Kampala Uganda, April 7th, 2022: World Bank Group with support from Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) in partnership with stakeholders including; the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Uganda Wildlife Authority, Uganda Tourism Association, Nature Uganda, Uganda Bird Guides Club, UNDP, Chimpanzee Trust, Uganda Safari Guides Association, Journeys Uganda and National Forestry Authority representing both Government and Private sector Institutions and International Organizations held a Birders meeting on Thursday, April 7th, 2022 at hotel Africana (Volta Hall) in Kampala City.
The main objective of the meeting was a review of the birding report’s performance as well as a streamlining of how to positively promote birding tourism (avi-tourism) as a preferred tourist activity and one of the most popular and niche-based nature tourism activities in Uganda.
This stakeholder meeting was also aimed to among others;
- Streamline how to positively market Uganda as a preferred birding tourism destination.
- Identify opportunities in Birding as a tourism activity in Uganda capable to create employment in the Country.
- Suggest how better to make avi-tourism an adorable tourism activity in Uganda.
- How better safari guides can benefit from birding tourism as professionals.
- To increase the number of Birding tourists and generate more revenue for the economy.
In her remarks during the meeting, UTB CEO Lilly Ajarova highlighted the progress of the board’s activities especially the Quality Assurance department on registration of tourism stakeholders in the industry.
She said, “We all need to be registered and licensed by UTB especially if we are to operate in Uganda’s tourism sector”.
She added, “With product development, we have been doing birding already and it’s part of our tourism products. Also, we are currently profiling Entebbe city and Wakiso district, plus we are working on packaging Entebbe tourist activities. After Entebbe, we will also profile Jinja city among others as well as highlight cultural and tourist sites among others”.
Uganda Tourism Association President – Herbert Byaruhanga revealed that the association still has a lot of work to embark on and put efforts together to ensure birding as a tourism product is well developed.
He said, “We need to repackage and promote birding in the Country. We have standards approved by the Directorate of Industrial training among others. Also, important to note, that UTB has added birding tourism to the budget because it’s a big activity that yields money, plus we plan on hosting a birding conference soon”.
ABOUT UGANDA TOURISM BOARD
“Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) is a statutory organisation established in 1994 mandated to promote and market Uganda domestically, across the region and internationally, promote quality assurance in tourist facilities through training, grading and classification, promote tourism investment, support and act as liaison for the private sector in tourism development. The broader goals of the Board are to increase the contribution of tourism earnings and GDP; improve Uganda’s competitiveness as an international tourism destination; and increase Uganda’s share of Africa’s and World tourism market. UTB aims to create inclusive opportunities for the tourism sector through market transformation. For more information, please visit; www.utb.go.ug’’
UTB Public Relations Office
Email: publicrelations@utb.go.ug