The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and Tanzania National Parks – the two leading wildlife conservation and tourist magnets in East Africa – have remitted dividends to the government of Tanzania, signaling a positive trend of tourism growth overtaking other business sectors.
The essence of tourism as the leading economic sector in Tanzania was observed this week after the two leading wildlife conservation and trustee institutions – the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and the Tanzania National Parks – submitted their 2018 dividends amounting to US$26 million to the Tanzanian government’s treasury.
The National Parks paid US$16 million and Ngorongoro Conservation Area paid US$10 million under the same arrangement. There are 16 national parks under the management of Tanzania National Parks.
Contributions from the 2 wildlife conservation custodians and trustees were bigger than other government-owned business entities except the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) which made almost twice the amount.
Tourist and travel trade observers were happy to see tourism overtaking other business and service providing public institutions which had failed to remit their dividends to the government of Tanzania.
The two wildlife conservation and tourist magnet institutions handed the amount of their dividends to the Tanzanian President, John Magufuli, on Monday.
Revenue in both Ngorongoro and the National Parks is accrued from photographic tourism as conservation and concession fees plus other levies charged from safari companies operating in these key protected areas.
Tourism is still Tanzania’s leading economic sector through the testimony of 2 institutions which attracted visitors from across the world to increase their revenue last year.
Located in Northern Tanzania, Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a wildlife and human habitat where the natural foes, the beasts, and humans live together in peace and harmony as in the Biblical tales of the Garden of Eden.
Covering 8,300 sq. km. of conserved wildlife and cattle-grazing area, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is best known as “Africa’s Garden of Eden” and is one of the most-visited wildlife parks in Tanzania, attracting over 600,000 tourists each year.
Wildlife parks have become the leading tourist selling point for Tanzania, and this had made tourism an important sector of the economy for Tanzania’s development other than the manufacturing and industrial sectors which the current government is now switching ahead.
National parks have successfully maintained a competitive advantage by adding value to tourist sites outside the wildlife protected areas under its trusteeship.
Tanzania’s success in wildlife conservation has set a solid foundation for re-thinking and re-positioning the national parks management and trustees on a global roadmap on wildlife and nature conservation.
This repositioning aims at addressing a number of challenges, which include poaching, the disappearance of wildlife corridors, climate change, technological advances, and understanding of the ecology of the parks systems.
Through tourism, the National Park’s management is currently supporting community projects in localities that neighbor to its parks through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program or “Good Neighborliness.” This CSR initiative has shown a positive trend, bringing reconciliation between people and wild animals.
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