Park fee payments - the new rules

Wednesday 3rd October 2007

The new rules regarding payment of park fees are finally with us. The rules are all to do with how the fees are paid – namely, that from now the fees must be paid by a debit card. As far as I can tell, the trekking agencies obtain these cards from the bank (for Kilimanjaro, they are with the CRDB Bank, though other national parks in Tanzania use different banks), presumably handing over the park fees to the bank in return (speaking to trekking agencies, there seems to be some confusion about this). They then take these cards to pay for the fees at the park gates. The cards are accepted at Marangu, Machame, Londorossi and Mweka gates.

To be honest, we don’t think these new rules will impinge upon trekkers to a significant extent – if, indeed, at all; though it may happen that trekking agencies will start to insist that you to give them the money for your park fees at an earlier date. The practice of paying by travellers’ cheques or US dollars cash at the gate is also being phased out - so if you’ve been told to bring travellers’ cheques or cash to pay for your park fees, ask your agent how these new rules will affect you.

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