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UNWTO Secretary-General Dr. Taleb Rifai / Image via insightsabah.gov.my
By
Apolinari Tairo, eTN Tanzania
TANZANIA (eTN) - The First Pan African Conference on Sustainable
Tourism Management in African National Parks was opened Monday this week
in northern Tanzania’s tourist city of Arusha, with commitments from
African governments to develop responsible tourism.
UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary General Dr. Taleb
Rifai said in his opening speech that Africa needs concerted efforts to
develop tourism through nature conservation and involvement of local
communities in tourist areas.
He said Africa remains a growing and most attractive destination
today, based on the rich natural resources available, mostly nature,
that includes wildlife, which still attracts many tourists from other
continents.
Addressing about 400 participants of the conference, Dr. Rifai told
them that Information Technology (IT) and modern communication systems
have made travel and human movement easier, thus, attracting many people
to travel from one country to another country in the world.
Likewise, Dr. Rifai said local tourism would be an optional strategy
for African countries to build their tourism industry base through
locals.
“The future of African tourism is bright and promising. Africa has
shown a great development in tourist arrivals during the past few years
despite economic problems which hit European countries,” the UNWTO chief
said.
“Tourism is today an agent of change. It promotes environmental
awareness, changes the people’s know-how, it promotes wildlife
conservation, and creates economic and social benefits to the local
communities,” Dr. Rifai added.
The tourism industry is the future of Africa’s economy and,
therefore, African governments should work on collaborative efforts in
developing this sector, he told the delegates.
Tanzanian Vice President, Dr. Gharib Billal, said Tanzania had
committed towards nature protection through establishment of national
parks, game reserves, and marine parks; all supporting tourism
development.
Through their presentations, delegates from various African countries
elaborated case studies on the need for promotion and development of
sustainable tourism with a focus to local community participation in
wildlife and nature conservation.
Community-based tourism will, in the future, dominate traditional
practices where tourists ordinarily ended their itineraries inside
wildlife parks or beaches, far from the local communities.
Representative from Seychelles National Parks Authority, Sylvanna
Antat, said the Indian Ocean archipelago had succeeded to build tourism
through protection of marine resources, while engaging the best
marketing strategies to attract tourists there.
She told the delegates that the Indian Ocean Island (Seychelles) had
strived to protect marine environment and encourage responsible tourism
through well-designed strategies involving the government, local
communities, and tourist business stakeholders.
Participants will be discussing “Challenges and Opportunities on
Sustainable Tourism Management in African National Parks and Protected
Areas” and will look at the balance between environmental and cultural
protection and tourism development specifically on policy and management
issues as well as regulatory framework in order to sustain a
high-quality visitor experience.
Despite high potential for a sustainable tourism development, many of
Africa’s national parks and protected areas suffer from constraints and
limitations concerning public policies, integrated planning, effective
governance with the involvement of the private stakeholders, management
and commercial skills, scientific expertise, infrastructure and
transport, tourism product development, quality, consumer image, and
safety.
Various tourism experts and conservationists both locally and
internationally will discuss their experiences in the fields of tourism
and conservation and make a resolution on the way forward.
According to UNWTO, nature-based tourism or eco-tourism is a large
and growing global industry, partially dependent upon the attributes of
the natural environment and biodiversity wildlife and scenery which
represent one of Africa’s strategic competitive advantages as a
destination.
The Pan African Conference is targeting to encourage a professional
approach to better position on “park tourism” as one of the core
components of overall national park management in Africa and to acquire
an overview of the current challenges in terms of the demand-and-supply
chain.
Other issues to be discussed during this conference are the
government policies and tourism master plans recognizing national parks
as tourism destinations, “responsible tourism” approach, biodiversity
management, market intelligence, segmentation, statistics, and reliable
analysis.
Key speakers on Monday were Sylvanna Antat, Research Officer,
Seychelles National Parks Authority, Seychelles; Allan Kijazi, Director
General, Tanzania National Parks; Justus Muumba, Manager, Community
Development, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, Tanzania; Mr.
Mateus Mutemba, Gorongosa Park Warden, Mozambique; and Mr. Johnson
Sipitiek, Program Manager, Conservation Development Program, African
Conservation Center, Nairobi, Kenya.
