By ADAM IHUCHA --Tanzania is developing new tourism products and services into national parks in its latest efforts to make tourists stay longer in the country.

Save for Serengeti, game drives as a major adventure in most of national parks in Tanzania, last for a day, making an economic nonsense both for a tourist and a host country.

In a bid to change the trend, Tanzania national parks (TANAPA) is developing the new products and services, an exercise that will cost $10 million.

Tanapa’s director of tourism and marketing, Mr Ibrahim Mussa said that a canopy walkway construction is underway at Marang’ thick forest in Manyara national park.

If all goes well, this product will be opened come January 2016 to allow tourists walk above the trees.

A dense Marang forest located on the escarpment above the Manyara Park is a crucial secondary habitat for migrating elephants from Lake Eyasi and Ngorongoro crater.

Cocoon nests campsite is yet another tourism item in the same park targeting the holidaymakers whose interests are to nest with the birds in their own cocoon tree. 

In the list of proposed services there’s a horse riding within the scenic Arusha and Kitulo national parks respectively.

According to Mr Mussa the ambitious programme also will see bike tourism introduced on the iconic Mount Kilimanjaro – the most famous mountain in Africa to cater for cyclists.

“We are creating a special trail up to Shira plateau, nearly 4,005 metres above sea level to accommodate this kind of tourism activity for our dear tourists” he explained.

Indeed, bike tourism is estimated to rake in $1.5 billion in the state’s economy of Wisconsin every year, according to U.S grist.org.

Other proposed products on Mount Kilimanjaro include gliding, to offer holidaymakers a paragliding adventure on Africa’s highest peak, which is also the world’s tallest free standing mountain.

Gliding is a unique experience, similar to the flight of an eagle in the skies.

It is considered an air sport in which a pilot flies an unmotorized foot-launchable aircraft, very light, called a hang glider or delta plane.

Crator camping on the Mount Kilimanjaro’s Uhuru peak is among the services lined up for interested tourists.

Mr Mussa further said that rhinos in both Serengeti and Mkomazi national parks also would be free for visitors to see as part of the products. Currently the rare rhinos are restricted for tourists.

Congema safaris CEO, Constantine Ngelengi Malembela commended the Tanapa, saying the move promises a better future for local tourism industry.

“The planned new tourism products would be a major boost to our tourism because there’s growing market of tourists who look beyond wildlife, mountain and beach,” Mr Malembela noted.

For instance, he said, his company in June 2015 unveiled its well designed ‘landscape tourism product’, to offer holidaymakers a glimpse of a country’s unexplored scenery.

Wildlife tourism attracted more than 1 million guests in 2014, earning the country $2.05 billion, equivalent to nearly 17.6 percent of GDP.

Additionally, tourism provides 500,000 direct jobs to Tanzanians; over one million people earn an income from tourism.

Tanzania hopes the number of tourist arrivals will hit 1.2 million this year, up from one million visitors in 2014, earning the economy close to $2.25 billion, up from the last year’s $1.88 billion.

According to the five-year marketing blueprint rolled out in 2013, Tanzania anticipates to welcome two million tourists by the close of 2017, boosting the revenue from the current $2 billion to nearly $3.8 billion.

Indeed, the World Bank says Tanzania can earn an average of $16 billion a year in the next decade if the government takes serious measures to reform the sector.

 That amount is nearly eight times the current tourism earnings.

The latest Tanzania Economic Update published by the World Bank argues, this strategic industry can grow and create more high-paying jobs, and closer linkages with businesses and local communities.

To realize this opportunity, the government should simplify its system of taxes and fees and make its revenue allocations more transparent.

"There is no doubt Tanzania is in a good place with tourism and yet could do considerably better," says Philippe Dongier, Country Director for Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda. "Tanzania has abundant natural tourism attractions and is well recognized internationally”.

But there is potential for further growth as also emphasized by the government; and some of the needed reforms are quite urgent as the status quo could be costly for the country, Mr Dongier says.