Tour operators in Uganda have for long lamented about the low level of marketing, the Uganda Tourism Board – UTB is doing in as far as promoting the enormous tourism potential of this Pearl of Africa.
It was no wonder that during the president’s speech held at the State House in Entebbe, he lambasted the entire board and referred to the Uganda Tourism Board as “Uganda Temporarily Board”. The president was speaking during the Presidential Tourism Initiative in which is he heavily criticized and expressed his unhappiness about the way the tourism board in Uganda is running its responsibilities. His Excellency said the tourism board lacks originality and are lax in marketing the country’s tourism potential.
Uganda has had to look for expertise knowledge from outside the country unlike its immediate neighbors like Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya who have developed thorough and successful marketing strategies locally with great results.
Uganda has solicited for help from the UNDP – United Nations Development Program in its search for a consult to help develop a marketing strategy to help promote the country’s image internationally. The President has been hugely disappointed by the way the board is being run. In the neighboring countries of Kenya and Tanzania, tourism has played a major role in helping communities get out of poverty and has led to the development of infrastructure in the areas around tour attractions.
However, the fact that the country has perennially given the Uganda Tourism Board a shoestring budget needs not to be under looked. Kenya and Rwanda have consistently for the last couple of years given tourism boards 10m US dollars and 5m US dollars respectively to market their tourism industry.
It is common knowledge that the Uganda Tourism Board has on many occasions failed to appear at many of the international trade shows and when they do their exhibition cannot be compared to that of her neighbors. However, this has been different in the last couple of years and a case in point being the recently concluded travel market at the Berlin Trade show.
The president said the Tourism Board has focused on mountain gorillas mainly and the Big five, making the country look like a gorilla tour destination only and yet there are other major attractions like lakes, rivers, birds (Uganda has over 50% of the bird species record in Africa). He said the board is using archaic methods of marketing the country’s tourism potential.
However, stakeholders in the industry also blame the government for inconsistency. Many say that the government does one off events and lack the consistency needed to achieve results. Some have pointed out the CNN ads that the government did in marketing Uganda a couple of years back. The say that for tourism in Uganda to achieve results, the government has to have a strategic plan and a means of sustaining the policies and programs that are put in place and not just keep offering lip service as far as the industry is concerned.
Lonely Planet the largest online travel magazine and travel advisory voted Uganda the best travel destination for 2012. Uganda safari packages include; mountain gorilla safari in Bwindi national park as well as birding, mountaineering in Rwenzori and Mountain Elgon, cultural tours, adventure activities like kayaking and bungee jumping along the Nile river, whitewater rafting on the Nile and many more.
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