‘Tourism should be every Ugandan’s business

Lilly Ajarova will in March, this year, officially take over the mantle at the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) as the new Chief Executive Officer. She talked to The Independent’s Ronald Musoke about her plans for Uganda’s tourism industry.

You have come in at a time when the government’s interest in the local tourism sector is probably at its highest level. How excited are you about your new job at UTB?

I am excited about being the CEO of Uganda Tourism Board from the perspective that it offers quite a big challenge for me but, a good one nonetheless. We know that we have treasure in this country and our natural heritage is quite enormous. We also know that tourism presents a huge opportunity for our economy and we are just in that state of “where do we go and how do we do this.” So, I find this exciting because it offers a challenge of trying to get Uganda to the next level by creating a clear path of how to get there. We also have an opportunity to network and lobby the right people to make sure that we move this sector forward.

Despite the ever growing revenue from tourism, there is fierce debate among stakeholders in the industry of what needs to be done to take the industry to the next level. Some say Uganda’s brand identity needs to be fixed while others say it is the marketing budget that needs to improve. What’s your view?

I think we need to first of all have a clear plan on what we want to do. Just like anybody, the government would want to put resources where it expects a good return on investment. We, the people in the industry have so far pushed the government in the right direction. We, for instance, didn’t have a ministry— it was just a department within the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Now, we are an independent ministry with two ministers and support staff who provide oversight and policy direction in the industry. That means the government recognizes the importance of the sector. We also have Uganda Tourism Board—the institution mandated to market this country as a tourism destination. So, for me at this point, I would say, even if the budget is a factor, we now need to present concrete plans so we can convince the government to invest more into the industry. We now need to get to that point where there is a meeting of minds to ensure that more investment in the sector is provided to drive the economy. I follow regional sector trends and I know that we are in competition for the tourists. So we need to up our game and provide a higher quality of service than we are offering now if we want to increase our tourist numbers. If you are, for instance, rating a particular hotel to be a 5-Star hotel, it must meet the expectations of an international tourist who actually knows what a 5-Star hotel is. These are some of the things that we are going to be handling as UTB. Secondly, as a country, are we that well-known? Unfortunately, there are people around the world who still know Uganda because of Idi Amin. What they knew of him is what they know of Uganda and yet we have moved so far away from that era. So we need to up our game by being out there in the market place. We also need to take advantage of our embassies abroad. I mean, what are they doing to promote tourism? We need to make them push more than they are doing right now.

So, is this going to be your strategy?

My focus is to have a clear plan on how to promote Uganda’s tourism industry. Yes, there are already some plans (in place) but we need to review and update these plans and be clear with all the stakeholders that there is a plan we are working with and that we have a vision of where we want to reach with our industry. This has to be clear to all of us. UTB is only a part of the network. We have the private sector, we have the Uganda Wildlife Authority that manages the wildlife resources; we have the tourism ministry responsible for the policy—all of these need to agree on what our vision is and where we want to be in five or ten years’ time and then work backwards on the strategies we need to employ to achieve our vision. For me that is important. We also have to have a clear strategy of how we are going to promote this country by developing different tourism products. My other priority is to have a national brand. We already have a brand called the “Pearl of Africa,” but can you see it? We hear it, but do you see it? Can you touch it? When I say “Pearl of Africa,” do we all imagine the same thing? There must be some common understanding once someone mentions the “Pearl of Africa.” So branding is one of the key priorities that I will embark on. We are also going to work closely with other ministries to make sure that the infrastructure is in place. For example, the road to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest Park should not be in the state it is. We know that most international tourists are coming to Uganda because of Mountain Gorillas yet this road should not be in the state it is.

Uganda’s tourism is hinged a lot on nature. What is your strategy for diversifying the country’s products portfolio?

We obviously need to diversify Uganda’s tourism portfolio. Right now, it is majorly about wildlife where people know that when they go to Bwindi, they will see gorillas, when they go to Kibale, they will see chimpanzees, when they go to Murchison Falls National Park, they will see the falls, or see the caldera when they visit Mount Elgon or even snow when they climb Mount Rwenzori. But there is a lot more we have in this country: the culture of the people of Uganda is, for instance, so diverse that the experience you will have with people in Kisoro in southwestern Uganda is different from the Banyoro in mid-western Uganda; or somebody in Arua in northwestern Uganda, or someone in Karamoja in northeastern Uganda.The opportunities are enormous around culture. One other thing is that tourism trends keep changing at the international level. We are now at a point where tourists no longer want to come here sit and lay back. Most of them want to come and experience something; so agro-tourism could be key in attracting these kinds of tourists who either want to experience milking cows or picking coffee.

What will it take for Uganda to deepen her tourism sector to compete with countries like Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius, Egypt and Morocco?

We need to package our tourism products and services better. We also need to promote them aggressively. We need to be out in the market. If you want Australians to come here, you cannot sit in Uganda and say we have beautiful landscapes and mountains. You need to go to Australia and tell them about it or you take it to them in a certain format to provoke them to come and have the real life experience here. Do you know how Kenya “hit gold” in the area of tourism? It was the movie: “Out of Africa.” Everyone wanted to visit the country where the movie was made. We have had our moments with “Queen of Katwe” and “Black Panther” but we still have the opportunity to attract film makers to come over and use our scenery to attract tourists here. This should be added onto the marketing representatives we currently have in the UK, North America and the German-speaking countries. We should also be investing more in digital marketing because you can easily take the experience of the Source of the Nile to any place in the world.

The local tourism sector faces the challenge of statistics which some local experts, say is based on guesswork. How do you intend to solve this problem?

First, statistics are very important because you cannot evaluate what you cannot measure. Secondly, it is true, statistics are a challenge right now but we are going to overcome it. What normally disturbs people in regards to the number of tourists is how you define who a tourist is. According to the World Tourism Organization, a tourist is anybody who moves from their usual place of residence to another and spends at least 24 hours there but not more than one a year. We just have to strengthen our partnership with the other agencies like the Uganda Bureau of Statistics and the directorate of immigration. Why shouldn’t we sit down together and say this kind of information is what is required for the Uganda Tourism Board and this kind of statistics is for the Uganda Revenue Authority. We just need to strengthen our partnership and working relationship as government agencies so that we can be efficient in the way we get the numbers.

Many Ugandans still view tourism as meant for a certain class of people or foreigners but thankfully, there are a number of initiatives aimed at boosting local tourism to change this mindset. How do you intend to take the campaign further?

With regards to domestic tourism, we shall first of all create more awareness to encourage Ugandans to visit and enjoy the heritage they have. We are going to come up with some packages where some people are going to be ‘pushed’ in a way to travel. We need to find away where we make it easy and affordable for Ugandans to move to the tourism sites. The main issue with us Ugandans though is that our attitude is all wrong. We think that tourism is only for white people or foreigners. This is why I think we need to have our children exposed early enough. I want to create tourism clubs in schools just like we have wildlife clubs. These clubs will get these children to travel. I am, for instance, not doing what I am doing by accident. My parents started taking me out to visit national parks when I was only five years. And it was not once, it was regular. So I did not end up in conservation and tourism by chance. So for the future of tourism, we need to engage children and expose them as early as possible. It will not be a struggle for them to save money for the next travel or holiday to Kidepo or Mweya.

You have worked at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary and you definitely appreciate the current problem of wildlife trafficking which is threatening nature-based tourism. What, in your opinion, is fuelling this vice in Uganda and Africa in general?

I think it is mainly economic gain at the higher level of the problem though poverty in Uganda is another factor. Economic gain is for the kingpins at the high level who are dealing in wildlife products making loads of money in the process while poverty is for the guy deep in the village who kills an elephant to get the tusks for some little money. Addressing poverty in Uganda and Africa requires urgent attention while the culture in South East Asia that glorifies wildlife products as exotic trophies also needs to be dealt with decisively. We need to consistently teach Ugandans to value the resources they have. Instead of someone killing an elephant to enrich oneself, let them see the value in tourism. The solution lies in creating awareness and getting Ugandans to value their natural resources. But in fighting wildlife crime, it is high time we deployed technology that is available.

Your last word?

Tourism is key and it is something every Ugandan should be looking at getting involved in; both in terms of providing something from which they can earn but also by becoming tourists in their own country. In other words, tourism should be every Ugandan’s business.

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