Three tour companies banned from Maasai Mara National Reserve
Three tours and travel companies have been banned from accessing the Maasai Mara National Reserve for the next 30 days. The three were barred after they failed to observe the
Three tours and travel companies have been banned from accessing the Maasai Mara National Reserve for the next 30 days. The three were barred after they failed to observe the set park regulations.
The Maasai Mara National Reserve Chief Administrator Christine Koshal called out the tour companies for allowing their clients to alight from their vehicles during the wildebeest migration on August 8th and 9th, 2020.
“You violated the park rules and regulations by obstructing wildebeest crossing and also putting the visitor’s lives at risk. This is by allowing them to alight at undesignated points in the game reserve,” read a notice to the tour companies.
Koshal said that the management had suspended the companies for 30 days effective from August 10th.
“Therefore, you will not be allowed inside the park for whatever reasons since you violated the park rules and regulations,” Koshal directed.
The three tours and travel companies that have been banned are Sun World Safaris, Mario Tours and Twiga Tours.
Every year between July and October over two million animals migrate from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. It’s considered as one of the seven new wonders of the world which attracts a lot of local and international tourists.
However, the number of international tourists has declined significantly due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Nonetheless, since international flights resumed, international tourism is slowly resuming.
“We are glad that Kenyans are flocking in large numbers to the Maasai Mara. Currently, most of the lodges are fully booked. The Coronavirus pandemic affected the tourism sector,” Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala said on Saturday.
Balala has warned those camps at the Maasai Mara flouting the set regulations that their days are numbered.
“We want Maasai Mara to be ranked the best game reserve in the world. Hence we cannot allow camps that do not meet the criteria to continue operating here,” Balala said.