Most marketing strategies are targeting Uganda & gorillas only. This is a wrong perception. There must be a paradigm shift. The President of Uganda accused the two bodies governing tourism in the country of promoting only gorillas neglecting other tourism resources. Museveni attacked the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) for failing to effectively market Uganda abroad, saying it has become a major hindrance to the country’s tourism. While speaking at the Presidential Initiative on Tourism at State House Entebbe, Museven said UTB promotes specific animals like Mountain Gorillas leaving the beauty in parks. “Some of these people do not put thinking in what they do. Promoting mountain gorillas is good but what about the national parks that show Uganda’s uniqueness?” he asked. He added: “Tourists would go to Kenya and Tanzania to see the lions and buffaloes and only come here for mountain gorillas.”
This calls for equal promotion of the country’s tourism resources such as the lakes, rivers, wildlife, bird species, mountains, butterflies, reptiles, not forgetting the unique cultures among others. The pearl of Africa as Sir Churchill called it, is blessed with many unique tourism resources and it is believe to be the top tourist destination in 2012. the country provides a number of tourism services, provided by very hospitable people not compared to any throughout Africa. The activities include the mighty Uganda wildlife safaris, birding tours, mountaineering, white water rafting, chimpanzee tracking, cultural tours to mention but a few. All these packages are always leave the clients asking for more and speechless. Uganda provides the most breathe-taking tour adventure second to none in east Africa. So whenever it a tour for gorillas, wildlife and others, Uganda is the best option while among the Uganda tour operators Africa Adventure Safaris is the choice.
The President called the general manager of UTB, Mr. Cuthbert Baguma, to explain why they only have promotions of mountain gorillas but he was speechless. Mr Museveni urged the board to go back to the drawing board and rethink marketing strategies that bring out Uganda’s uniqueness to tap in the tourism revenue like other countries.
