UNESCO hails Cable Car Project for elevating Mt Kilimanjaro’s World Heritage status

MOSHI: TANZANIA can increase the number of tourists from France by developing new tourism products and intensifying efforts to promote the country’s attractions in the French market, Tanzania’s Ambassador to France and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Saidi Othman Yakubu, has said.

Ambassador Yakubu made the remarks on August 19, 2026, in Kilimanjaro Region when he visited Kilimanjaro National Park and held talks with the park’s management on various issues related to tourism development.

Among the issues discussed was the proposed Cable Car project from the Machame area to Shira, with emphasis placed on ensuring that the project complies with conservation requirements and respects Mount Kilimanjaro’s status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Ambassador Yakubu said Mount Kilimanjaro is one of Tanzania’s most important international symbols and that tourism development in the area must go hand in hand with environmental conservation and compliance with UNESCO guidelines.

“Kilimanjaro is a major symbol of Tanzania to the world. We need to continue developing new tourism products while taking into account conservation and the status of this area as a World Heritage Site,” he said.

He added that Tanzania, through its Permanent Representation in Paris, would continue to follow up on UNESCO-related matters and support efforts to ensure that tourism development initiatives on Mount Kilimanjaro comply with the requirements for protecting the site’s heritage status.

According to Ambassador Yakubu, France is an important tourism market, with approximately 15 million French citizens travelling abroad every year. He said this presents an opportunity for Tanzania to increase its share of the market by developing new tourism products and conducting strategic promotional campaigns in major French cities.

He stressed that strengthening Tanzania’s competitiveness in the international tourism market requires combining promotional efforts with investment in new tourism products, while giving priority to environmental conservation and cultural heritage protection.

Meanwhile, the Head of Kilimanjaro National Park, Senior Assistant Conservation Commissioner, Angela Nyaki, said the proposed Cable Car project is intended to expand opportunities for day tourism and enable a broader range of visitors to experience Mount Kilimanjaro.

She said the initiative would widen access to the mountain and allow more people to experience its attractions, while noting that implementation of the project would have to take into account conservation considerations and the procedures governing the protected area.

More broadly, Tanzania’s efforts to attract more French tourists reflect a strategy aimed at diversifying tourism products, expanding international markets and leveraging cultural diplomacy and heritage to strengthen the country’s tourism sector.