Birding in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Negative travel advisories, reports of human rights abuse by state security agencies as well as the controversial anti-homosexuality law continue to have a heavy toll on Uganda’s tourism sector.
Countries like the United States of America, Canada, and the UK among others have maintained level three travel advisories on Uganda. Some of those advisories are on Queen Elizabeth and the Murchison Falls National Parks.
A level three tourism advisory advises travelers/ nationals to avoid non-essential travel to a destination due to potential threats to their well-being.
These concerns dominated several session of the just concluded Sixth Biannual Bi-Annual Private Sector CEO retreat held in Fort-Portal City in Kabarole District.
Players in tourism and the hospitality say latest developments have created a negative image about Uganda as a tourism destination despite it immense potential in what it offers.
They suggest that the government of Uganda should work on its image and fix the problem of negative travel advisories. Tourism Minister, Tom Butime attentively listened as a tourism and hospitality industry vented their frustration.
Praveen Moman, the founder of Volcanoes Safaris in Bwindi and Mount Gahinga and Kibale in Uganda lifted the lid off the boiling pot by raising the negative effect of advisories and issues related to human rights are the tourism sector.
“One of the main things that deflects visitors from this country are the human rights laws; and I know all of you know which law I’m talking about, but I’m not going to mention it. It is for a government of a country to decide what laws it enacts. It is not for an individual like me to comment on it!” he said.
“We have had negative travel advisories for the last twenty eight years for different reasons and that hampers the business for all of us,” Moman went on.
Moman who also runs similar business in Rwanda, suggested that the government directly engages some of the countries with level three travel advisories on Uganda.
“How do you change the image, how do you change the perception, because remember in the sixties, Uganda had a strong perception!” Moman told the retreat in the presence of UWA Executive Director, Dr. James Musinguzi and other top officials in the tourism sector.
“One of the major countries in the world has a category 3 travel advice for this country, which is at the same level of Somalia, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan, and I leave it to everybody in this room and anybody who is listening to say, is that a valid comparison?” he asked “Is this something that is appropriate? Well, some of us have tried for years to challenge this. But what is the government of Uganda doing to do this? We have a major government that has a restriction on Queen Elizabeth National Park. Is that justified? Why is it justified?” asked Moman.
Fort Portal City MP, Alex Ruhunda while reacting to Moman, wondered how countries in the West can compare Uganda to Somalia.
“How dare can they compare us with Somalia, where there are bombs every day? And yet we passed a big budget for UTB to market Uganda. So what is the problem? I think UTB, you must come clean on this, and explain!”
Amos Wekesa, the proprietor and managing director of Great Lakes Safaris has raised these issues before. As the CEOs met in Kabarole he used his X platform to amplify it further.
Wekesa posted: “The biggest 3 obstacles have been health and security information handling plus the negative travel advisories. Behind the scenes we have been engaging different players including the President of Uganda. Almost every single 50 countries that form Europe have Uganda in either orange or red zone for travel advisories. It is completely unfair for Uganda. USA has Uganda at level 3!” J
Juliana Kagwa, the Chairperson Uganda Tourism Board said the budget for the board was cut by a half in the financial year 2023/2024. She said that with the budget cut in place, the board still expects to ramp up efforts to clean Uganda’s image
Other challenges to the tourism sector
Dr. Patrick Birungi, Executive director of Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) shared his personal experience in trying to travel to Kabarole for the CEO Retreat. He cited cancelled travel by road to Fort Portal because the state of the road. Incidentally, Dr Birungi like Tom Butime comes from Tooro.
“On Wednesday last week, I left Fort Portal and I drove through that road. So this time, it said, you can’t take me back on that road. So when they did just that, I canceled and then I asked my colleague to join,” said Birungi. On second thoughts, Birungi decided take a flight from Entebbe to Kasese, then drive to Fort Portal for the retreat.
“But in my journey here, I learned a few things already. Number one is that when I reached the airport, I was lining up with the people going to Istanbul. So the queue was very long. And I’m going to Uganda. So I noted that if we are to promote tourism, we need to promote a domestic terminal at Entebbe,” he shared. Moman said that it is absurd that a passenger head fort a domestic flight in Uganda through Entebbe has to join the queue for passengers traveling to Istanbul.
“My second learning when I reached the plane, of about 12 seats, there were about 8 people on the plane, but I was the only black on the plane. Only black and therefore only Ugandan, most likely, on that plane. So meaning that these flights are actually supporting tourism. My third learning was when we landed in Kasese. I realized we were landing on grass. So what was going in my mind was, how much does it cost really to do a tarmac runway from there to there?” asked Birungi.
Olive Lumonya, deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority said for the runway in Kasese to be fixed, the Civil Aviation Authority requires $43 million. The runway in Kasese is about four kilometers long. “One of the things they will do is to first of all divert the railway line. Now when you do a runway. It’s almost six times what you’ll do. So for example the 3.5 kilometer runway is equivalent to 21 kilometer road because the impact of an aircraft.” said Lumonya.
Bad roads to the Rwenzori
Travelers have complained about the state of the road through Mubende to Fort Portal City in Kabarole district. While that roads leads to most of the tourism destinations, it has deteriorated and yet there is no indication that it will be worked on soon. Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi and Mugahinga are the main tourism destinations of Uganda yet the roads are impassable.
“If you have a road that cannot get you to Fort Portal in a certain amount of time, you have to ask yourself how you can discuss tourism. I spend most of the time pushing vehicles and rescuing others in Bwindi and Gahinga” said Proveen Moman.
Alex Ruhunda concurred with Moman about the state of the road through Mubende, Kabarole towards Kasese.
“Actually for me, every time I pass that road, I get goose pimples, I curse, and yet you know, the people, they see us as people who are decision makers,” Ruhunda said. “Really, you people who are supposed to implement and make this country move, why are you making life difficult for us? I want really the Minister of Finance and the National Planning Authority to come clean on this.”
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