Abstract
User fees charged by Tanzania’s Game Reserves (GR) and Wildlife Management Areas
(WMAs) have not changed since 2008. Although previous research has been done on visitors’
willingness-to-pay to enter national parks in Tanzania, none has been conducted on GRs and
WMAs. This article assesses the entrance fees in GRs and WMAs, by comparing them with
equivalent fees charged in Tanzania (at national parks and the Ngorongoro Crater) and also
with regional protected areas in Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Based on 28 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholder institutions working on tourism
and conservation and more than 50 online survey responses from Tanzanian tourism operators,
the research reviews local opinion and issues relating to adjusting current entrance fees.
The article considers that while one objective for generating revenue from entrance fees
is for conservation management, it is difficult to establish appropriate fees where there
are gaps in knowledge about existing levels of visitation, tourism revenue and associated
management costs...