By Lake Zone Watch Writer
Arusha National Park will launch canyoning as a new product to boost the already booming tourism industry in the country, it has been disclosed.
This will be the first product of its kind to be introduced in Tanzania and East Africa in national parks and game reserves aimed at increasing the number of tourists to reach the five million mark as envisaged by the government.
The head of the Arusha National Park, Assistant Commissioner of Conservation Yustina Kiwango, said the promotion of canyoning is part of the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) strategy to introduce new products for increased income generation.
Already, Arusha National Park has introduced Geopark as another new product to increase revenue.
Tourism experts say canyoning is a hybrid sport in which participants travel along a canyon using a variety of techniques that may include walking, climbing, jumping, abseiling or swimming. It is widely practised in such countries as Croatia and South Africa to attract many tourists.
Kiwango told members of the TANAPA Board of Trustees who visited Arusha National Park yesterday that the two new products — geopark (any of several official sites of geological importance, often also of archaeological, ecological or cultural value) and canyoning — will greatly contribute to TANAPA’s influx of tourists and the tourism sector’s growth.
TANAPA Board of Trustees Chairman, retired General George Waitara, praised the Arusha National Park management for the bold step in introducing new products to enhance the orgnaisation’s financial position.
Arusha National Park is among 21 national parks under the supervision of TANAPA boasting of lakes with various bird species such as flamingos and the Ngurdoto Crater which has a variety of wildlife such as giraffes, elephants, wildebeests and settled and migratory birds.