Tanzania hikes park entry fees
2006-01-03 20:32
Dar es Salaam - Wildlife authorities have hiked entry fees for foreign tourists at Tanzania's two most famous national parks, said officials said on Tuesday, but tour operators protested at the increase.
Gerald Bigurube, the director general of Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA), said: "The move is aimed at controlling congestion in the two parks."
Bigurube said the new entry fee, which took effect on January 1, into Kilimanjaro National Park had doubled from $30 dollars to 60, while entry into Serengeti National Park, where visitors flocked to see a wide array of animals, increased $30 to 50.
Entry fees 'could scare away tourists'
He explained that fee for foreigners to several other parks, including Arusha, Tarangire and Lake Manyara in the north as well as Mikumi in central Tanzania, would remain $25 a person, and those for Katavi in the southwest, Ruaha in the southern highlands, Udzungwa in the central, Rubondo in the west remained at $15 each.
Tour operators expressed concern that the spike in entry fees, proposed in June 2005, could scare away tourists, but Bigurube said there were already many booking safaris to the parks.
He said: "In fact we expect more tourists this year than ... in 2005."
Hotels, campsites overbooked
Mustaph Akunaay, the executive secretary of the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators, said foreign tourists continued to book safaris to the parks and none of those who booked before the price increase had cancelled.
TANAPA's head of planning and development Allan Kijazi also said hotels and campsites in Serengeti and Kilimanjaro parks - both in the country's northern belt - were already overbooked before the new fees came into force.
Kijazi said: "The right strategy is to encourage tourists to visit the southern circuit as well."
Tanzania had 14 wildlife parks, but those in the northern part of the country were more developed because they primarily catered to foreign tourists.