Africa-Press – Uganda. A photo that was published in yesterday’s edition of the Daily Monitor, under the headline Govt launches water biking, showed two men and a woman, biking on the waters of Lake Victoria.
It looked surreal. The photo was taken at an event where the ministry of tourism was launching water biking, in a bid to promote marine sports. Tourism is one of Uganda’s “gold mines”. Therefore doing everything to promote it to get tourists, both local and foreign should be welcome.
Two things, however, come to mind. First is the marketing that has to be done to let people know. The people likely to water bike will most probably find out this information online – on their social media, or for seasoned travelers, on the websites that provide such information.
For the ministry to see impact, they will need to support the people in charge of the product, not just by being present to launch it, but ensuring the word is spread, after all they have more presence and authority than the company. Support can also be in the form of getting the tourism agencies such as Uganda Tourism Board and Uganda Wildlife Authority promote the experience.
The ministry can also request such companies to share data on the experience, regularly, which can help inform them how to engage other stakeholders to support the product. This is because there are a number of tourist activities that are a lot of fun and fairly affordable but which the public is largely unaware about.
The second thing worth noting is that, without the addition of new products, Uganda already has many tourist attractions and experiences but as said above, without engaging those interested (both the providers and the tourists), the attractions will lie idle which means wasted money.
Daily Monitor in the edition of Tuesday February 7th under the headline 26 people launch drive to save Mt Elgon reported that the previous Sunday, a team of people led by Robert Kabushenga travelled to Mt Elgon to summit as they raise awareness about climate change. After their return, Kabushenga reported via his Twitter handle, that while the mountain has a lot to offer tourists, “this is threatened by lack of hospitality facilities. Camps are falling apart. Pit latrines are next to dilapidated kitchens. Guides & porters basically sleep in the open.” He also mentioned that it faces other risks including “…fires & poachers. Locals light fires to smoke out bees to harvest honey. They are hunting bats as delicacies,” he tweeted.
All this shows that we already have more than we need to attract the tourists. The difference between what we earn and what we could earn lies depends upon intentional, aggressive and productive marketing and promotion of these places and products.
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