World Tourism Day 2012

The 27^th of September was World Tourism Day. This event was celebrated in Entebbe at the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre formerly and commonly known as the zoo. There were a couple of activities that were done to celebrate the day which included horse riding, boat and bicycle racing with various performances from children. The theme of the World Tourism Day this year is Tourism and Sustainable Energy. These at the moment are very two important issues in our country and as we celebrate this day along side Uganda marking 50 years of independence, as a sector we need to see we can contribute more to the development of local communities as we build our nation day by day.

Particularly we could look at the fact that sustainable energy can be a threat to tourism but at the same time we cannot do without it because we need energy to run our daily lives domestically and industrially. So this year we are looking at how we can make these two important aspects co-exist without having one override the other. Uganda's access to electricity still stands at about 10 % of the population and this is quite dangerous because that means that we still have quite a number of people cutting down trees to burn charcoal because they cannot afford to access electricity or rather find it too expensive. This is also a threat to animals that have the trees and thick vegetation as their natural habitat like the birds, primates and mountain gorillas. At the same time as we also think of putting up dams like the Bujagali we have to remember that these are also tourist sites that bring in foreign exchange every year. 

Another point of concern would be the fossil fuel in the western arm of the rift valley also known as the Albertine rift valley. The Nile delta where River Nile enters Lake Albert is one of the richest areas of Murchison Falls National Park, yet it is also suspected to be sitting in the largest reservoirs of oil.The extraction of this fossil fuel is a threat to tourism and yet at the same time we all wish to see our country move from a developing country to a middle income economy. Uganda as a country needs to find ways to extract this fuel but also minimize any environmental hazards.

In other areas we can also be proud to celebrate the fact that tourism right now is bringing in more foreign exchange compared to coffee and Speaking at the review workshop in Kampala on 26th September 2012, the Minister for Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Ms Maria Mutagamba, said the tourism sector had overtaken coffee and cotton in foreign exchange earnings for Uganda.

According to the report, foreign exchange from tourism increased from $662 million in 2010 to $805 million in 2012, representing a 21 per cent growth while tourism contribution to GDP grew from 7.6 per cent in 2010 to 7.6 per cent in 2011.

So as we celebrate World Tourism Day we should be thankful for how far the tourism sector has improved and grown but also ponder on the way we can have Tourism and Sustainable Energy work.  We should also remember the local communities and see that they also benefit from the earnings that the country is receiving from tourism because the business world tends to care more about their profits and concentrates less on the communities that surround these tourist attractions.