Ugandans Should Learn to Promote Their Country It is great that Uganda’s tourism industry is growing in leaps and bounds but experts say that this is still not enough, considering that Uganda aptly described by Sir Winston Churchill as “the pearl of Africa” has a lot to offer the world. James Dummer first visited Uganda in 1997 and 1998 to try and create a cultural opera festival for three weeks at Entebbe’s Imperial Botanical Hotel, only to discover that is was still too soon to carry out such an undertaking. Dummer decided to revisit Uganda in 2006 in the month of July 2006 so to try and promote the countries rich heritage to the rest of the world. Uganda being a niche’ market that attracts great numbers of middle and up-market visitors is certainly not doing enough to promote its tourism industry compared to the likes of Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. James Dummer says he has attended countless travel fairs that are organized in different parts of the world for the last couple of years and taken a keen interest for the past decade in the trade fair stands that are allocated to Uganda’s Tourist Board. In his evaluation of the Uganda’s stand in ITB Berlin and that London’s World Travel Market (WTM), Uganda’s tour operators pay hefty fees in order to secure a small desk to participate in a stand that is already congested. Despite of all this, he says (UTB), that is Ugandan Tourist Board, the body charged with marketing the countries image abroad has not really been aggressive in exhibiting what Uganda as a country has to offer to the world. The major Uganda tour attraction that is promoted by the tourist board are the primates mainly mountain gorillas and chimpanzees, which has in turn accounted for over 50% of the annual earnings from tourism for the country. It is sad though that the mountain gorillas which are faced with extinction are not being aggressively from protected. Every so often, we hear of mountain gorillas being butchered in one of the gorilla families. It must be said though that the number of mountain gorillas has increased quite a bit in the last few years due to the conservation efforts of the Uganda wildlife Authority and international organizations. The new gorilla families are being opened up for gorilla tracking further boosting Uganda safari attractions. Dummer argues that spending on something that is as obvious as primate tourism which is guaranteed to fetch money and is already over subscribed is not a wise venture bearing in mind that (UGSTDP); Uganda Sustainable Tourism Development Programme is no longer funded by the European Union. He says it would be wise for the Tourist Board to promote other aspects of the country’s tourism, namely, the peace and security that the country has attained and the diversified and rich culture of the over 46 different tribes that inhabit this relative small but beautiful country. The termination of the funding by the European Union is a huge blow as regards the promotion of tourism in Uganda. Uganda’s beauty ranges from the rich wildlife from the semi arid regions of north east where we find the Kidepo valley national park which consists of beautiful flora and fauna with bird species that are found no where else to the dense tropical rain forests of south western Uganda, where we find the Bwindi impenetrable forest and Mgahinga mountains whose major attractions are the mountain gorillas. Gorilla tracking has been is major attraction and the permits are becoming quite hard to acquire given that only 10 people are allowed to track a gorilla family per day. This is one of the main request for anyone visiting or wanting to do a Uganda safari. At the world travel fair in Berlin on 5th march, in which Rwanda took the award for the second consecutive year, the private sector foundation had to fund the stand that Uganda used to exhibit her major attractions. Rwanda was able to demonstrate that despite being a landlocked country which affects the price of doing a tour or safari, it was able to attraction high end spenders. Without a proper budget the staff at Uganda’s Tourist Board are kind of handicapped and can do only so much, as a result, Uganda’s membership at the World Tourism Organization was also terminated due to failure to pay the subscription fee of a couple of dollars. It is high time the government realized the amount of money that tourism is bringing into the country and aggressively campaigned for it. About 25% of the country’s export revenue is from tourism and the brief CNN “Gift by Nature” advert was great but a lot needs to be put into this specialist market in terms of specialist people with great marketing abilities. Tourism, has the potential to take this country to great heights considering that it is one industry where the local people unlike in the GAVI funds can reap directly, not to mention its ability to project a positive image of the country internationally. One of the people who have visited the country are coming back regularly and some have considered doing business in country or even settling in the country as a second home.

Mountain gorilla tracking is one of the most awe inspiring wildlife experience as you climb up and down the steep slopes of the vine clad Bwindi impenetrable forest in Uganda or the Virunga mountains of Rwanda’s Parc Des Volcans. This activity can take any where from 3 hours to 8 hours depending on how far the mountain gorillas have strayed in their foraging for food.

However, it is important to note that there are only over 700 mountain gorillas left in the wild and these can only be found in the border regions of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo and as such are protected by the governments of all three countries. Although the Congo (DRC) government finds it hard due to the unrest in the region where these giant gentle apes are found. There has been numerous killings of these apes needlessly by the rebel groups who have been taking refuge in the Congo forests thus hampering the conservation efforts of all three governments as these gorillas tend to cross borders, although this happens mainly between Uganda’s Mgahinga gorilla national park and Rwanda’s parc Des Volcans. The gorilla families in Uganda’s Bwindi include;

• The ‘M’ group; Mubare group consists of 10 gorillas with 1 silverback and was opened in 1993 for tourism.
• The ‘H’ group; Habinyanja group opened in 1998 for gorilla tours and trekking is composed of 21 individuals with 2 silverbacks
• The ‘R’ group; Rushegura group was opened to trackers in 2002 and is composed of 1 silverback and 10 gorillas.
• The ‘N’ group; The Nkuringo group consisting of 1 silverback and 19 gorillas was made accessible to trekkers in 2004.

Mgahinga national park tucked away in south western Uganda’s border with Rwanda has fewer gorillas than Bwinidi, which cross the border occassionally into Rwanda. This park has a solitary group of habituated gorillas namely Nyakagyezi which is open for tracking. Nyakagyezi has about 11 family members; 3 adult females, 2 silverbacks, 2 infants and 4 juveniles.
The high number of tourists coming into Uganda and Rwanda respectively has led bodies like Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), charged with protecting, Uganda’s wildlife to draft policies and regulations for those doing mountain gorilla tracking. These are;

• Any one with a communicable disease, like as diarrhoea or flu, is not allowed to visit the gorillas.
• Surrounding the gorillas is not allowed, people are to remain in tight groups.
• Once found contact time is limited to only one hour
• Please observe all instructions from your guide.
• A distance of about 5 meters is to be left between the tracker and the gorillas
• A tracker is advised to move back slowly when approched by the gorillas
• No flashes from cameras are allowed.
• Eating and smoking within 200m of the gorillas is forbidden.


• One is required to cover his / her mouth when sneezing or coughing or turn away from the gorillas.
• Human excrement is to be buried at least 30 cm deep in the ground.
• No disposal of litter within the park.
• Spitting in the park is forbidden.
• Minors (those under 15 years) are not allowed to track gorillas.
• Lound noise and sudden movements when with the gorillas is discouraged.

There are a number of companies offer gorilla safaris and a quick check with any of your favorite search engine will yield a number of very good tour operators within the region. There is Uganda gorilla safari