Improve tourism infrastructure

Uganda was recently named one of the top 16 emerging travel destinations in the world for the year 2016 by American news organisation, CNN.

CNN’s travel writer Anisha Shah highlighted the silverback mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest saying tracking these animals is the best wildlife safari in the world.

The writer also pointed out the sanctuary, where rescued and orphaned chimpanzees live out their days on an island in Lake Victoria and the fact that visitors can cross the equator by boat through Africa’s largest lake.

According to Ministry of tourism, on average, tourism contributes about Shs6.5b to our Gross Domestic Product. The growth is captured in the government tourism master plan that seeks to at least see the same triple in the next five years. The growth has been a result of an increased visitor numbers, which in the 2014/15 financial year, grew from 1,206,334 to 1,266,046.

While being named as a top tourist destination is good, there is still a lot to be done to improve our tourism sector to be able to increase revenue. The tourist attractions named in Ms Shah’s article are only a fraction of what we have to offer. Many of these places, however, do not receive the deserved tourist traffic due to poor marketing and publicity. Besides marketing, we still grapple with the problem of infrastructure.

Just last week, 38 German tourists travelling to Kalangala Islands for the Christmas holiday refused to board the ferry in Entebbe after finding the docking site in a bad shape. (Daily Monitor December 28). According to Ssese Islands Tours and Travel operations manager, Mr Daniel Muguluma, the tourists refused to board MV Kalangala when they found it anchored by stones and rocks in the lake. Mr Muguluma said the tourists were to spend a fortnight in Kalangala and had already paid $2,800 (about Shs9 million) each. He says some of this money had to be refunded. At other sites, the absence of proper accommodation drives tourists away.

The government should take advantage of pronouncements such as CNN’s to boost revenue from the industry. However, this can only be possible if infrastructure at these sites is improved and made conducive for tourists and marketing and publicity is heightened.

In a bid to make the most from tourism, government should also encourage local tourism. We should be able to embrace our own attractions by visiting and having the same experiences that people like Ms Shah are writing about. Although revenue from local tourists cannot be compared to that from their foreign counterparts, it will still boost the sector.