Tourism Forum discusses tourism issues in Uganda – Uganda safaris and Tours.
Uganda tourist Association had a tourist conference today at Hotel Africa to go over the state of travel, opportunities, issues, and future direction for Uganda. Completely attended by government and business sector prayers, various topics were addressed for the good of the industry.
Tourism Forum
The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Tourism gave a key note speech and then proceeded to discuss tourism data most particularly about trends and changes in visitor numbers to Uganda. He also examined the visitor count in national parks and the trends in those numbers.
It was observed in his presentation that compared to past years, the number of foreign non-residents visiting Uganda has dropped. He listed the reasons for this as spanning from last year when an Ebola epidemic occurred in west Africa, terror warnings, Marburg outbreaks, global economic crisis, Uganda being labelled as an expensive travel destination.
Emphasizing that their main responsibility is to preserve and interact with the private sector engaged in presenting Uganda as a tourism destination, the director of Tourism business and development also gave figures of visitor inflow in Uganda National park. She said that the Uganda Wildlife Authority has verified that her rates for 2016 would remain the same and that only few alterations will be made.
Using this chance, he launched cheap gorilla permits for the months of April, May, and November 2016-17. For international non-residents is 800. Uganda Wildlife Authority has decided to schedule a third chimpanzee trekking session whereby visitors can walk chimps at 8am, 11am and 2pm in order to maximize on the profits.
Following their research, it was found that tourists mostly visit Kibale National park during high season compared to low seasons. More room will therefore be sought to accommodate more visitors trekking chimpanzees during peak season.
During low seasons of April, May, and November in Kibale National Park, Uganda’s wildlife Authority will also provide cheap chimpanzee permits for only $200, thereby allowing all those eager to trek chimpanzees in low season to save $200.
The director of the tourist industry pointed out that Uganda Wildlife Authority encounters difficulties even as all these are being implemented and would not stop in their cause. He urged all stakeholders to check their prices most notably during low season to make Uganda a reasonably priced travel destination.
The Executive Director of Uganda Tourism Board observed at the same session that their budget had been raised by 11 billion and that much of the money they had drawn from UNDP was for training and product development. He therefore urged every member of the commercial sector present to use this opportunity and get training on improved tourist sales techniques.
He also told them that the cost of tourism will be down and Uganda was going to engage PR agencies in USA to advertise the country as a travel destination. As the global market heals from hiatus, he urged members to embrace domestic tourism. He underlined the need of regional clusters in promoting tourism and urged all industries to cooperate to create it.
He also urged the business sector to create a lobby team to interact with government so that it may realize that tourism ranks first among foreign currency earners in the nation. He also told members that important travel routes to be developed had been planned by Uganda Tourism Board in concert with Uganda National Road Authority.
This forum addressed several problems, and members decided that this should be a monthly gathering for all tourism stakeholders to discuss topics relevant to the industry. The head of Uganda Tourism Association reassured attendees that input would be anticipated as a report will be developed and delivered to government after every three months.
Be the first to know about more details on tourism challenges in Uganda discussed by the Tourism Forum. Consult Katland Safaris for specifics.
