Tourism Breaking News
For the first time after the pandemic, Uganda tourism board along with their partners organized a roadshow in Dubai in collaboration with Aviareps as its Middle East representative with over 70 agents from Dubai attending the event with onsite business to business meetings. It is one of the untapped destinations in Africa and the agents present at the event were quite interested to know more about the destination, the current protocols etc. Known as the pearl of Africa, it is one of the most secure and safe countries in the Great Lakes region. It is a destination which you can travel at any time of the year due to the good weather and visas are open to most nationalities. Lily Ajarova – Chief Executive Officer – Uganda Tourism Board shared, “We are here as Uganda, the pearl of Africa. Uganda is known as the pearl of Africa because of the diversity that we have in this one small country in Africa which is well linked with the rest of Africa is right at the heart of Africa. The distance from Uganda to Cape Town is the same as Uganda to the northern points of Africa and every iconic attractions, features that you would get in any part of Africa, you will be able to experience it in Uganda. The culture, diversity of culture that almost represent the whole of Africa as well so its about having Africa in this one little country that is what we are showcasing in Dubai, in UAE and the whole region is a very important market for us. This region has been an emerging market for us in the last few years and we are putting all the investment that we can to make sure we position the destination Uganda appropriately in this region. This market is so important to us because we offer what the market requires and for that reason to give the market something new that they haven’t experienced before Uganda as a destination that is 365 days a year possible to visit there is no limitation the weather is good throughout the year. The attractions ranges from the iconic experiences like tracking the mountain gorillas to climbing the highest mountain like Rwensori mountain to adventure activities like zip lining, water rafting, hiking, wind surfing, boat cruises, we have all that and besides that we have wild life experiences we also have ten national parks, ten wild life reserves that offer diversity of wild life from the big five we market ourselves as the big five plus two – the big five that everyone knows in addition to that we have the mountain gorillas and the champanzees, those are the great apes which are very iconic for every global travelers to tick off their bucket list.”
Representing the Middle East Glenn Johnston – Vice President Middle East & Global Public Affairs Aviareps reiterated, “We have the great honour to represent the Uganda tourism board in the Middle East. In our industry we have gone through some extremely unprecedented times with covid and we see this as a great opportunity as we are learning to live with covid and people are beginning to start travelling again that we are able to promote Uganda with the Middle East tourism industry revive together and offer some amazing destinations and experiences. This is the first onsite event where Uganda has come over with over 15 different co-participants that have joined us and they are very excited to meet and network with the travel industry experts here. We have been able to have some excellent airline access with Emirates, flydubai, Air Arabia and coming into Dubai now also Uganda Airlines and also from Qatar with Qatar Airways so it is a very well accessible destination from all different areas in the GCC region and a lot of excitement from Uganda coming over here and seeing the Middle East and UAE in particular as a great opportunity to come into recovery with the industry here. We kicked off in Dubai and Abu Dhabi this month and the delegation will return in February and March with another branding relaunch as well, so now it is just the beginning of activities and we are hoping to work with the travel trade here with different fam trips also working with the media, influencers, also have them experience Uganda so that they are able to create demand for this unique destination that hopefully with the travel trade partners will be able to have packages available and get travelers ready to go to Uganda. We are not just trying to creating a destination or a holiday experience where people could go and then just put down in their calendar and go but really have in their bucket list experiences something that you would want to keep as a memory forever and these of course being the highlights the gorilla tracking, being able to experience mountain gorillas also other primates like chimpanzees and also canopy walkways on top of that Uganda is also the source of the Nile so there is also the upper Nile cruises that people can experience along with all the natural beauty whether it be waterfalls and general safaris on the Savannah so in this compact country really bucket list ultimate experiences.”
