Former Land’s Minister now Chairman of the Uganda Tourism Board Chairman, says that as a people, we must understand tourism. “Sometimes when we talk about tourism and many people think you must be talking about foreigners visiting Uganda,” he spoke in an interview with Capital Radio. “But there is also Domestic tourism.”
Speaking of the decision to celebrate the just concluded World Tourism Day Celebrations in Gulu, he said that the government is looking to showcase the various products that the country has. “The other issue is to be able to review our performance in the past,” he says. “Up until now, how have we been performing?” He adds that only then can the country appreciate the weaknesses but also identify what other things could aid the tourism industry to prosper.
Asked what the Uganda Tourism Board had done to this point, he said that they had run adverts publicizing the attractions that the country has to offer. “But we have also arranged trips to some of these places,” he says. “We have been able to get opinion leaders involved to visit the Game Parks, the mountains… all sorts of places.” He adds thusly: “There is also the famous Tulambule!” He said that programs like those that Miss Uganda and Miss World Africa have been conducting.
Tasked to explain what the future has for the country’s tourism, he tells of a time when tourism wasn’t taken seriously and compares that to a far better reality. “…now everybody has been able to understand that tourism is the leading foreign exchange earner for the country,” he says. “If in the past we hadn’t taken tourism very seriously, now we have to take it very seriously.” He argues that the benefits from tourism are very clear. “It is a low-hanging fruit, which we just need to go and harness,” the Minister adds passionately. “Within no time if we focus on tourism, the economy of this country will be doing well.”
