Promising future as Serengeti welcomes more than 900,000 tourists

DAR ES SALAAM－At a hotel in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, Zhang Cuishan, wearing a short-sleeved shirt, was checking the status of the building project. Not far behind him, a herd of elephants was drinking at the edge of a pond, oblivious to human activity.

This was a photo Zhang left when the hotel was just completed. The hotel, built by Zhang, has become famous, attracting tourists from all over the world.

"Building hotels in Africa has given me a deeper understanding of the relationship between humans and nature," Zhang told Xinhua News Agency ahead of World Wildlife Day that falls every March 3.

Zhang, 42, general manager of Tanzania Branch of China Railway Jianchang Engineering Company, has been in Africa for 15 years. Due to his outstanding performance, he was appointed project manager of a five-star hotel in Serengeti National Park in 2012.

As Tanzania's largest national park and a UNESCO World Heritage site, Serengeti is famous for the annual migration of millions of wildebeests, zebras and other wildlife.

Since the project is located in the hinterlands of the Serengeti, the requirements for ecological and environmental protection are strict.

"Any construction waste and household waste generated during construction must be packed up and taken away," Zhang said. "After the construction, the working and living places of the construction personnel will be dismantled to restore the original ecological appearance."

If wild animals entered the construction site, workers suspended construction and notified the forest police immediately. Only after the animals were driven away, did construction resume.

Wild plants are also protected to high standards. In one case, the construction team found an acacia tree blocking the hotel area during construction. In the end, Zhang chose to revise the design drawings and reconstruct around the tree.

"It's not easy to grow a tree on the prairie, and we have to do everything we can to protect it," Zhang said.

Tanzania is rich in tourism resources and the sector is now recovering from the pandemic. According to Damas Ndumbaro, Tanzania's minister of natural resources and tourism, Tanzania's tourism industry received 923,000 foreign tourists in 2021. It generated tourism revenue of $1.25 billion, up 76 percent year-on-year.

In Zhang's view, with the implementation of the achievements made by the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, China-Tanzania cooperation will embrace more opportunities.

"More tourists from all over the world will come to Tanzania in the future, and Tanzania's tourism industry has a promising future,"Zhang said.

Xinhua