Tourists Shun Mount Elgon over Bududa Landslides
TOURISTS have shunned Mt. Elgon Forest National Park over the March 1 landslides that ravaged Bududa. The park indicated in a report that out of 410 tourists that visited Mt. Elgon from January to May, only 144 were registered in March.
Of the 144 visitors, 122 were local students. This was a drop from the 152 tourists that were registered during the same period last year.
The figure dipped further to only 40 tourists in April although it rose to 92 in May. But this was still lower than the 98 to 190 tourists who visited the park during the same period last year.
The report noted that most of the foreign tourists who comprise nearly 90% of the park’s visitors, kept away. Regular foreign tourists at the park include Britons, Germans, Americans, Dutch, Israelis and Canadians.
March and April each registered only 27 foreign tourists. However, the figure slightly rose to 37 in May. Save for the 13 German tourists, one Dutch and an American who visited the park in March, the Israelis, British, and Canadian visitors kept away during the tragic month.
Similarly, no tourists from the neighbouring Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania of Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya visited the park in March. “Heavy rains characterised with landslides were occurring on various parts of the mountain. The Bududa landslide scared away many tourists,” Stephen Nyadros, the Budadiri entry point information officer, said.
“About 15 foreign tourists expected to hike on Mt. Elgon through the Budadiri trail cancelled their bookings with us in March. “Fortunately, the trend is steadily picking up again,” Nyadros pointed out.
He disclosed that most of the cancelled bookings had been rescheduled for May to September. The park experiences peak periods from June to September, and December to March, statistics show.
Other prominent visitors to the park comprise scouts and students on holiday from Europe and North America. A total of 2,903 tourists visited the park in 2009, down from 3,844 the previous year.
The main tourist attractions for hikers on the mountain include the wildlife, hotsprings, caves, waterfalls and the Wagagai peak that stands at 4,321 metres above sea level. However, after the Bududa tragedy that claimed over 350 people at the Nametsi trading centre, the Government declared Mt. Elgon prone to more landslides and warned residents to evacuate to the temporal camp at Bulucheke.
To allay fears among tourists, a 16-member-team from The Uganda Tourism Board took a four-day hike on Mt. Elgon through the Budadiri trail in Sironko district from June 15 to 18. Molly Mpiriirwe, the board’s senior information officer, narrated that there was no imminent danger to tourists on the mountain.
“We had a thrilling experience on the mountain. “Throughout our journey, we neither saw cracks nor mini-landslides. “We call on more people to come and tour the park to explore its beauty,” Mpiriirwe said.
Tourism, agriculture and forestry are top on the list of the national primary growth areas of the newly-released National Development Plan. In 2008, tourism contributed 9.2% or $1.2b to the gross domestic product (GDP), while in Kenya, it brought in $3.5b or 10.8% to GDP according to the World tourism and Travel Council.
This variation maybe directly linked to the massive investment that Kenya puts into the sector. According to the draft corporate strategy plan 2009-2012, Kenya spends sh27b in marketing.
Tourism arrivals surged from 512,000 in 2004 to 844,000 in 2008; an increase of 65% boosted by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2007.
Read MoreIGG Cancels Gorilla Park Contracts
THE Inspector General of Government Raphael Baku has directed the Uganda Wildlife Authority to cancel all the illegal and irregular contracts it made with the Nkuringo Conservation and Development Foundation and Uganda Safari Company in Kisoro district.
The contracts were monopolizing gorilla tracking in Nkuringo on the Southern periphery of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
The IGG in a report “Monopoly of sale of gorilla trekking permits by Uganda Wildlife Authority to a private company,” directed UWA to comply with all the laws and policies that govern it in executing its mandate without taking advantage of the ignorance of the communities it works with.
“The illegal and irregular contracts, namely the agreement between Uganda Wildlife Authority and Nkuringo Conservation Development Foundation of 30/8/2004 and its addendums of 23/11/2006 and 29/11/2006 and the agreement between Nkuringo Conservation and Development Foundation and the Uganda Safari Company should be revoked,” the IGG said in the report.
Tourism stakeholders in 2007 complained to the IGG of discrimination, irregularities and illegalities in the management and issuance of gorilla tracking permits by the Uganda Wildlife Authority to a few companies.
They argued that this created unfair monopoly in the tourism business.
They were concerned that Uganda as a whole had lost tourism business including all benefits accruing from the sector to only one Kisoro Hotel operator, Uganda Safari Company, who had been given exclusive rights to sell gorilla tracking permits and allegedly attract tourists to an eco-lodge.
Investigations by the IGG office indicated that UWA encouraged individuals to form a private company with which they operated private businesses in respect to gorilla permit tourism, edging out others.
The IGG in the report recommended that UWA should draw up a well- thought out framework for the development of tourism opportunities for the whole region where Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is located not for particular isolated areas.
“The sub-counties of Nyabwishenya and Kirundo where Rubuguri and Nteko parishes respectively fall, should, in consultation with the district takeover the Nkuringo tourism project and improve development for the benefit of their communities after other modalities have been addressed.
“The sub-counties have the mandate and capacity to plan for their local communities, and can be held responsible for transparency, accountability and reporting because they have a planning and budgeting mandate for their parishes,” the report said.
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