Tourism
Tourism in Tanzania has been growing yearly and is fast becoming one of the major sources of income in the country. In terms of its natural resources, Tanzania is blessed with extensive tracts of wilderness and rich diversity of scenery. One-seventh of the country is covered by national parks and game reserves.
Tanzania indeed has it all, 14 National Parks, 1 conservation area, 17 game reserves, and several marine parks, which are heavily stocked with a wide range of flora and fauna.
The scenery and topography of the country, including its very friendly people, harbours the growth of excellent cultural tourism, beach holidays, game hunting, historical and archaeological ventures and certainly the best wildlife photographic safaris on the continent. Tanzania is home to the leading wildlife reserves including the largest national park in the world, Serengeti.
It has dozens of beautiful national parks like Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Selous Game Reserve and Mikumi National Park in the south that generate income with a large tourism sector that plays a vital part in the economy.
The development of Tanzania as a multicentre tourism destination offers considerable potential growth prospect and provides ideal opportunities for investment. New accommodation facilities and hotels are needed with international standards and entertainment facilities, camping, lodges and guest houses, infrastructure ventures, training institutions
An increasing number of tourists also provide excellent opportunities in the tour operators and agencies business activities, man made tourist attractions like theme parks and gambling resorts.
Kilimanjaro
Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and stands at 5,895 meters, three degrees south of the equator and second world highest mountain. The mountain has two peaks - Kibo and Mawezi, which are surrounded by dense forests full of dazzling variety of flora and fauna. The area around the mountain is protected territory. The 756 sq. km lying above 2,700m comprise Kilimanjaro National Park, while parts of the lower slopes - which support five vegetation zones - are protected as forest reserves.
The main attractions are the volcanic centres; Shira, Mawezi and Kibo, and the change in forest from savannah grassland to raw forests, moorland, tundra, semi-desert, and snow.
Mount Kilimanjaro has attracted many tourists and researchers from all over the world.
Stone town
This is the area of Zanzibar where by it is refered to the heart of the old town with winding narrow streets and historical buildings.
Zanzibar offers a wide range of tourist attractions for the tourists. The Aga Khan Mosque is located in the center of the Stone Town near the Kiponda area. It is a blend of European and Gothic style of architecture.
Next is the Anglican Cathedral Church of Christ, which was built in 1873 by Edward Steere, the third Bishop of Zanzibar. The main feature of the church is its unique barrel vault roof.
Beit el-Ajaib is another worth visiting monument here, which was built in 1883 by Sultan Barghash on the site of former Zanzibar Queen Fatuma’s residence of the 16th century
Moreover, there are Hamamni Persian Baths built by Sultan Barghash in 1888. These structures were used as public baths once.
The Palace Museum lies on the harbor road and is the most recent of the Sultans’ Palaces. It was occupied by the last members of the Al Busid dynasty until 1964. One must also visit the Peace Memorial Museum and the Natural History Museum.
The museum exhibits a number of Zanzibar’s memorabilia including, Livingstone’s medical chest from the Zambezi expeditions.
The Old Fort is also a fascinating site, which was built around 1700. It was used by the Arabs to keep away the Portuguese and their allies the Mazruis, who occupied Mombasa
Zanzibar is famous for her cloves. Other spices are nutmeg, vanilla, cardamon and cinnamon, the spices which motivated the Sultan of Oman to settle there permanently.
Other than spices, the island is famous for tropical fruits, perfumes plants and food crops. Coconut palms, maize, yams, cassava, are grown.
Zanzibar is the main exporter of cloves in the world.
Coconut palms source of copra used for flavouring and Coir, a strong fibre used for robes and mat making. Today timber from coconut palms is used to make attractive furniture.
