What mesmerizes you about Uganda’s tourism?
Every region in Uganda is unique in its own way: Fort Portal it’s cool, Kasese is wild, Rwenzoris are cool too. When we recently went to Kidepo Valley National Park, it was crazy to see 2,000 buffalos grazing together.
If you go to Murchison Falls National Park, it is an amazing spectacle seeing the waterfalls. Uganda is an incredible country. Unfortunately, Ugandans have not moved out to see the beauty of their country, maybe they are constrained by resources.
There is a complaint that has been going on that hotel and lodge rates are very high but Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) will try as much as possible to build bandas so that Ugandans or tourists do not need to stay in high end hotels and lodges and still see what took them to see and then come back to tell a story.
How is the Ministry of Tourism guiding UWA to realize its mandate?
UWA is part of the ministry. It is our agency, and my responsibility as a minister to advocate for it. I have recently been fighting for money for UWA because it was hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the central government had to come in and help.
Please talk about the partnerships the tourism sector has made…
We have the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) policy and it is what we are pursuing. Government works with the private sector to promote tourism. The private sector invests and the government invests and at the end you get a robust tourism sector.
There is a pool of resources when both government and private join hands. Assets are managed better for example the government invested in Kasubi Tombs and Mugaba Palace construction.
It is easy because it’s a partnership. The Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) in Entebbe is under a partnership with National Forestry Authority (NFA). The former is an agency of the Ministry of Water and Environment while the latter is an agency of the Ministry of Tourism.
The famous Entebbe Zoo is going to have partnerships with regional zoos: one in Gulu, another one in Hoima and in Mbarara. Land will belong to NFA but the developments will be by UWEC. That is a partnership because we didn’t have the land but NFA has. That’s a partnership between agencies.
Besides the inter-government agencies, what other beneficial partnerships have been in the tourism sector?
We have good partnerships with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Space for Giants which is investing in increasing accommodation in all protected areas under UWA. That means getting a lease from UWA and building accommodation. It’s for 25 years, and is renewable.
How is the tourism sector concretizing on the valuable partnerships made?
To concretize partnerships, we need to have a standard of our projects. We also need to develop the infrastructure around those protected areas so that our partners can feel enabled to do business better.
The roads are going to be improved a great deal. The president has given a directive to the minister of works to tarmac Kidepo Airfield, Kisoro Airfield and Kasese Airfield. If that’s done, people will be flying from Dubai, Rome and other international destinations directly to Kasese or Kidepo.
The president has directed to have tourism information centres for all the cities and at Entebbe International Airport. We must construct a section specifically for tourists so that when they arrive, they put their passport before immigration, it is stamped and they continue.
Our accommodation rates are frighteningly expensive. You can imagine someone paying US$2,000 per a night but might warrant that expense in terms of value.
Going forward, what more can the tourism sector look for in the partnerships it has and should make?
We have the World Wide Fund (WWF), UNDP, and there are other institutions we are trying to attract. We might not be successful now but we are on track. Our plan is to attract more tourists from Nigeria because they like Uganda, we want to start receiving Chinese tourists in big numbers, tourists from far the East, from Russia, USA and Germany.
However, we must work hard first to create more lodges and high-end hotels where a very rich person can spend a week resting. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) can be very hot, so we should develop hotel facilities that can attract Arabs to come here instead of going on holiday in Europe.
How can Uganda focus and expedite tourism product diversification, and where is the low hanging fruit?
Everybody thinks that tourism in Uganda is about wildlife but yesterday the Egyptian ambassador was here. He did not tell me anything about wildlife in Egypt.
He talked about the pyramids, River Nile, ancient architecture and buildings. So, we must diversify and talk about food, paintings and writings, talk about the 1922 Makerere University, why don’t you go to Kakungulu Mosque, the Kabalega route from Bunyoro to Acholi, Lake Victoria Islands of Ssese, and so much more.
