Opening Uganda’s tourism doors wider

“Yours is a land of gorillas, amazing-wonderful lakes, mountains, waterfalls, lowlands, grasslands...you are an amazing country. No wonder years ago, Churchill named Uganda the Pearl of Africa and that, you are,” said Patricia Zurita of Bird Life International (USA) during this year’s Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo held at the Kampala Serena Hotel.
Bird Life International (USA) are the biggest partners of nature in the world, with 120 organisations around the world and Nature Uganda is their home partner.
Stephen Asiimwe, the chief executive officer of Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), and the board chairman, James Tumusiime, both resounded her praise for the country as did other stakeholders in the industry.

“The expo is largely creating awareness about what we offer as a country, and we have brought buyers from different countries, tour operators, birders and hotelier under one roof,” said Asiimwe.
This was seconded by Herbert Byaruhanga of Uganda Tourism Association (UTA), arguing that “those who think Uganda is not safe but logged with diseases have been disapproved because those hosted buyers have been here and are leaving in good health.”

Activities
The past two weeks leading to the expo, which closed last night, had various activities, including bird watching, safari drives, hiking, Fam trips for groups around Bwindi forest, Queen Elizabeth, Kibaalee, Semikili, Murchison falls and Kidepo valley national parks. Hosted buyers also went quad biking, bungee jumping, water rafting as far as Jinja. Kampala by night experience took visitors around city hangouts like Bubbles, the Pyramids, Guvnor, Silk Liquid, among other bars and clubs that contribute massively to tourism.

The birding day, which was flagged off last week, concluded last Wednesday with an award night at the Big Birding day.
Conferences and dialogues focused on role of women in travel, government’s role and the private sector in managing tourism destinations, donors in tourism development and conservation, let alone the launch of State of Birds for Uganda 2014 Report.

According to tallied results from Nature Uganda, the 425 participants counted and located 698 bird species among the more than 1,600 in areas including Queen Elizabeth National Park, which won the Best Birder award, with the largest number count of 357 species, followed by Murchison falls at 292.
Exhibitions paraded what Uganda has to offer in tourism, displaying cultural diversity where the Basoga had their own space under the brand “Proud Musoga”.
Hoteliers showed what services they offer, tour operators across the board, showed off their lodges and safari facilities.

Lessons
“We have been marketing ourselves through kiosks and that made it all difficult to sell Uganda. Now we have involved all our neighbours in the region and the world over because the only way we are going to compete with the best is if we have an international expo,” said Tumusiime. It is for this matter that the East Africa Tourism Platform (EATP) represented by Carmen Nibigira (Burundi), seeks to create a meeting place for both government and private sector to discuss challenges and connect platforms for tourism.
Bringing connectivity through airlines is provident for tourism because there is no justification for “a flight between Entebbe and Nairobi to be as expensive as more than $500 (about Shs1.7m) when it is within the East African Region. How then do we expect to travel across the board even with the single visa,” questioned Nibigira.

Accessibility
While Uganda has no airline and no one-way flight to Nigeria, Rwanda has reduced its cost to Mombasa to only $250 (about Shs850,000).
The same applies to hotels that were inspected. They were advised to reduce rates to cater for the domestic market and East Africa.
Uganda was advised to turn to social media marketing, and while at least $500,000 (about Shs1.7 billion) has been invested in agreements with South Africa, German, UK and Brazil to market Uganda, “we should be willing to spend on google Ads, facebook and twitter to open new markets” said Amos Wekesa, who sits on the UTB board.

Performances and Awards

“I didn’t go for the normal gorilla trekking but opted for Murchison falls and there is nothing like it in Kenya, and also Kidepo, is a pearl that is hidden and only endangered by the Sudan crisis but the government better have plans for this pearl,” said Monica Solanik of Kenya Tours.
Solanik joined a hub of visitors on the dance floor while Afrigo band reveled with live musical performances of tracks like Obangayina. Every night was logged with musical performances, cocktails and dinner.

Ndere troupe entertained the participants with multi regional fusion of our rich heritage through dances, music and dress, including their signature clay pot balance dance
The Tourism Excellence Awards filled Serena Victoria Ballroom, with South African duo Mafikizolo, and award winning comedian Anne Kansiime entertaining the guests. Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda graced the ceremony, which recognised best tour operators, safari companies, media practitioners, individuals and other stake holders in the tourism market.