A group of non governmental organisations have developed a marketing strategy aimed at improving Uganda’s tourism competitiveness.
The strategy, expected to deliver results in the next six months, will entail branding Uganda as a one-stop tourist destination centre for both domestic, regional and international tourism.
The organizations are working in collaboration with the private sector and Sustainable Tourism in the Albertine Rift (Star), a USA funded initiative that is focusing on strengthening sustainable tourism in support of biodiversity conservation in Uganda, the main interest being in the Albertine Rift.
Among the issues to be addressed are policy constraints within the industry, encouraging collaboration between frontline communities and management as well as reducing illegal human activities within parks.
Also, citizens will identify the “Seven Wonders of Uganda” through voting using mobile phones and e-mail, from a list of 30 proposed items.
It is expected that the “seven wonders of Uganda” will raise awareness of potential tourism investments and products as well as increase awareness of the role of tourism in conservation and national economic growth.
Stakeholders in the industry, including the government will then incorporate all the information gathered in branding Uganda in a national website.
This is a move away from the current practice where individual stakeholder promote selected products on their websites.
The programme will also include rebranding tourism products.
For example, all national parks will have their names changed to reflect their peculiar biodiversity.Star is providing a $225,000 competitive grant for product development to be utilised in the next three years.
The grant will be used to improve local capacity through training local artisans in a bid to enhance their products.Star is also offering a non competitive grant of $525,000 to be given to selected organisations in September.The grant also runs for three years.
