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Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Lake Natron is not a park but an important wetland globally which can pull in as many tourists”, he said. “People know about Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Selous. He said even though the building of a paved road from Mto-wa-Mbu to Loliondo would perk up the numbers, there was urgency for the tourism stakeholders to take deliberate steps to promote the area.

Mr Melamari, who worked as the director general of the Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa) from the 1990s to early 2000s, explained that Lake Natron basin can draw 10,000 to 15,000 tourists a year, if marketed correctly. Nature lovers and visitors coming to the site, 300 kilometres from Arusha, have to cross fees collection gates surrounded by the three districts bordering the basin Monduli, Longido and Ngorongoro. He informed The Citizen while attending a meeting organized by Nature Tanzania, a newly created lobby group in Arusha, that the situation has been provoked by tax barriers and insufficient transport network. The attractions are many but the potential remains untapped”, said Mr Lota Melamari, a consultant with the recently launched Lake Natron Ecotourism Project. “There is no strategic plan to grow tourism there. The huge basin, with important lesser flamingo breeding site in the world and an active Oldonyo Lengai volcanic mountain, welcomes 4,000 visitors a year at present. Annually, only a trickle of visitors goes to Lake Natron basin because of poor marketing and promotion of its unexploited potentials.

Lake natron monduli tanzania