The Uganda tourism board through its recently developed Tourism act will ensure that the all the tour guides in the country under go some sort of training so that they get to a particular standard which is required all in an effort to instill a particular discipline and cord of conduct among people in the industry so says the tourism minister Mr. Ephraim Kamuntu.
He said during the ceremony where he gave out awards and certificates to more than 30 tourist guides after under going a training in different techniques and principles which was done from the Uganda Museum in Kampala. He added that I was very important for the guides to go through this training since they carry Uganda’s tourism flag.
According to the new laws that have been set, not all guides will be accepted to work with the tourists, only those that have undergone this training and have been registered will be taken on for the job as tour guides to the different parks and heritage sites so said Kamuntu. He added that the government is almost through with the establishment of the Tourism Police within the Tourism Ministry as way of ensuring the safety of the tourists especially while they are out there in the jungle.
Mr. Herbert Byaruhanga, who is the leader of the Uganda Safari Guides Association (USAGA), said that the association begun about 18 back and it was intended to modify the standards of this job so that they do follow particular principles that govern the profession in the country. However the major problem that the ministry is facing is the fact that the business world has got no idea what sort of material is needed by the tour guides for example the binoculars and recorders. The other problem is that the responsible parties have not stressed the principles that govern all high learning institutions and yet some of the reasons why the domestic tourism has not yet developed is because they a lot of people do not share information about the history of Uganda.
However, Mr. Boniface Byamukama the president of the Association of Uganda Tour Operators’ mentioned that the tourism sector has the potential to change Uganda’s economy but what is limiting it is the fact that there is a problem of poor marketing skills and methods of soliciting funds. Tourism industry contributed about $660m to the GDP of the country which is about 9.2% last year ad it is believed that it can perform even better than that.
