Hippopotami cool off at Lake Mburo National Game Park. The park was one of tourism sites visited by the Turkish TV crew.
Hippopotami cool off at Lake Mburo National Game Park. The park was one of tourism sites visited by the Turkish TV crew.
When family and friends of the director of a leading Turkish television travel show named Dinyayi Geziyoum (I am visiting the world), Yasin Esirgeng, heard that his next destination was Uganda, they were skeptical about his safety.
“People would say to me, ‘is it safe? Is it healthy?’ because they didn’t know about Uganda,” he said. “But after we came, we found that all these fears were wrong.”
As he waited to return home on Monday night following a 15-day tour of Uganda, Mr Esirgeng and two colleagues were waxing lyrical about the diversity of the country, its people and tourism.
“People (in Turkey) have heard bad things about Uganda,” he said. Then, drawing from his own experiences, he added; “We went everywhere and saw that Uganda is very safe. Uganda’s people are very warm and welcoming.”
The three-person crew from Kanal Türk TV arrived in Uganda on November 10 to film a four-episode series on Uganda’s tourism for their travel show.
During their tour, the crew visited several tourist and lodging sites, including the Source of the Nile, Murchison Falls National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park and Lake Mburo National Park.
A statement from USAID-STAR, a US government funded programme that promotes tourism in the Albertine area, says the crew filmed tourism experiences such as wildlife safaris, community and cultural tourism experiences.
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“This coverage will help promote the powers of sustainable tourism in conserving biodiversity,” said the statement sent by Ashley Silver, a tourism specialist at USAID STAR.
Good impression
For the Turkish journalists, the visit was eye-opening. Like her two colleagues, Özlem Tunca, the presenter of Dinyayi Geziyoum, said she left with a different picture of Uganda than she had before.
“Uganda’s tourism is very good because there are lots of places to see,” she said. Ms Tunca now hopes that the images they will broadcast on Turkish TV will inspire more of her compatriots to visit Uganda.
“Uganda’s tourism will be on Turkish TV for one month,” said Ms Tunca. “In Turkey few people know about Ugandan tourism yet there are many places to see. ”
Ms Tunca says the Dinyayi Geziyoum, which was recognised this year as the top documentary television show in Turkey, is viewed by 15 million Turks. She hopes that the episodes on Uganda will help draw the attention of more Turks to Uganda, recently named by travel website Lonely Planet as the world’s leading travel destination for 2012.
The journalists’ journey to Uganda is the brainchild of Turkish Airlines, which early this year launched direct flights from Istanbul to Entebbe Airport.
Relations between Uganda and Turkey have improved over the last decade.
After the signing of bi-lateral commercial, economic and technical cooperation agreement in September 2000, trade between the two countries intensified.
In the recent past, several Turkish businesses have been opened in Uganda, Turkey set up an embassy in Kampala, Uganda participated in Turkey-Africa Summits, and an air services agreement signed on May 2, 2010.
Tourism enthusiasts now hope that the sector will also benefit from the improved linkages.
BY Rafiki Adventures
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