UGANDA IN THE CENTRE OF THE NEXT FULL SOLAR ECLIPSE
(Posted 29th August 2013)
(Picture source: Wikipedia)
The November 03 total eclipse of the sun, a rare ‘hybrid eclipse’ will be best viewed from Uganda’s north east and tour operators are now gearing up, with less than 10 weeks to go, to make final arrangements for hotel bookings or, in some cases, secure suitable spaces for temporary tented camps.
A solar eclipse of this nature always draws plenty of star gazers on to locations where they have a vantage point, and Uganda in this case is certain to benefit from added visitor numbers coming to the country for this event.
Named last year by the Lonely Planet Guide as their global number one choice for visits, this year saw Uganda listed in National Geographic’s top ten countries while CNN has named Kidepo Valley National Park as their top choice of African national parks.
Visitors to Uganda, coming to see the eclipse on November 03rd, are likely to pass through the Murchisons Falls National Park enroute to Pakwach and into the West Nile area of Uganda, taking advantage of being in the country to see our gorillas, chimpanzees and plains game in the national parks providing a windfall of business opportunities for our licensed tour and safari operators.
While the Uganda Tourism Board is struggling to make hay of such events, no surprise considering that government’s cash allocation in past years has been progressively starving the country’s marketing body of funds and hampering its ability to put Uganda back into the wide world of tourism destinations with a big bang, individual tour and safari operators have used their own outlets and networks to make the solar eclipse more widely known and reportedly secured significant additional bookings.
Anyone still keen to come to Uganda and witness this rare hybrid solar eclipse should make prompt enquiries to any of the members of the Association of Uganda Tour Operators – a link to them can be found on the tourism board website www.visituganda.com – as space is getting tighter and will go at a premium if booked too late, if at all rooms will still be available as all inns are expected to hang out the sign ‘fully booked’. Welcome to Uganda, the Pearl of Africa.
