Arusha — A colleague asked what Mr. Mbunda can do as the new Director of Arusha municipality.

A possible reply to the question is that as a naturalist he can speed up the process to establish Arusha municipality as a tourist destination in order to create jobs and generate the much needed revenues for development programmes in the municipality. Currently, Arusha acts only as a stop over for tourists who are on transit to visit destinations elsewhere. Mr. Mbunda was the Executive Director of Meru District Council before taking up the post of Director of Arusha municipality.

Within a relatively short period the outgoing Director of the municipality, Dr. Job Laizer, had set a strong foundation to develop tourism in the municipality under the concept, 'City tourism". The City Tourism concept provides a useful framework to develop tourism in the municipality as an integrated rather than disjointed programme. It will be easy for Mr. Mbunda to complete the task sooner rather than later if based on his personal drive for conservation. His interest for conservation relates directly to the components of the established foundation for tourism in the municipality.

The municipality has envisaged the Arusha City Tourism programme to comprise seven components. Eco-tourism is one of the components. The nucleus of the component is Suye hill and the Kimandolu wetland that is located at the foot of the hill.

A decision has been made by the Municipal Council to establish a 'House of culture' at a site to be determined as a focal point for conducting cultural tourism activities in the municipality. A Botanic garden is to be established on the Themi river valley between the Old Arusha Moshi and Nairobi Roads.

Other components of the proposed Arusha municipality tourism programme include establishment of a Tourism Information Center to be established at Kijenge Municipal Park. In addition, there will be a Julius Nyerere monument, Conference tourism and City tours. City tours imply organized transport activities to enable tourists to visit attraction features within and adjacent to the municipality.

The design of the tourism programme emphasizes a participatory development approach whereby the Arusha Municipal Council is involved as a partner rather than sole owner of various tourism ventures in the municipality. For instance, the Council has long issued permits to allow the Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania (WCST) to take lead in developing the Arusha Botanic Garden as a joint venture. Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority has been authorized to lead the process to develop eco-tourism joint ventures. Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) has agreed to coordinate processes to develop the Arusha Tourism Information Center. On its part, the Arusha International Conference Center spearheads development of conference tourism in the municipality. Discussions will be made to determine suitable institutions to take lead in developing the house of culture and to operate city tours.

But development of the municipality tourism programme or its components has almost come to a stand still for now. Residents of Arusha expect Mr. Mbunda to revive and accelerate the pace of developing the programme. His success or otherwise in this matter will be a measure of his love for nature, culture and entertainment as he expressed in his article on conservation that was published in The Arusha Times of November 22 - 28, 2008.

Indications are that Mr. Mbunda can make Arusha a tourist destination soon given the right support. Indicators include the way he conducts himself socially. He associates himself with naturalists like himself. In his article in the Arusha Times, he describes Mr. Maeda the Managing Director of Fun Safaris as a naturalist who accompanied him to 'Mkuru birds paradise' to observe nature and particularly birds. In addition, Mr. Mbunda is proud to be in the company of his other naturalist associates the like of Mr. Theofil Kashasha, a local businessman and Nicodemus Hill a government official who works for Arumeru District.

Mr. Mbunda's love for entertainment was evident during a farewell party at Mkuru on the day. The Director made calculated dancing moves implying how much he values that type of entertainment. It suggests that he will have no problems supporting development of cultural aspects of the Arusha tourism programme.

Mr. Mbunda brings to the municipality secrets for managing the environment effectively as a basis for a successful tourism programme. The Director establishes environmental profiles immediately everywhere he is posted to work. He uses the profiles as a framework for economic development activities. As a result, Arumeru and Meru District Councils where he has worked as Executive Director have won many environmental awards over the years.

Other indicators to show that Mr. Mbunda is capable of accelerating the process of establishing Arusha as a tourist destination include his ability to rule. He has mastered the art of making firm and fair decisions without delay. Perhaps more important is the fact that Mr. Mbunda likes his new job very much. People close to him have revealed.