Mara residents need attitude change to gain from tourism'

JAMES KAMALA

RESIDENTS in Mara Region need to change their attitude if they want to benefit from the Serengeti National Park and other tourism related businesses in the region, the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Dr Hamis Kigwangalla has said.

He said in Musoma yesterday that the Mara Region residents should invest more in businesses related to tourism as the region has great potential of tourism attractions.

Briefing reporters about his four-day tour in Mara region he said it was not making a clear sense to see tourists using northern regions of Arusha and Kilimanjaro on their way to Serengeti national park which is mainly within the borders of Mara region.

“Citizens here must invest in tourism sector and shun away from unfriendly culture of using command language towards other people," "They must be royal, promote peace and have good gesture if they have to benefit from Serengeti National park,” the minister said.

He added that the command language like that of “you are now entering Mara region” instead of “welcome to Mara region” is not a good gesture to tourism business and called for immediate cultural changes.

The minister also revealed that he is in the region to solve some conflict as Serengeti National park which is 70 pc available in Mara region is closely sharing its borders with villagers in this region than is the case in other regions.

Some of the conflicts according to him are border disputes between villages and that national park which leads to killing of some wild animals threatening the tourism sector which leads as foreign exchange earner for the nation.

Mr Kingwangalla also said that apart from conflicts, residents here are to be educated of the benefits of safeguarding wild animals than killing them and to help advertise the tourist attraction which is the duty of his ministry.

“You see animal migration is mainly taking place in Mara and Simiyu regions for ten months and only two months in the neighboring country (Kenya) but is highly advertised there as if it is all happening in Kenya, it is time to wake up,” He also highlighted that domestic animals from Kenya were being illegally grazed in Serengeti National park on the Tanzania side despite an imposed ban.

On his side, Mara Regional Commissioner Adam Malima said that growth of tourism business in his region was hampered by poor infrastructure like the current Musoma airstrip which cannot accommodate average aircraft.

The RC also said that his region was planning to motivate more on investing in hospitality industry whereby hotels and other services to cater for tourists must be constructed by investors Serengeti National Park last week hosted former US president Barack Obama and members of his family who stayed for eight days before leaving to Kenya.