway with the three districts to have only one gate for collection of local government fees from the tourists heading to the site.Mr Ken Mwathe,the policy and advocacy coordinator with Birdlife International said the Lake Natron basin was a ‘hid-den gem’ for Tanzania, which has not been exploited as far as tourism is concerned.“People know about Ser-engeti, Ngorongoro and Selous. However, they know little about Lake Natron. This is not a park, but an important wetland,which can pull in a lot of tourists,” he said. It is one of the dozens of identified Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in Tanzania, which can attract thousands of bird watch-ers from around the world each year. “The 4,000 tourists visiting the area annually can more than triple if the limited facilities are upgraded,” he explained, not-ing that the adjacent Serengeti National Park attracts 100,000 visitors per year. Nature Tanza-nia patron, Mr John Salehe, said the completion of a tarmac road to Loliondo could see the Lake Natron basin turning into one of the major tourist attractions in the country.