The largest travel website recently crowned Uganda the top tourist destination for 2012. However, as we celebrate this fact, it’s hard not to acknowledge that while we are gifted by nature, we have not exhausted our potential. Uganda has a lot more it can offer to the world, if only the system could care enough to exploit this to the maximum.
If you have been born and bred in Uganda, and shared in the experience of attending Ugandan schools, the fact that this country offers a lot of tourism potential should come as a tired phrase. It will sound like one of those dead-wood statements that have been pressed down your ears for an eternity.
Therefore, when you read the news of the latest ranking of top tourist destinations in the world for the next year by the influential Lonely Planet website, you are likely to have said, “Gosh, what took them so long!” Or, you probably could have read on in utter disbelief, wondering how on earth we made it to that list considering just how many other countries with a lot of tourism potential, even better marketed than ours, are out there.
Nonetheless, although Uganda is praised for possessing such a wealth of tourist attracting features, there is almost no doubt, the manipulation of these features has been wanting in many instances. And in some cases, the very features with tourism potential have been left unattended. Kenya, rakes in way more tourism dollars than Uganda, even with such an array of tourist attracting features.
In Kenya even the simple landmarks in the city that could easily be by passed are seen as potential money making features through tourism. And minting money, they do. The Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC), the second tallest building in Nairobi, is not only a venue for political speeches, but draws a wide range of both local and foreign visitors, especially with its package where visitors can take a lift up to the rooftop of the tower, and then, have a breath-taking view of Nairobi city 110 metres in the air.
Uganda too has a few tall buildings that could offer similar feats. In fact, the scenery around Kampala, with its multitude of hills, greenery and lake down South could offer an even more worthwhile venture if the same were to be done here. Other ways are seen in the way museums have been made out of simple historical features. A museum of past post and telecommunication equipment is currently being assembled on top of others, like the railway museum that are already attracting many local and foreign visitors.
Other potential tourism sites that have been left to rot include Uganda’s first port, Portbell. It sits at the shores of Lake Victoria, right inside the capital city. That puts the port within access of the large population in the centre. Also, its historical placement as the first port, its commercial placement as the main water port, all make for more reason why the port should at the very least, be designed to welcome tourists.
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Forgotten edifices
In 2009, Port Bell’s local council secretary general, and the then state minister for tourism, Serapiyo Rukundo, all agreed to the facts that Port Bell had tourism potential. But the only symbol at the port that makes an attempt at stressing its historical importance, is an advertisement by Uganda Breweries Limited. The state minister said back then that plans were underway to establish cruises on the lake as a way of promoting tourism there. But as of today, that has not yet come to fruition.
Ms Rosemary Kobutagi, the assistant commissioner for tourism at the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Industry, says Port Bell would be able to attract way more tourists but it is dilapidated and as of now, “there is no touristic attraction at the site.” A more vibrant boat service, which would take visitors off to a voyage on the lake for let’s say an hour to maybe an island where they would have lunch, relax and then return would do more to attract tourists, she adds.
Another form of missed tourism opportunities lies in the form of historic buildings that have gone either under the auctioneer’s hammer, or simply left to rot away. Among these is the Fort Lugard on Old Kampala hill, the very first administrative centre of Uganda as a British protectorate, which had to suffer a supposed face-lift after part of its land was given away for the construction of a mosque.
A series of other historic buildings and monuments, like the Omugabe’s palace in Kamukuzi, Mbarara, that were left ruined. The executive director of the Historic Buildings Conservations Trust, Ellady Muyambi, told this newspaper in 2009 of a scenario when he, together with a few foreign tourists, visited a monument in Isingiro, marking the spot where Henry Morton Stanley and the Omugabe of Ankole made an agreement, but to their shock, found a herd of cattle defecating at the site.
Do Ugandan’s value tourism?
There is also a perception that many Ugandans do not actually value tourism, and that one can live in the country for a lifetime without having bothered to even visit the source of the Nile, even if they could afford to. But maybe this is wrong too. A visit to any of the lake side towns on any weekend day is likely to show many natives either simply taking in the view, grabbing the nearest photo opportunity, or simply seated by a shade, enjoying a meal of tilapia.
Ms Kobutagi puts it this way. “Ugandans are very interested in tourism. They appreciate beauty and the scenery, but just cannot afford the high charges.” She says there has been no special arrangement of affordable tourism packages for locals to visit the numerous tourism attractions on offer. Steve, a father of two, says the cost is a huge factor in the equation of why Ugandans do not visit a lot. Feats like an annual vacation are not part of the planning of many Ugandans, and, he adds, few even save for vacations.
For now however, Uganda can bask in having been chosen as the world’s beacon in matters tourism. But that should not distract us from what should be done to improve.
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