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Burigi-Chato National Park; Tanzania’s New Tourism Jewel


By Special Correspondent, Paris

“For every action, there is equal and opposite reaction”. This is Newton’s Third Law in science. This article does not intend to analyse the law but to use it grammatically to express the advantages of the recent decision by the Government of Tanzania to opening of three new National Parks including the splendid Burigi-Chato. 

This week, President John Magufuli of Tanzania opened the new Burigi- Chato National Park which is endowed with abundant untapped tourism natural attractions which have not been fully exploited due to inadequate long time investments.

The opening of the national park which contains wildlife like lions, leopards, elephants, hippopotamus, giraffes, buffaloes and antelopes among others has sparked positives from Tanzanians, international friends and economists among others.

However, there are dissent voices too. Some have criticised the opening of the new national park as premature. We think using the Newton’s law of motion grammatically as stated before, if Tanzanians need an equal attraction of more tourists and more revenue, there must be diversification. The new Parks, economically, attest to the reality of Newton’s law.

                                                       Tourism Economy
According to World Travel Tourism Council, total contribution of tourism to GDP in Tanzania in 2017 was 9.0 percent and it rose to about 17. This sector directly supported 446,000 direct jobs excluding indirect employment making a contribution of 3.3 percent of the total employment; which then rose to 7.1 percent in 2018.

Moreover, the report states that Tanzania’s tourism sector grew over the past decade by 300 percent, attracting more than one million visitors annually, the majority coming for a wildlife safari. The sector, in total, employs around two-million people, and is the country's most significant source of foreign currency.

If one has to go by these Stats, the Burigi-Chato Parks and others means new employment zone to Tanzanians as well as a new cash cow for the country which just missed entry into middle income economy. 

According to the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Dr. Hamis Kingwangala, Tanzania Tourism industry last year contributed at least $ 2.5 billion to the Gross Domestic Product ( GDP) compared to $1.9 billion in 2016. 

A recent report by the Bank of Tanzania (BOT) titles “Unlocking the Potential of Tourism Industry for Tanzanians” indicates clearly that revenues in Tourism will increase up $ 16 billion annually by 2025. This means, for any sense making economy, any opportunity to increase and expand revenue sources, ought to be grabbed at a much required speed.

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