Problems facing tourism in Uganda : There are a number of problems facing tourism in Uganda and these have highly contributed to the slow pace of development of the tourism industry. These problems are diverse and affect the tourism development from different aspects. Tourism in Uganda mainly relies on wildlife and then other attractions including landscape, climate, people and culture, and popular events among others. wildlife in Uganda has for long been protected through national parks and wildlife reserves some of which include Murchison falls national park, queen Elizabeth national park, Bwindi impenetrable forest national park, Mgahinga national park, Kibale national park, Lake Mburo national park, Kidepo Valley national park, Rwenzori Mountains national park, Semuliki national park, Mount Elgon national park, Pian Upe wildlife reserve and Budongo Forest reserve among others. In respect to this wide range of these rich protected areas in Uganda, the tourism industry is expected to be well developed and highly considered as one of the country’s most important industries but the problems facing tourism are quite many.
Uganda earned the title “the Pearl of Africa” named by Winston Churchill many years back and the beauty still prevails to date hence a place that ought not to miss on your African safari destinations. Tourists that visit Uganda enjoy tour activities that have been developed including mountain gorilla trekking, chimp trekking, game viewing, boat rides and canoes, mountain climbing and volcano hiking, bird watching, cultural encounters, rhino tracking, white water rafting, scenic viewing, visiting Ngamba sanctuary and city tours among others.
There are several bodies and agencies that have been established to be in charge of the beautiful and important attractions in Uganda and others to monitor and regulate the activities and ensure a steady progress of Tourism development in Uganda. Some of these include Uganda Wildlife Authority which is in charge of the protected wildlife. Other bodies include National Forestry Authority, Uganda Tourism Board and Association of Uganda Tour Operators. Different policies, rules and regulations have been formed and passed to strive at tourism development and overcome the challenges facing tourism development in Uganda. The Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities is the over all in charge of the Tourism industry in Uganda. In relation to the variety of attractions in Uganda, it would be true to say that the tourism industry in Uganda is less developed and here are some of the challenges of tourism development. Not much as compared to other industries is put to enable the presence of most of these attractions since they are natural features. However, there are many challenges of tourism development regarding these attractions.
Limited Marketing
The biggest limitation to Tourism in Uganda is limited marketing. Uganda has a lot of interesting attractions but the world has not been informed about how rich it is for a very long time. Tour operators and companies are however trying to market the country.
Poaching practises
Poaching is one of the main problems faced by Uganda Wildlife Authority. Communities that are adjacent to national parks and wildlife reserves illegally kill animals either from the park or those that move out of the park for home consumption or for sale. They also encroach on the park land and this affects the residents of the parks and reserves.
Poor infrastructure
The infrastructure to the attractions is underdeveloped. Most roads that lead to national parks are poor, bumpy and not well maintained. Most of these roads become inaccessible during the rainy season and this limits tourists from doing some activities during such seasons. Looking at the competitive advantage, some neighbouring countries offers better services in terms of infrastructures like roads, accommodation and above all tourist attractions. Kenya and Tanzania offers unrivalled game drive safari in East Africa.
Poor service delivery
The delivery of tourism services in Uganda is still considered poor as compared to other African safari destinations. Travelers who have been to the country and were unsatisfied with the services will not recommend others and it creates a poor perspective to potential travellers hence opting for other destinations. Poor service delivery in some Ugandan lodges and Hotels paints a bad image to her tourism Industry. This comes after poor handling of the visitors when they come here for their safaris. This is as a result of employing the unskilled workers who are employed in hotels and safari lodges in Uganda.
Competitive neighbouring country
Uganda faces a high completion from the neighbouring destinations like Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda who have developed their tourism industries with similar tourist attractions. Uganda doesn’t have the big names like Serengeti national park and Masai Mara National reserve with well protected areas with lots of abundant wildlife. Given that the country also passed through hard times of political instability, the country lost a good number of animals given that there was a lot of poaching and some of the animals even got extinct. The hunting dogs were last seen in Uganda in the late 1970s while the Rhinos were wiped out of the parks at the same time. The good news is that the past two decades have realised an improvement in the number of animals. The animal population has recovered though challenges of poaching still exist.
Unlicensed tour and travel companies
There are many tour and travel companies today in Uganda some of which are not licensed and provide poor tourism services. They also increase the risks of problems such as fraud. Tours and travel companies have been cited as some of the key challenges holding back the once vibrant industry. Some safari companies are not reputable to handle safaris of International visitors. Some companies lack reasonable safari vehicles to transport visitors from one place to another in time.
Other problems faced by the tourism industry in Uganda are unprofessional and inexperienced labour such as tour guides, hotel staff and drivers among others.
- Natural Calamities like storms, Earth Quakes, floods and disease outbreak among others. Such incidents not only take away the lives of some animals and birds but also destroy Lodges, Hotels and sometimes cost human lives.
- The human encroachment on the wildlife’s natural habitat. Man himself has retarded the development of Uganda tourism sector. As he looks for land to settle, farming and so on, he tries to destroy rocks, forest, swamps and so on. The listed are believed to be the home to wild animals and
- Lack of a domestic flights and high air fares and inadequate physical infrastructure for internal flight connections; have further dealt a blow to the sector. This has affected the industry since most of the clients are always delayed because of the problems of the connections since Entebbe international Airport doesn’t handle direct flights, Problems facing tourism in Uganda.
However, below are some of the solution that can be done to overcome the challenges facing tourism in Uganda;
- Uganda has identified its competitive advantage. The country has a thriving population of primates that cannot easily be found elsewhere in East Africa. When it comes to gorilla safaris, Uganda is the favourite destination for tourists looking to meeting the endangered great apes in the wild. The UNESCO world heritage site of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to nearly half of the 1000 mountain gorillas left in the whole world.
- In addition, there is a good population of chimpanzees in prime locations in Uganda. Kibale Forest hosts the highest density of chimpanzees in the whole world. Elsewhere chimpanzees can be seen in Budongo Forest, Kyambura Gorge and Kalinzu Forest.
- Uganda Tourism has a project proposal on sanitation facilities along the tourist circuits. However, due to the capital intensive nature of the project and yet it has no direct benefit to Uganda Tourism Night, we are seeking funding from government, None Government Organisation that can fund this on a purely commercial basis.
- By training community guides, organized community groups that can provide equipment for rental to tourists who wish to partake of an activity in the area, home stay experiences, development of marketing materials, maps, build good roads, improve condition of airstrips/ airfields and introduce cheaper scheduled flights to the park areas so as to shorten the long driving distances to our parks.
- There is also need to reinstate the national carrier for Uganda to provide direct flights, convenient and affordable travel fares from source markets and also to urgently upgrade other Air strips like Kasese airfield to international airport status thus implement the decision to enable tourists arrive there directly.
- Improve visibility by putting signage on the roads, position tourist police along the road side to allow tourists to report any misbehaviour by tour operators like those leaving them on the road side stranded.
- Night game drives in all parks and bush camping and more circuits in the Murchison Falls National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park and Kidepo Valley National park.
- Simplify merchant (Visa & Master cards) banking to increase the tourist expenditure in Uganda. Reduce the risk of losing cash and the inconvenience of carrying large wards of money.
- There is also need for additional access points on the Rwenzori. Additional activities and a business development plan for Rwenzori.
- Interest information and resource centre, restaurants, house boats, boat rides, additional walks, toilets along the circuits.