Why destinations like Kalangala, Lake Victoria, Fortportal, Kasese need to be gazetted as domestic tourism destination products

By Isaiah Jobs Rwanyekiro

One day, when we had just started talking about domestic tourism in Uganda, I had a meeting with Amos Wekesa. When everything had been said and done, he jokingly warned me that, “are you ready to be swept off your feet by my tourism vibe?”

As I write today, I am a self-confessed diehard fan of Amos Wekesa and it is safe to say that his infectious tourism vibe of pandemic proportions completely swept me off my feet and having fallen in love with Uganda’s tourism especially in my particular case Domestic tourism, i have never looked back. At that point in time, I was looking for partners to shoot a reality TV series revolving around Uganda’s tourism access, amenities, attractions and accommodation facilities based on my journalistic background.

We didn’t get to do the TV show together but he in some significant other ways, Wekesa gave me the wisdom to go and do things my own way using his tried and tested formula, the power of social media communication. The tried and tested formula was for me to become a Domestic tourism crusader. However, I just didn’t become your normal crusader but I immersed myself into Uganda’s domestic tourism turf and started studying it and building insights and as I write today, having slept in over 320 hotels and lodges, wined and dined in over 300 restaurants, visited over 130 tourism attractions in Uganda and for some of them like Murchison falls a record 25+ times and having either directly or indirectly facilitated over 3000 Ugandans to travel in and around Uganda mainly through group trips that have been over 90 over the course of the last ten years, I believe I have come across some very hard won lessons to share with our motherland before I hang up my tourism boots and gloves and go into the next venture that has been calling to me for a while now.

One of the reasons I have learnt is that unless some form of legislation is passed, domestic tourism in Uganda and tourism generally is going to continue to suffer at the hands of policy makers and leaders in this country that continue to believe that our tourism eco-system should be fashioned to service foreign International travellers at the expense of Ugandan Domestic Tourists.

Now one of the things that on the surface make Domestic tourism very expensive is the fact that for many years, it has been fashioned around Uganda’s national parks and reserves currently under the management of Uganda Wildlife Authority. You will notice that for many Ugandans to feel like they have toured Uganda they have to somehow visit one of the national parks. Now for most Ugandans, touring is easily done in groups because then they are able to pool resources and make it cheaper.

One of the strategic hindrances into the growth of Domestic tourism is the fact that accessing any national park has to be paid for currently at the rate of Shs 25,000 per person per 24 hours in the case of a national asset like Murchison falls National Park. Now imagine you have a group of 10 Ugandans entering Murchison falls NP that means per night they are paying Shs 250,000 and if they stay for three days, that comes to Shs 750,000. Then remember they have to hire a vehicle from Kampala to Murchison falls; a safari customized minivan will usually cost around Shs 400,000 per day on dry hire run meaning without fuel. That for three days will come to Shs 1.2milliom Fuel from Kampala to Murchison falls, doing game drives and all sorts of activities will then come down to about Shs 1.2million as well. Then the boat cruise in Murchison falls is paid for separately at Shs 30,000 per person and viewing and accessing the top of the Murchison falls is also paid for at Shs 10,000 per person. Then on average you can get some accommodation at say Vilakazi Safari lodge one of the Ugandan budget friendly lodges in Murchison falls at around 140k per night full board per person.

So if they are staying for three days and two nights, that will translate into Shs 280,000 for two nights. This Shs 140,000 full board means you are entitled to three meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and a bed to sleep in either a single bed usually 3×6 in a room where they are usually two of them and you are sharing a room with a friend or a colleague or sometimes even with a stranger. If you choose to stay in a double room, that double room means one big bed that can comfortably sleep two persons. So, when you see us group trip organizers talking about per person sharing in our packages, it is simply because we charge you individually with the hope of negotiating with hotel owners to sell us rooms at a whole sale price per room and having paid for one room then we internally split the one room into either a twin or double room and put in two people hence we end up getting for the price of one two persons sleeping in one room.

So in total when you crunch the numbers for a ten person trip to Murchison falls, eventually you will find each person paying Shs 240,000 on vehicle and fuel then Shs 75,000 on park entrance fees, Shs 10,000 for top of the falls, Shs 30,000 for boat cruise and Shs 280,000 for accommodation and meals and then remember there are smaller fees of Shs 40,000 per vehicle entering the park per 24 hours and Shs 25,000 for an UWA game ranger/guide totaling about Shs 10,000 person on average for three days.

Therefore, in total for an average trip to Murchison falls will cost around Shs 645,000 and this is exclusive of meals along the way to and from the park and for most Ugandans what we call vibe which is a few bottles of worst-case scenario Uganda Waragi. So, in total per person undertaking an average budget to mid-range-ish safari to Murchison falls, you might need a minimum of give or take Shs 800,000 and this based on the fact that you are ten persons. If you were to do this, say two persons, a couple hiring a safari van and fueling it and doing the same activities mentioned above it will cost you Shs 1,605,000 per person and as a couple that will be a whopping Shs 3,210,000 and for this kind of money you won’t even enjoy the world famous Chobe Safari lodge or Tilenga or Paraa Safari lodge.

If you wish to enjoy any of those luxurious lodges, then you are thinking of spending minimum Shs 2,853,000 per couple and this translates into Shs 5,706,000 divided by 3800=$1501 divided by two again this will be $750.7. This is precisely the reason when you run the numbers for Ugandans and they compare and contrast prices they find it cheaper to go to Dubai or Zanzibar. For $750 one can comfortably if they do a group trip of ten persons spend the same amount of money for four nights and five days and this money will include air tickets, accommodation and meals, airport transfers plus activities in say Zanzibar, Diani or even Dubai depending on the season.

Contrast a trip to Murchison falls with a trip to say Ssesse islands based of course on the four tourism pillars of access, accommodation, amenities and activities. From Kampala to Kalangala in comparison with Murchison falls if you use public means it will cost Shs 5000 to get to Nakiwogo landing site. A ferry from Nakiwogo to Kalangala is about Shs 10,000. In Kalangala, today the most expensive hotel is Brovad Sands Lodge charging about Shs 490,000 per night, per room, full board meaning that using our formula above of per person you are actually paying Shs 245,000 and for two nights this will be Shs 490,000 plus Shs 30,000 return journey that is Shs 520,000. So for Shs 520,000, you can go to Kalangala as two people minimum and for three days two nights sleep in the best resort there and have the best time. This is the reason if you haven’t noticed Kalangala or Sssese islands or Lake Victoria based tourism is growing at an exponential rate while at the same time, tourism in most areas surrounding national parks seems to be stagnating.

In my next series I will talk about how overall how the various tourism agencies have let us down as a nation; result of not segmenting our tourism products and offerings and marketing and positioning them in such a way that will make Ugandans will find it easy to #LoveUgandaandTourUganda.

Isaiah Jobs Rwanyekiro is the CEO and Founder Breathtaking Uganda.