UGANDA’S TOURISM INDUSTRY COMES OF AGE
(Posted 09th July 2015)
When I moved from Kenya to Uganda in the early 1990’s was the tourism industry in what was to become my permanent home in its infancy. The country’s only working safari lodge back then, Mweya in Queen Elizabeth National Park, was operated by Uganda Hotels while all others of former fame like Paraa and Chobe in Murchison Falls National Park or Grand Katarum in Kidepo were derelict, wantonly destroyed by fleeing troops of the defeated dictatorial regimes. Apart from tourism apex body UTA there were no sub sector associations which only over the following years were either re-constituted or newly formed, among them AUTO, the Association of Uganda Tour Operators and TUGATA, the Uganda Association of Travel Agents.
Early bird private investments in the camp and lodge sector were undertaken by what was then the Inns of Uganda, which started the Nile Safari Camp just outside Murchison Falls National Park. Today the company rebranded and is known as GeoLodges, with four award winning lodge properties all in prime locations.
Gorilla tracking in 1992 was still a matter of dispute between tourism planners on one side and researchers and scientists on the other, who for all intent and purpose wanted to ring fence Bwindi, lock it and keep the keys hidden. This was thankfully overruled by Uganda National Parks’ management and board where Prof. Dr. Eric Edroma, then Executive Director of Uganda National Parks, saw the immense potential of gorilla tourism for the country, dug in his heels and thankfully prevailed.
Concession agreements were drafted by UNP to have the derelict lodges privatized and rebuilt and new properties added in key locations across country’s main national parks. Slowly but surely did wildlife based safari tourism get into gear, one of the pioneers of launching a safari company being Boniface Byamukama. His Lake Kitandara Tour and Travel company since then expanded and spawned sister companies dealing in accommodation, effectively covering much of the country. Boniface went on to first become chairman of AUTO before he was then selected as Uganda’s representative on the regional tourism apex body East Africa Tourism Platform just over three years ago. There, as he did previously at home when leading AUTO, he did the country proud.
When we were recently on a tour of Zimbabwe together, after attending the Sanganai 2015 tourism trade show, there was ample time to discuss both the future and the past two plus decades. It soon became clear that a second generation of tourism professionals has come up and that, at least in his case, a proper succession will be lined up, making sure that the hard work of the father to build his still growing tourism empire will be carried into the future.
Boniface’s son Gregory just graduated with honours from his law studies at the Uganda Christian University. During his course he did a spell not only at two of Kampala’s leading law firms as an intern but also did a further internship at the Uganda Wildlife Authority, which no doubt has given the young man valuable insights into the challenges the wildlife sector faces in the country.
While he will now undergo post graduate training at Uganda’s Law Development Centre, where he will study with the aim to be admitted to the bar, his ultimate aim is to join the family business and take on the mantle as in house counsel. His elder sister meanwhile is presently working at one of Kampala’s leading banks, gaining experience to sooner or later take over the financial management of the father’s companies, ensuring an in house succession and keeping the business in the family for future generations.
Uganda’s tourism industry clearly is coming of age now. Two decades down the line is the second generation getting ready to join the sector and eventually take over as torch bearers from their fathers and mothers. Those have invested their professional life to build an industry which, at the beginning of the 1990’s was far from a certain bet but which today has become one of Uganda’s most vibrant service sectors. Unlike in neighbouring Kenya, where it is now already the third generation growing into positions of responsibility, Uganda of course lost out when the country was led by dictators in the 1970’s and 80’s, who destroyed what in the late 1960’s was East Africa’s leading safari destination. One of them, the infamous Idi Amin Dada had even declared tourism as a state enemy. The subsequent liberation wars made the evolution of a strong tourism industry all but impossible during those years, until the present government provided peace and an enabling business environment from the early 1990’s, allowing the sector to take roots again and grow.
It is success stories like this one which make all the hard work over the past 24 years’ worth the while as the foundation was laid, in the face of many obstacles and adversities, on which a sound future can be built.
