NEW #TULAMBULEWILD BUSSES SOLUTION TO BRING UGANDANS INTO THE PARKS AT AFFORDABLE COST
(Posted 11th January 2018)
Uganda Wildlife Authority’s Executive Director Dr. Andrew Seguya added further comments to the organization’s drive to promote domestic tourism, following the launch of five #TulambuleWild buses earlier this week.
Said Dr. Seguya: ‘The buses are to ease transport to National Parks to boot the domestic tourism as the county gears to hit four million tourists annually from the current 1.4 million. One of the biggest concerns among many Ugandans is the difficulty they have in accessing our National Parks. They say it’s expensive to visit the parks. One way of dealing with this need is provision of easy pool transport access to the parks. This reduces the individual cost on transport while encouraging access. The buses are part of UWA’s strategy to grow tourism and improve conservation as we need the funds to conserve’.
This pours cold water on a number of negative comments made on social media by tour and safari operators who claimed that the launch of the buses would divert business from them and make UWA a competitor.
However, the public at large seems to be on the side of UWA as in particular transport into the parks has for many Ugandans been costly beyond their means, unable to hire a safari company’s 4×4’s or mini buses.
It is understood that when the full range of packages is released, using these new buses to take Ugandans into the parks and other protected areas, that they will be combined with options for accommodation, ranging from UWA’s own self catering facilities available in several parks to regular tourist accommodation in price ranges between modest and expensive.
UWA has also added additional launches to be used on the Kazinga Channel / Queen Elizabeth National Park and the river Nile in Murchison Falls National Park to improve the visitor experience. Again, trips on those launches attract special lower fees for Ugandans and East Africans visiting the parks.
In neighbouring Kenya has domestic tourism’s share in the overall business now reached over 55 percent, levelling out the seasonality in arrivals by international tourists and Uganda too intends to bring the level of domestic travel to a progressively higher percentage over the coming years.
For added information visit www.ugandawildlife.org or click on www.visituganda.com – the official website of the Uganda Tourism Board.
