Hope for tourism as Tanzania secures investor for Mikumi Lodge

Dodoma. The government has secured an investor for the Mikumi Lodge in the famous Mikumi National Park, raising hope of an increase in the number of accommodation facilities for tourists in the area.

“The government has secured the investor who will revive Mikumi Lodge. The renovation work is currently underway….we hope the task will be completed by November 2019,” the Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Josephat Hasunga told the Parliament on Tuesday.

He was responding to a question from Dr Jasmine Bunga (Special Seats) who said the Mikumi National Park was losing a lot of revenues from tourism activities due to the absence of enough accommodation facilities in the area.

In his response, Mr Hasunga said currently, tourists visiting Mikumi National Park were being accommodated in three tented camps, a lodge and ten hotels located at Mikumi Town.

He said his ministry, through Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa) has set aside seven locations that are fit for investment purposes within Mikumi National Park where investors are invited to build world class accommodation facilities that will attract more and more tourists to the area.

He said under a special project that is known as Resilient Natural Resource for Tourism and Growth (Regrow), the country will see a lot of improvements of its tourism sector in the southern regions.

Regrow was launched in February this year.