For the first time the New Vision has had the front page tourism headline. The first story entitled “Uganda first choice tourism destination” and a few weeks later the paper carried another article entitled “Bye bye Bujagali”. This has scared some of us in the tourism industry. Uganda has several tourism attractions ranging from Mountain Gorillas, over 1 000 species of birds, the snow caped Rwenzori mountains, among others.
That is why during CHOGM 2007, Uganda was marked as a country “Gifted by Nature”. It is true several developments have been achieved including establishment of an independent ministry of tourism and wildlife. That, not withstanding, however, many of the features that are supposed to attract tourists to Uganda are Under threat. For example Bujagali which has been only second to the Lake Victoria falls is now gone though we still have some rapid downstream. The issue of Mabira is not yet resolved yet Mabira is one of the surviving peri-urban tropical rain forests remaining in cetral Uganda. It is home to several primates and birds that could propel urban tourism in future. The issue of Uganda Musium is still in Court after a proposal to demolish it in favor of the East African Trade Center.
The proposal to scrap government sponsorship of the course of tourism Management at Makerere University was strongly resisted by some of us. The discovery of vast oil deposits in the Albertine Rift Valley has not done tourism any good as it remains to be seen whether the flora and fauna in Uganda’s largest conservation areas of Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth will be spared. Tourism plays a very important role as it leads to sustainable foreign exchange inflow even amidst poor marketing abroad
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