If you are on a business trip to Dar es Salaam, want to see the county’s famous wildlife and do not have much time to spare, where do you go? One solution, report the students, is to drive 283 kilometers (176 miles) to Mikumi National Park and spend a day or two there, as many visitors have found. Mikumi is one of the largest of the country’s 16 national parks. Its 3,230 sq.km. (1,247 sq. miles) are home to “ elephants, giraffes, hippos, elands, great kudu, sable and more than 400 bird species,” report the students. There are one and two-day safari trip available. Accommodations include tented safari camps. Bleisure is alive and well at Mikumi; about 40 percent of visitors are business people and 25 percent are educators or academics, report the students. The park also attracts conferences: they account for another 25 percent of visitors. Managing a big park like Mikumi in a sustainable way involves many interested groups, including tour guides, tourists, park management and the surrounding communities. “The people living around the park participate in conserving the animals and the environment as part of Community Based Conservation,” report the students.
