Meru, Huangshan sign pact to boost mountain tourism

Mount Kenya National Park and Huangshan Mountain on Dec 16 signed a five-year sister park agreement to enable the former to improve mountain tourism to attract more visitors.

Under the agreement, the two parks will cooperate on scientific exploration, management of natural resources and visitor experience oversight.

The cooperation will help enrich the experience and training of the personnel of both parks through projects of international cooperation.

The relationship allows the parks to benefit by sharing collaboration experiences and approaches including local efforts to work with gateway communities, regional and local economies, groups and partner organizations.

This may be accomplished primarily through the exchange of managerial, technical and professional knowledge as well as information, data, technology, training, and experience.

Speaking during the signing ceremony, Kiraitu Murungi, the governor of Meru county, said the areas of cooperation are sharing park management methods and philosophies; sharing cultural and natural resource management methods and techniques; and electronic communication and technical information exchanges, including programs for science and resource management applications.

This is in addition to environmental education techniques, programs and facilities, including plans and designs for youth education camps and curriculum.

The cooperation also includes recreation and ecotourism management and planning, including private and public partnerships for economic development; as well as the sharing of approaches to developing volunteer and "friends" organizations for park support.

"We promise to strengthen the cooperation between the two parks, and look forward to more Chinese visiting Mount Kenya and more Kenyans visiting Huangshan," he said.

Murungi was particularly stunned by the number of tourists from across the world who flocked to the park. He learned that the city receives 65 million visitors annually.

He was also impressed by the beauty of Huangshan and the developments in it raging from staircases and cable cars to hotels on top of the mountain.