Sustainable Accommodation Investment In Sub- Saharan Africa: The Case Study Of The Southern Circuit Nature Tourism In Tanzania

Tanzania is one of the leading tourist destinations in Africa. Most of the country tourism is based on nature attractions. About 40% of the country has been set aside for wildlife conversation and promotions of nature-based tourism. The southern circuit is largest nature protected in Tanzania, its size (82,000Km2) is two times the size of Switzerland (Switzerland size is 41,285 km2). Sustainable Accommodation Investment is one of the most effective ways by which developing economies can captures and tap income from tourism industry. In some countries like Australia accommodation and Tourism industry and contributes around $2.9 billion to the tourism gross value employs 18% of all tourism employees annually. The overall aim of this research was to investigate the potential of ecotourism in Sub-Saharan countries for achieving sustainable economic development and looked at sustainable accommodation investment at Ruaha National Park (RUNAPA). This was achieved by focusing on the case study of the Southern Circuit Nature tourism in Tanzania and in particular at Ruaha National Park (RUNAPA). Forecast shows that over the next 6 years around 1366 bed per night will be required to meet the expected tourism demand by 2023 and around $2.3 billion new investment will be required to develop those facilities to meet the expected demand. This being the case, the issue of maintaining attractiveness (nature) is highly required. Response from tourist on nature responded strongly by 64.3%, and safety and security strongly agreed 64.1%, while on overall infrastructure quality respondents were Neutral by 32.1%. This shows how potential ecotourism and in particular protecting nature and it is good sign for government to support the southern circuit since the availability of nature tourism in abundant surpass those of the northern circuit by far in terms of size (82,000Km2) and availability of flora & fauna.