Tanzania wants to boost tourist numbers by putting a cable car on Africa’s tallest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro. Tanzania the deputy minister for tourism, Constantine Kanyasu, said a cable car could increase tourist numbers by 50% by providing access to the mountain for those unable to climb it. Meanwhile 50,000 tourists climb Kilimanjaro annually.

Concerned about the development, Porter and guide groups who take tourists up the mountain oppose the project because they fear cable cars will reduce the number of climbers. Loishiye Mollel, head of Tanzania Porters’ Organization, said visitors normally spend a week climbing the mountain. “One visitor from the US can have a maximum of 15 people behind him, of which 13 are porters, a cook and a guide. All these jobs will be affected by a cable car,” he said, “We are of the view that the mountain should be left as it is.”

At the moment, the country is holding discussions about the project with a Chinese and a western company, while conducting feasibility studies on possible routes for the service.