Uganda Tours, Uganda Safaris, Gorilla Safari News , Uganda Travel & safari

Buganda Kingdom has set 1st July as the day to celebrate Buganda Tourism day which is set to be celebrated annually as a way of cherishing Buganda’s and Uganda’s valuable tourist attractions ranging from the Unique Uganda ’s culture, artifacts, dances, wild animals and endanerred species like the gorillas in Bwindi national park ,the climate, Uganda Tours to mention but a few. According to the Buganda Kingdom ’s tourism Minister, Florance Nakiwala Kiyingi, the three day celebration which is set to be presided over by Buganda Katikkiro John baptist Baptist Walumbusimbi as te uest of Honour, will show case Buganda’s Rich tourism resources to the public both locally and internationally.’”MY office ( tourism ) is a new one but we are starting in high gear.” She said. Sh also promised to unveil Buganda’ tourism house where Buganda ’s tourism potentials will be sold. Sh siad that her office will be assisting tourists intending to visit any of Buganda’s Tourism site s like Kasubi tomb to provide information and guidance.

On the 1st of July, new ministers of Buganda will be sworn in as she called upon all Buganda and their supprters to turn up in Big numbers on Tuesday at Bulange according to their clans and know more about their leaders and also witness or acknowledge the beauty Buganda has !

By Tanah Hadijah
Uganda Safaris

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The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has certified a wildlife broker named Yekoyada Nuwagaba to export 300 Vervet monkeys to Russia. The company has been exporting chameleons and snakes to Europe and right now the Vervet monkeys will be his third exports.
Sam Mwandha, the UWA acting executive director said that this was done to save the communities where vervet monkeys have become a hazard and at the same time sell them and benefit in economic terms.

UWA declared vervet monkeys and olive baboons as pests because of their large populations and propensity to destroy crops. Mwandha said that there have been consistent complaints from the local communities have been getting persistent complaints about vermin said Mwandha. If there is someone who can get the vermin and make economic use of it, they are welcome.

Nuwagaba said UWA inspected and approved his monkey traps. He, however, declined to provide details on the export deal.

A vervet monkey can fetch up to $6,000 in Europe, according to a wildlife expert.
The areas where the company is authorised to trap monkeys include Kampala City, where residents of Muyenga, Bugolobi, Mulago and Ntinda have complained to UWA.

In the last two weeks, Navina has trapped 30 monkeys in Muyenga, one of the posh suburbs of Kampala. The monkey is lured into an open cage with food like bananas. On entering to get the bait, it steps on a mechanism that closes the entrance.

In his proposal, Nuwagaba said he would set up a holding ground with a veterinary doctor to ensure that the primates are in good health.

The primates are on high demand for bio-medical research, such drug and vaccine trials. But Mwandha said the Ugandan monkeys were being taken to animal sanctuaries as exhibits.

The license to export the monkeys has attracted hostile reactions from environmentalists, who insist that wildlife trade has many irregularities.

BY Tanah Hadijah

Uganda safari News

STANBIC Bank has begun using Internet banking in all its branches, a move aiming at humanizing it service rescue.

Stanbic Bank Managing Director Philip Odera said the new scheme is a step the bank has taken to bring world-class banking services to Uganda.
He said that with the new system, customers can now make an assortment of banking business from the comfort of their homes or offices.

He was addressing a press conference at Stanbic Bank’s Kampala City branch on December 5. For one to use the facility, one has to make a one-time payment of Shs5,000 and no monthly subscription will be charged. Water and power bills payment will attract a fee of Shs350 per transaction.

While addressing a press conference at Stanbic Bank Kampala City Branch, Mr Odera said that through Internet banking, clients will be able to make balance enquiries, view and download bank statements.

He also added that clients will also be able to do inter account transfer, effect third party payment-like utility bills, make notifications and log queries related to transactions on their accounts and stop cheques. This is so useful to the tourism industry especially because tourist booking Uganda Safaris make their deposits through money transfer and have always found it hard doing it manually.

This new banking system will also help in de-congesting banking halls, as many of the customers will transact in the comfort of their homes and offices.

Mr Daniel Walusimbi, the Communications manager, said that the system is secure, but warned that customers need to protect and keep their personal identification numbers safely.

Uganda Safari News.

TANAH HADIJAH

A safari website with detailed tour information has been launched on the internet. The website www.uganda-safaris.co.ugf has pages on Uganda National parks with individual parks detailed with the following links;
Queen Elizabeth National park and

Murchison falls national park well known for Savannah wildlife like Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Giraffes , names it.

Mgahinga National Park
Bwindi National park acknowledged for the biggest population of Mountain Gorillas in Uganda.

Mgahinga National park the second mountain gorilla site in Uganda

Rwenzori Mountain National Park for those interested in mountaineering.
Semiliki National park well known for hot springs and a Pygmies’ Village
and many other park.

Kibale National park best known for the highest diversity of primates and a beautiful tropical rain forest
Other useful websites that have been launched include; http://www.safarinuganda.com.

This is an implication of how Uganda is advancing to marketing using technology.

UGANDA TRAVEL NEWS
Tanah Hadijah

The Uganda Government is preparing to link four Lake Kyoga ports by a modern ferry. At present, a small ferry, with a capacity of six cars, links Masindi port to Apac district.

Works minister, John Nasasira on Wednesday mentioned that preparations to build a bigger ferry were under way . An this will link Bukungu (Kamuli), Rwampanga (Nakasongola), Kagwara (Soroti) and Amolatar. Nasasira was at the first Budget Workshop for the 2008/09 financial year.

In the same workshop, energy and mineral development minister, Daudi Migereko said that there is a necessity to upgrade the roads in the Lake Albert region to handle the oil trade effectively. Migereko said they also had to budget for highly trained oil professionals.

He added that Uganda is competing with rich private oil companies. They are willing to pay expatriate rates for these professionals.

BY TANAH HADIJAH
UGANDA SAFARI

Efforts to launch a joint Marketing strategy aimed at promoting the East African Community (EAC) as a single travel package for tourists appear to have hit a snag a the region’s council of ministers dither over common tourist Visa.

The joint marketing drive has been continuing informally since the launching by the region’s state run tourism agencies of a common marketing strategy designed on showcase the East African region as a single destination with unique attractions.

Dr Ongong’a Achieng, the Chief Executive officer of the Kenya tourist Board (KTB), said the plan to introduce the tourist Visa has been facing what he termed as impediments which could be sorted soon by the EAC council of ministers.

“We have been doing our best to Market the East African Community as a destination . However , there are some impediments to be sorted. We are consulting on how best to deal with these impediments,” Dr. Achieng told journalists in Nairobi early last week. The EAC secretariats has listed the single tourist Visa among its foremost future plans and had initially hoped that it would have been agreed upon by five states, Burundi, Kenya , Rwanda , Uganda and Tanzania by November 2006.

However, the EAC council of ministers, which is the designated decision making authority on all matters that touch on the sovereignty, revenue, policy and immigration matters is yet to agree on the joint Visa for tourists.

During his speech to Journalists in the launch of the Tourism study commissioned by the board and funded by European Union through the Tourism Trust Fund, Dr Achieng said that demand for tour packages that cover the entire region has risen

He said that tourists have been demanding to sample the entire array of tourist destinations to sample the entire array of tourist attractions spread across East Africa, from Mombassa’s breathtaking beaches, Tanzania’s Ngorongoro craters, the Chimpanzee parks, in Tanzania Uganda and Rwanda’s mountain gorillas.

He also said that there are tourist who desire to visit the entire region all the way to Zanzibar but you cannot promise them a single Visa because this is not yet implemented by the ministers. He however added that the joint marketing strategy has been applied during international tourism exhibitions where the tents of all the five states in the region are set close to each other.

The EAC secretariat’s desire for the joint marketing strategy was that it should have been agreed up by November of 2006 ahead of the World travel fair in London but the plan fell behind schedule and relapsed.

According to the plan , a tourist would apply for a Visa in any of the five states and this Visa would be applicable for travel to all the countries.

Tourist boards from Kenya , Uganda and Tanzania are the Joint inventors of the Plan, a cross-cutting measure which aims to standardize all tourism facilities in the region, including Visas, the hotels and any other tourism facilities.
Tanzania tourist Board favors a system where the various countries market their tourist attractions independently with a joint banner bearing common features designed by the EAC secretariat on the back ground of all the booths.

These initiatives are aimed at ensuring decisions made by the council of ministers on promotion and cooperation in tourism is implemented.

Meanwhile Tanzania is Kenya’s most serious competitor as a destination for worldwide after the united States followed by the united Kingdoms and South Africa.
Uganda also ranks among the top 10 destinations in the world with 6.2% preference level compared with the 21.7% who prefer to travel to the US.

Tanzania is closer at 17.5%.

This is a powerful indicator that the East Africa Region has potential to become the world’s biggest single global tourist attraction as a single global tourist attraction as a single package rather than a disjointed Bloc.

EAST AFRICA SAFARIS

TANAH HADIJAH

Following earlier strategies to overhaul the tourism sector botched, stakeholders have now buttoned all hope to revivify the Uganda’s Tourism on a schedule that has been in Parliament for two years. The Tourism Bill 2005 that wasn’t effective is now projected to be endorsed into law before the end of this year following the intrusion of the |President of Uganda. Gorillas in Bwindi National Park being the leading tourist attraction, the bill seeks to remove the official and institutional problems to the development of the Uganda tourism industry that presently accounts for 25% of the country’s aggregate export income.

When passed into law, the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) will be reconstituted to be a helpful agency in promoting Uganda’s tourism potential. It will have more resources, more qualified personnel to improve the tourism sector. In the middle of the supplementary sources of income for UTB that the new law seeks to institute is a 10% charge on accommodation revenue earned by hotels. “UTB is understaffed and resource less. It is hard for it to turn round the tourism industry without the technocrats to plan and implement policies,” Gideon Badagawa, the Director Policy Advocacy at the Private Sector Foundation Uganda. (PSFU).

Industry analysts say that a waiver of all import duty on safari vehicles and equipment would also ensure that the industry has new and improved equipment for efficient service in the industry that leave an impression on consumers of the service. The new law comes to strengthen a case previously made by the players in the industry urging government to direct more resources towards collating data on tourism activities for better performance evaluation of the sector as well as recognise tourism as an export that is VAT zero-rated. Investors in tourism want VAT zero-rated for at least seven years in order to stimulate growth of hotels, lodges and tour operators.

The new tourism commandment also wants all local air operations to be tax exempt so as to cheer tourists to use domestic planes to fly to tourism sites in the country. It is hoped that this would work well after the planned repair of all up-country airstrips. On average, a flight from Entebbe to Arua is Shs 250,000. Kasese aerodrome will be advanced to be able to land large aircraft by November this year, according to Civil Aviation Authority. A waiver on import duty on all tour vehicles and equipment is also expected if the Bill is passed in its current form so as to encourage more investors into the business of tour operators.

The new legislation is viewed by industry players as the only remaining hope to make Uganda’s tourism industry competitive after it has been battered to almost oblivion by decades of insecurity near major tourist sites like Bwindi National Park and Kidepo Park in Karamoja. In 1992, industry players and technocrats in the ministry of Tourism produced the country’s first Tourism Development Master Plan aimed at revamping the industry, but was never fully implemented. The master plan emphasized among aspects the promotion of what was then termed as community tourism through which foreign tourists would come to Uganda to learn about the diverse cultures and way of life in rural areas.

It also aimed at developing all potential and yet undeveloped tourist sites as a means to widen choices available to tourists. It had been expected that tourist arrivals would increase to over 800,600 by 2000 and would earn the country $ 823 million per annum. It never was. Seven years since 2000, Uganda receives about 500,000 tourists per year. The latest effort to add energy into Uganda’s tourism was a donor-funded Tourism Policy named the Uganda Sustainable Tourism Development Programme. The programme, supported by the European Development Fund has been on since 2003 and will wind up at the end of 2007. The programme aimed at strengthening the tourism sector to help the country diversify sources of revenue.

It was noted that by the end of the programme, rural communities surrounding protected areas would have their incomes boosted. Enhanced tourism revenue will also benefit the bio diversity conservation aims of the country. However, analysts say the government has paid only lip service to the development of tourism with little money allocated to the sector annually. For example, in the 2007/8 budget there was no money allocated to the development of the sector because officials of the ministry did not present their budget to the treasury, sources in the ministry of Finance said. Badagawa said that because tourism is just a department in the ministry, little attention is accorded it in terms of real promotion programme. He said the sector needed more resources to develop capacity and ensure that international standards like quality of staff in hotels and other tourism centres conduct themselves professionally to the satisfaction of tourists.

He said classifying and grading hotels was vital. Investment in water and electricity extension to rural areas where tourist sites are located also needed to be looked into, said Badagawa. More than 83% of Uganda’s population lives in rural areas with only 2% of them having access electricity.

By Tanah Hadijah

Uganda Travel News

ABOUT 8,000 Congolese have entered Uganda to escape the fighting in eastern Democratict Republic of Congo between the national army and forces of renegade general, Laurent Nkunda.

The refugee influx started on Friday, as Congolese from villages close to the Ugandan border entered Bunagana in Kisoro district. Another small group of refugees fled to Busanza, another border point some 15kms north of Bunagana.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) fears that more people will be displaced if fighting continues in the Rutshuru area of North Kivu province.

An assessment team of government officials and humanitarian agencies are in Kisoro to verify the number of refugees and prepare the delivery of aid.
The Congolese army deployed three helicopter gunships against Nkunda’s forces and Mai Mai militias, prompting thousands of residents to flee their homes in northeast Goma, AFP reported on Sunday.

Civilians also told AFP that they fled Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), whose members are accused of having participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Two Congolese admitted in a hospital in Bunagana with bullet wounds told UNHCR officials that they were caught in the cross-fire as fighting raged around their homes on Saturday morning.

UNHCR reported that women and children were sheltering on shop verandas in Bunagana, while others remained close to the border hoping to return home when calm returns.

Kisoro district authorities yesterday advised the displaced people to leave the border area for safety, and move to the Nyakabande transit centre set up by UNHCR and other relief agencies.
Yesterday, the UNHCR and WFP started distributing high-energy biscuits and basic household supplies to some 200 refugees at Nyakabande.

In August and September, about 30,000 Congolese fled North Kivu to Kisoro to escape skirmishes between the Congolese army and the local population there.

Uganda Travel News

At the recently accomplished meeting well thought-out by Leadership for Conservation Africa at Paraa Safari Lodge, Museveni said native names should be used to endorse the African tradition.

Museveni queried the underlying principle of christening a bush pig as warthog, yet it has a local name, enjiri. He also added that the waterbuck is referred to as ekisunga in one of the Western Uganda languages ‘Runyakitara.’

The President disputed that heritage is part of conservation and since the European words are recent , besides the known English names, tourists in Uganda should also learn the native names.
He fortified his argument, saying the native languages are more specific than their English translations.

The president urged Mapesa the executive director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority and a member of the Leadership for Conservation Africa to bring back the legacy and put the local names of these animals in brackets.

By Tanah Hadijah

UGANDA SAFARI