The state of Uganda’s tourism sector sparks debate on the approaches that the sector should take to finance its growth. Having shaken off most of the negative perceptions that derailed its growth until the late 1990s, the sector has recovered considerably. According to figures from the ministry of Trade and Tourism, revenue from tourism was $350 million in 2006, $450 million in 2007 and $600 million in 2008.

A travel to Africa is not complete without a safari tour. We had no big expectations, having seen it all on National Geographic Channel already. The truth was: it really was exciting and raised our adrenaline levels.

The deal, which attracted a lot of opposition from tour firms, was given to the Nkuringo conservation and Development Foundation. Boniface Byamukama, the new president of the Association of Uganda Tour Operators, said the IGG’s report on Nkuringo was welcome, but added that it should not be a source of more problems in the sector.

“The IGG report is timely and we hope the relevant authorities will take action. “However, we don’t want it to cause commotion in the sector,” said Byamukama at the organisation’s annual general meeting at the Kampala Serena Hotel.

He promised to work with the Uganda Tourism Board and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to promote tourism in Uganda. Allan Emejeit of Equatorial Wild Safaris, Geoffrey Baluku from African Pearl Safaris and Pearl of Africa Tours and Travel’s Kelly McTavish were elected vice-chairman, secretary and treasurer respectively.

According to the report, the IGG directed UWA to cancel the contract, saying it was illegal. “The report will be a stepping stone in streamlining our industry,” added Baluku, the new secretary.

“The ministry of tourism should strengthen its supervisory role over UWA, without being informed of what it has already done regardless of its irregularity,” the IGG recommended in the report. Tour operators, led by James Bakeine, in 2007 complained to the IGG’s office about the irregularities in the gorilla trekking.

They argued then that the Uganda Wildlife Authority had signed the contract with a company to sell gorilla tracking permits, creating unfair competition. The IGG directed that the Nkuringo foundation be wound up because it does not serve the interests of the Nkuringo community.

For your Kenya safaris and Rwanda safaris

THE Inspector General of Government Raphael Baku has directed the Uganda Wildlife Authority to cancel all the illegal and irregular contracts it made with the Nkuringo Conservation and Development Foundation and Uganda Safari Company in Kisoro district.

The contracts were monopolizing Gorilla Tracking in Nkuringo on the Southern periphery of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

The IGG in a report “Monopoly of sale of Gorilla Tracking permits by Uganda Wildlife Authority to a private company,” directed UWA to comply with all the laws and policies that govern it in executing its mandate without taking advantage of the ignorance of the communities it works with.

“The illegal and irregular contracts, namely the agreement between Uganda Wildlife Authority and Nkuringo Conservation Development Foundation of 30/8/2004 and its addendums of 23/11/2006 and 29/11/2006 and the agreement between Nkuringo Conservation and Development Foundation and the Uganda Safari Company should be revoked,” the IGG said in the report.

Tourism stakeholders in 2007 complained to the IGG of discrimination, irregularities and illegalities in the management and issuance of gorilla trekking permits by the Uganda Wildlife Authority to a few companies.

They argued that this created unfair monopoly in the tourism business.
They were concerned that Uganda as a whole had lost tourism business including all benefits accruing from the sector to only one Kisoro Hotel operator, Uganda Safari Company, who had been given exclusive rights to sell gorilla trekking permits and allegedly attract tourists to an eco-lodge.

Investigations by the IGG office indicated that UWA encouraged individuals to form a private company with which they operated private businesses in respect to gorilla permit tourism, edging out others.

The IGG in the report recommended that UWA should draw up a well- thought out framework for the development of tourism opportunities for the whole region where Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is located not for particular isolated areas.

“The sub-counties of Nyabwishenya and Kirundo where Rubuguri and Nteko parishes respectively fall, should, in consultation with the district takeover the Nkuringo tourism project and improve development for the benefit of their communities after other modalities have been addressed.

“The sub-counties have the mandate and capacity to plan for their local communities, and can be held responsible for transparency, accountability and reporting because they have a planning and budgeting mandate for their parishes,” the report said.

Mountain gorillas | About mountain gorillas

World Environment Day (WED) falls each year on 5 June. It is a day when people focus on the environment and it is celebrated in over 100 countries. World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.

The World Environment Day is created to promote environmental issues to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development. It promotes an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues and advocates partnership that will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future. World Environment Day embodies this approach, raising awareness, encouraging people to voice their thoughts and do their utmost to improve the environment.

However, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) selected the Rwandan capital of Kigali as the epicenter for this year’s festivities because of its environmental richness, including rare and economically important species such as the mountain gorillas (for more about mountain gorillas), as well as its pioneering transition to a ‘green’ economy. The theme of this year’s Day will be “Many Species. One Planet. One Future.”

“Rwanda is an African nation that, despite big challenges, is seizing the multiple opportunities possible from green economic policies,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

Additionally, on February 18, 2010 Rwanda was chosen to play global host to celebrations for the 2010 World Environment Day which is observed annually on 5 June, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced. The announcement was made based on Rwanda’s combination of environmental richness, including rare and economically important species such as the mountain gorillas, allied to newly evolving and pioneering green policies is among the reasons why UNEP welcomed its offer to be the global 2010 host. For your Rwanda safari

Following the East African country, known as the “land of a thousand hills,” is turning to some innovative environmental strategies, such as a ban on plastic bags, ecological clean up campaigns, a conservation corridor for chimpanzees, and the development of renewable energies such as solar power and biogas generation, noted UNEP.

More so, “the pairing of Rwanda with World Environment Day in 2010 is thus a compelling and inspiring alliance, underlining that all economies, rich and poor and North and South, have real and tangible opportunities to shape a more sustainable development path,” stressed Mr. Steiner.

The director of  United Nation Environment programme added on and said this year’s celebrations are slated to be bigger than ever before, building on the unprecedented success of 2009 when people in more than 80 countries registered activities on the World Environment Day website and more than 10,000 people joined the “twitter for trees” campaign.

Since the World Environment Day can be celebrated in many ways, including street rallies, bicycles parades, green concerts, essay and poster competitions in schools, tree planting, recycling efforts, clean-up campaigns and much more. In many countries, this annual event is used to enhance political, social economic and environmental attention and action of the people.

In a related development, UNEP announced a series of green measures for October’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, from boosting energy efficiency and air quality to expanding the city’s forests. ‘The Commonwealth Games, like the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, represent an inordinate opportunity to pilot innovative ideas and transformational policies able to deliver a low-carbon, resource efficient green economy,” said Mr. Steiner.

“The potential positive impact for Delhi’s 14 million inhabitants is matched by the environmental awareness generated across the world,” he added. “UNEP is delighted to be working with the Commonwealth Games for the first time ever and look forward to a positive environmental legacy for the residents of this historic capital city.”

Therefore, this celebration will be too advantageous to the Tourism sector of the East African Region, and due to such celebrations one shouldn’t miss in life to visit Rwanda and be close to the natural beauty of the Land of Thousand Hills.

For more information on Rwanda gorilla trekking, such as 3 days gorilla safari or Rwanda cultural safaris visit the Rwanda mountain gorillas website.

The Ugandans have sacrificed a lot for the conservation of forests in order to support the development of the tourism industry. This is evidenced when the Uganda local’s community refused Mabira forest to be used for industrialization due to its rich bio- diversity which the forest has like primates, birds, butterflies and many other tourism attractions. The Buganda kingdom cabinet also decided to take this matter to the Constitutional Court to fight for the protection of the environment and all forests.

However some tourists had there views/comment about the Mabira forest like the people who do bird watching in Uganda and other eco-tourists, it is a famous site,” Dr Magin said. “It would be a tragedy if so much of it was lost to this short-sighted venture.”

A recent study by the conservation group Nature Uganda highlighted Mabira’s economic importance to the country, particularly its carbon and water storage, and the provision of food, medicine and wood to local communities.

Additionally, the Bidco company also revealed that it wants more forest in Bugala but the Uganda people went a head and said “Let us Ugandans not only look at the present but focus more on the generations to come because what was once known as “the pearl of Africa” should stand for generations but not to sink into a deep ocean day by day”. More so, they also said money will  not save our country For it were brains that built money so let us begin to think before it’s too late.

Due to the above reasons, it clearly indicates that Tourism conservation is done by the local communities who live near the Tour attractions though even other sectors contribute the same like the government, private sector among others. Therefore Tourism decisions in Uganda move through a chain like a saying that goes “A parent can only guide you but the decision remains yours to make”. And also “the Chinese saying goes, “even a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”.

The advantage that Uganda has is the natural resources, experiences of the developed world to learn from and for such reasons; Uganda is able to responsibly utilize resources for development, rather than negative exploitation hence making Uganda the best place for holiday vacations and Wildlife safaris. Remember to discover the best of Africa, the answer is in Uganda.

All East African countries are positively working together in order to market East Africa as one tourism destination. However, Kenya is actively pursuing a tourism marketing strategy that will present the East Africa region as one tourist destination, says tourism Minister Najib Balala. This is especially so in the international trade fairs, collection of tourism statistics, taxation regimes and training.

Though Kenya faces stiff competition from Tanzania as a tourist destination of choice in the East African region. The two countries are locked in a tight scramble for international tourists and revenue, even as East African Community partner states prepare to market the region as a single tourist destination. On addition, even Uganda gained reaffirmed itself as East Africa’s number one tourist destination at the year 2008 World Travel Market (WTM) exhibition held at Excel London from November – East African safari

Of late, the East African Legislative Assembly wants the five countries under the East African Community to manage their tourism and wildlife sectors jointly in the East African Community Tourism and Wildlife Management Bill, 2008. The assembly seeks to establish a commission to coordinate the development of the sector in the region and this is aimed to harmonise the national policies, laws, regulations and standards concerning tourism and wildlife. The private member’s Bill moved by Safina Kwekwe Tsungu (Kenya), was yesterday read for the second and third times in the House, chaired by the Speaker, Abdulrahin Abdi.

The Bill was supported by the members, but with a few amendments proposed by the committee on agriculture, tourism, and natural resources.Tsungu said sustainable tourism development requires deliberate and concerted common policies, which will guide and facilitate the actions of the respective governments and private sectors. “It is imperative to charge this responsibility through the relevant legislation to a legally constituted framework that defines the parameters to work out and coordinate the cooperation areas in the income-generating sector in the region,” she said.

Kate Kamba (Tanzania) said the region was endowed with enormous natural resources, whose management is burdened by bureaucracy among the member countries.

She said wild animals wonder across borders and, therefore, it is essential that the East African countries manage wildlife together. For example the Rushegura gorilla family crossed from Uganda to Rwanda and DRC and this is evidenced by the report which was made by the Uganda Wildlife Authority that “the Rushegura gorilla group moved from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest national Park into the DRC Congo on the 1st of September 2008”.
The was statement was confirmed by the Executive Director of Uganda Wildlife Authority Moses Mapesa and as a result, groups booked for the Rushegura group were n diverted to the Bitukura group in Ruhija and Nshongi group. The Uganda wildlife authority concluded by saying,” We need a united policy to protect the wildlife and manage the transport sector, which is vital in the tourism industry.” This meant that Uganda is very ready to work hand in hand with other countries in order to protect and conserve natural tourism resources.

Gervase Akhaabi (Kenya) said tourism provides a large proportion of employment and comparative management of the industry has an advantage to the region. “It is important that we recognize tourism as important in our agenda of improving the economic wellbeing of our people, which is a core objective for the community,” he said.

Therefore, one shouldn’t hesitate to support the development and conservation of the tourism industry in East Africa and this can be done through investing in un developed tourism potentials in the region, visiting the region attractions and also funding the developing projects with in the region.

For tour packages to East Africa visit: gorilla tours Africa, African Safari Kenya

Uganda’s Bwindi impenetrable forest national park is home to over half of the 750 mountain gorillas that live in the wild. The Uganda Wildlife Authority in a bid to help sensitize and raise awareness about the plight of the endangered mountain gorillas has helped in habituating some of the mountain gorilla families in order to promote tourism.

The latest group of mountain gorillas being in a bid to help in the promotion of tourism is the Bikingi group of gorillas found in the southern region of Bwindi impenetrable forest which is found in the South Western border region of Uganda. Habituation which is the process of making these mountain gorillas acquitted with human presence is also done for some chimpanzees in the wild. It however, does not involve taming the mountain gorillas as it is necessary for them to maintain their wild nature.

According to Sam Mwandha the director of conservation with Uganda Wildlife Authority, the habituation of the Bikingi mountain gorilla group is expected to take a couple of months before they can be able to accept the presence of human beings in their vicinity.

There is currently a number of mountain gorilla families (34 in all) found in Bwindi impenetrable national park. Of these those that have been habituated are 8 mountain gorilla families. These include Kyaguriro, Rushegura, Nkuringo, Mubare, Bitukura, Habinyanja and one that was habituated recently the Nsongi family. The habituation of these mountain gorillas has taken place over the last 20 years. According to statistics gorilla tracking contributes approximately 40% -50% of the revenue earned from tourism. The habituation of the Bikingi group of mountain gorillas is expected to be the last group to be habituated till 2012.

Uganda has in the past performed dismally during the World Travel Markets (WTM), however, during the 2009 World Travel Market that was held in London in November which is the largest English-speaking travel fair in the World currently, Uganda held its biggest showpiece ever. This was as a result of the money that the government injected into the tourism sector. The Country stood out among the different countries that participated in the WTM and this can only spell good things for the tourism industry in Uganda.

With the appropriate resources, Uganda can see itself achieve the target of one million tourists by 2012 that has been set by the Uganda Tourism Board. The year 2008 saw about 850,000 tourists visiting Uganda and there has been about a 10% increase in the number of tourists visiting Uganda annually.

During the November 2009 World Travel Market, Uganda was for the first time able to take traditional dancers from all the regions of the Country and were able to showcase Uganda’s culture and dances. The colorful event attracted throngs of people who attended the Travel Market adding an extra dimension to Uganda’s tourism.

In the past Uganda’s neighbors like Tanzania and Kenya would completely outdo her. However, this time Uganda’s stall saw an increase in the number of people visiting as a result of the money the government injected into the promotions. Rwanda which was once an add on safari destination to Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya had previously outdone her neighbors with the marketing of the mountain gorillas, which are unique to Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This prompted Uganda to do more to promote its tourism industry as there’s a lot of tour attractions to offer ranging from birding safaris, mountain climbing, adventure sporting activities like white water rafting along the Nile River, bungee jumping and Kayaking, game drives, cultural safaris and many more.

The influx of tourists and Hollywood celebrities to the Friend-a-gorilla campaign attests to the success of the World Travel Market. The campaign which aims at getting people around the world to do gorilla tracking online using social networking sites like Facebook and Tweeter was introduced to the world during the London Travel Market during which people were encouraged to sign on. In just a month’s time there was already about 20,000 subscribers to the Friend-a-gorilla website with each contributing 1 US dollar as a sign-on fee.

There is also an increase in the number of tourists and tour operators making inquiries for packages that the Country has to offer. It is hoped that this promotion drive will be carried on to the other Travel Markets which are held in Madrid, Berlin and Italy (Milan).

The Hollywood stars that were involved in raising funds for the Friend-a-Gorilla campaign included among others Jason Biggs who was the star in the American Pie movie. They were able to raise funds for the Uganda Wildlife Authority and the awareness about the endangered mountain gorillas in Los Angeles and Washington before coming down to launch the website with the President of Uganda.

The Uganda Tourism Board (Uganda safari) has been trying to work together with the Zoo Society to not only raise about the gorillas but also help promote tourism and also meet tour operators who are able to sell Uganda safari packages to people in America and Europe.

Uganda is indeed blessed with nature and the CNN campaign dubbed “Gifted By Nature”  that was run for only a couple of months correctly captures the wonders that GOD has bestowed on this tiny Country.

The Country is home to over half the remaining World’s remaining population of mountain gorillas. With the help of Hollywood celebrities like Jason Biggs the Friend-a-Gorilla initiative was such a success and this lends credence to the old argument that citizens do not have to always wait for their governments to carry out major development decisions.
For Uganda tours packages please visit http://uganda.toursgorilla.com