The fact that Serengeti National Park merged out as the best of the Seven New Natural Wonders of Africa along side the other two attraction which are also Tanzania’s attraction calls for a celebration to appreciate the work done by the bodies that are responsible for protecting the attractions that is Serengeti conservation body and the then TANAPA which is responsible for Ngorongoro crater and Mt. Kilimanjaro.
The event’s organizers believe that Serengeti managed to stand out because of its amazing seasonal migration of millions of animals mainly wildebeests that move to Maasai Mara in Kenya during dry seasons. Ngorongoro Crater surfaced because of the fact that it is “The Bowl” for those who love nature meanwhile Mount Kilimanjaro was selected because it has for so many years appealed to climbers from both in Tanzania and abroad but considering the statistics, Ngorongoro Crater is the most popular spot with over 500,000 visitors in a year.
The Seven Wildlife Wonders of Africa list indicates animals like the leopards, crocodiles, elephants, hippos, rhinos, mountain gorillas and lions. All those animals are native species in Tanzanian wildlife sanctuaries therefore this achievement is likely to lead to a boom in the tourism sector. Tanzania should therefore expect an increase in the number of tourists who visit the country in the months to come. Tanzania will also establish a better tourism climate so that more tourists will be attracted and increased from 800,000 to at least 1.6 million visitors in a year by 2015.
Much as it is good to celebrate the achievement, it is still true that the tourism sector has not done enough to market Tanzania as a leading tourism destination in Africa. Besides this, as the sector pressures the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to help see that the number of arrivals is doubled, often no one remembers that fact that there are limited accommodation facilities in Tanzania and so they need to construct more lodges and hotel as well. Also, majority of those feeder roads are impassable and so they need to be improved. Kenya is currently recording 1.5 million tourist arrivals in a year and will keep leading in the tourism industry if Tanzania government can not do better in marketing and improving services.
