Is domestic tourism sustainable?

There is a sudden rush and excitement about domestic tourism. Last month, the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) launched ‘Tulambule Uganda’. A month earlier, the Uganda Travel Month slated for October, was launched.
Last weekend, Ugandans went on a camping safari to Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) for the ‘Camp Comedy’ where comedians performed for tourists. That was after RoundBob organised #CoctailsInTheWild. Then, tourists in hundreds visited national parks across the country.
There are more of such good efforts to get the average Ugandan to travel and explore attractions within their country. The individuals running many of the campaigns are young people in the private sector.
Phillip Kalibwani’s Pearl Guide is organising the travel month under which he is taking corporate groups to tourism attractions, Felix Dolibondo is in charge of Camp Comedy while David Gonahasa was in charge of #CoctailsInTheWild.
John Ssempebwa, the deputy chief executive officer of UTB says the objectives of the Tulambule campaign is to encourage Ugandans to visit tourism sites within the country, increase awareness of the sites to visit, encourage more investment by private sector in tourism sites and to lobby district and government leadership to invest in tourism infrastructure.
According to Ssempebwa, all is in place for tourism to flourish.
“After elections, Ugandans now want to live in peace to enjoy their country. The Uganda Cranes have done Uganda proud already (by qualifying for Afcon). UNRA has also provided good roads, there is peace everywhere and it is safe to travel. Telecoms have invested to promote communication everywhere. Electricity is spreading first. So why wouldn’t Ugandans tour their country? Tourism is everybody’s business.”

Potential
Eric Ntaro, a tourism enthusiast argues that the Uganda tourism industry has incredible potential to help generate growth, create jobs and enable development.
“It is unfortunate though that we have not fully tapped into this potential. The Tulambule initiative is one of the many great steps by different players to promote the potential of domestic tourism. We have heard about Koi koi, Ondaba, etc. The only challenge is the execution of the initiative,” he observes.
However, some tour operators have castigated UTB for coming out to run tour operations.
According to Amos Wekesa, the director of Great Lakes Safaris, UTB is acting out of its mandate in organising the Tulambule Uganda excursions.
“UTB, which is supposed to be creating an enabling environment is also trying to do Tulambule directly, yet charging money. UTB is being given resources by the government of Uganda to specifically make sure they create an enabling environment for Ugandan tour companies to flourish,” Wekesa argues.
But Gonahasa says government is deliberately trying to spur activity in local tourism, which he says is good.
“I think it is a good initiative. It creates visibility for domestic tourism. It gets locals to understand “tourism” and is a sign of growing government interest,” Gonahasa states.
His fear though is the lack of sustainability for the Tulambule Uganda initiative.
“After going to Mbarara what next? There doesn’t seem to be actual documentation of touristic option. There doesn’t seem to be a plan to package these options. There just doesn’t seem to be a post party plan. But it is good that there is some action in that direction,” he adds.
Gonahasa’s idea is unique. He works with agents in different parts of the country to strengthen his bookings for domestic travel, and also strengthen agents’ package development capacity.
He believes that if an agent based in Mbarara created a package and sold it through RoundBob, it would be richer, and also allow for more equitable distribution of tourism monies.
His company is developing into a platform that allows agents curate and make available package options from destinations they live in. His argument is that with more relevant information, it helps negate the cost as more people will travel domestically.

Supporting needed
Wekesa wants UTB to support efforts of young people who are organising domestic tourism trips.
“More work needs to be done, and rethinking too. I think what we need is a proper strategy because there is no strategy. Yes, we are trying to market the country’s tourism potential but our arrivals at the airport are still very small. Jumping all over, from a Rolex Festival to Tulambule is not sustainable. You have to have a clear strategy that we can follow and is going to bring results to the country,” he further argues.
Ntaro agrees but says there is need to liaise with the various local tourism stakeholders and the minister should simply do promotions through private players to have numbers.
“I wish to see corporates, campusers, party animals on these domestic tours, but not the usual tourism managers. A lot is needed in terms of promoting and mobilising masses for these weekend escapades following what I witnessed in Mbarara at the first edition,” he says.

NUMBERS

Uganda has between 1.3 and 1.4 million annual arrivals at Entebbe International Airport, which is within range of what Rwanda has recently achieved, also receiving about 1.3 million airport arrivals in a year at Kigali International Airport. Kilimanjaro Airport has close to 5 million airport arrivals annually.
According to Jean Byamugisha, the executive director at Uganda Hotel Owners’ Association (UHOA), hotels have been grappling with low occupancy rates.
“We are so happy and grateful to our minister for launching the Tulambule campaign to encourage domestic tourism. As hoteliers, we are launching special rates for domestic tourism. We are ready to offer discounts to big groups of Ugandans and local residents so that they can travel and visit our beautiful country.”

Most three-star hotels upcountry charge between Shs50,000 and Shs80,000 and between Shs100, 000 to Shs150, 000 for four-star hotels.
John Ssempebwa says UTB alone cannot successfully promote tourism.
“Willingness to travel depends on so many factors. Roads, hotels, information, security, peace, not demonstrations, transport, restaurants, telecoms, cost of fuel and attractiveness of sites. All these stakeholders have to come on board for tourism to flourish,” Ssempebwa adds.

They say
Andrew Kyamagero- radio presenter
Well, I guess the timing is right but a lot is lacking. Local tourism needs to be everyone’s business from the boda guys to the corporate Ugandans. I am happy that they are using Ugandan Influencers such as Eddy Kenzo. This shouldn’t stop on Kenzo alone. I am of a thought that influencers from different regions need to be considered for domestic tourism. When it starts from the regional level and heads to the national level, we will have a very well-aligned strategy to run domestic tourism.

Felix Jesero aka Dolibondo, comedian
We have a lot of good features in the country but we miss out publicity.
However tour operators also need to scope out their space, create and develop products and sell unique services. We can all sell the Big 5, gorillas and the Nile, we need to start to invest in sector based Research & Development (R&D) and appreciate government efforts.