East African Business Week

Kampala, Uganda - Murchison falls and Kidepo national parks in northern Uganda received the highest rate of interest in tourist attraction at the recently concluded World Travel Market-UK Tourism Trade Fair.
The fair is the largest tourism exhibition that brings together captains of tourism and travel industry to exchange views and ideas on promoting the industry.
Uganda's Minister for Tourism, Heritage and Wildlife Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu who attended the fair attributed the high rate to the peace prevailing in northern Uganda with the end of the 20 years war.
"Many tourists had boycotted northern Uganda during the war times but have shown interest in touring the area and its national parks," said Kamuntu. "This shows a good potential for northern Uganda since it has been lagging behind other areas in tourism."
Recently, Lonely Planet, the world's largest travel guide book rated Uganda as number one tourism preferred destination to visit in 2012 beating other world reknown tourism destinations.
Kamuntu explained that the Uganda delegation that attended the fair capitalized on advertising to promote Uganda's tourism. "Our fFocus is on mountain gorillas as the major draw card, Alpine Afromontane zones, white water rafting, all year round warm climate and the snow caped ranges of the Rwenzori that lie astide the Equator," he added.
The Minister urged stakeholders to introduce wild life associations and clubs in schools and the private sector to promote domestic tourism. "There is need to change the mindset of Ugandans from disregarding tourism to boost investment in the sector," Kamuntu added.
The Executive Director Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) Cuthbert Baguma said Uganda secured the biggest space at the fair with an aim of increasing tourist arrivals to the country.
"The tour operators in the sector showed determination to make tourism a driving force in Uganda's economic transformation by increasing its contribution to GDP," Baguma said.
Kamuntu pledged government support to improve the infrastructure with roads that have proved to be impassable for tourists in different parts of the country.
"Government is to work on the infrastructure as we prepare for next year to prove a tripled increase in the number of tourists," Kamuntu noted. "Power shortages must also be worked on is we are to multiply returns from tourism."
Uganda's tourist arrivals have increased over the years from 38, 667 tourists in 2001to 51,812 tourists in 2008 and is poised to increase more if the potential is exploited. The increase is partly attributed to its participation in the fair for the past 15 years.
The Uganda government needs to allocate a lot more resources to tourism for the potential that is yet to be exploited to result into more revenue and income to the country.