Promote tourism by making the best use of available heritage

Cameroon has a rich and varied natural and cultural heritage. It is naturally endowed with 35 hunting zones, 11 national parks, 3 zoos, 6 wildlife reserves, 2 sanctuaries and many others. In addition, Cameroon is an important reservoir of culture, with nearly 250 ethnic groups with diverse traditions and age-old rites. In the northern part of the country, we have the Waza, Bénoué and Bouba Ndjida parks. In the South Cameroon region, the Dja Reserve is one of the largest and best protected humid forests in Africa. The Campo Ma’an Reserve still in the southern region is rich in animal biodiversity. The Mefou National Park in the central region is a primate sighting site. The Korup National Park in the Southwest
Region is Africa’s richest forest, with 1,700 species of plants. It should also be noted that in this region Mount Cameroon (4070 m) attracts trekking tourism, as well as the Botanical Garden of Limbe.

Our tourism goals are:

• Highlight the country’s outstanding sites;
• Develop ornithological tourism;
• Develop historical tourism;
• Create infrastructure for congress tourism, beach tourism and mountain tourism.

Highlight the country’s outstanding sites

• We will develop an eco-tourism in the many exceptional sites which abounds in our country;
• The missions of the Ministry of Tourism will be strengthened to promote tourism respectful of our ecosystem;
• Villagers will be integrated in the management of the environment. We will teach them how to protect tourist areas;
• We will highlight the mangroves of Bakassi;
• Gorillas in the Deng-Deng Forest Zone will be given special attention;
• Kalama Lome Park will be rehabilitated;
• We will encourage investors to create parks;
• We will make Bimbia the new ‘Gorée’ by a rehabilitation on historical bases and its promotion at national and international level;
• We will organise the discovery of tropical woods;
• We will establish a tourist circuit on the presence of Germans in Cameroon: with cities like Buea (with the Governor’s Palace), Yaoundé, Lolodorf (with the residence of Zinker to restore), sites in Nyong-Ekele (Marie Emberg College ), the city of Dschang (with the Climate Centre), etc.

An infrastructure for tourism

• We will encourage the construction or operation of hotels, guest houses, restaurants that comply with interna tional standards throughout the country, by proposing such good projects for financing, to the interested public, and by supporting the access of promoters at the reduced rate credit of the Crédit Foncier or the OSME, facility currently reserved only for the projects of habitats.
• We will support the creation of destination-based tourism agencies throughout the country and the organisation of travel and holidays to these destinations, in cooperation with transport companies, hotels and guest houses. This dynamic will surely generate many jobs for the construction of hotels but also the management of accommodation, catering, transport, etc …