Trip Addicts staring at “bigger” 2022 following Janzi Awards win

In a glamorous event on Saturday 11, December 2021, socialite Judith Heard took to the podium to read out the winner of the maiden Janzi Award for the Domestic Tourism category.

“Let me take this chance to announce the domestic tourism award, it is a team that I have worked with, and it was a great team to work with,” she said, before taking a few deep breaths.

“Congratulations, Trip Addicts on the award,” she announced a few moments later, in her soft angelic voice.

A music interlude followed, as the Trip Addicts representative hurriedly rushed to pick the award. From that moment on, Trip Addicts had set a country record, as the first-ever winner of the Janzi domestic tourism award.

Trip Addicts is an association of domestic travel enthusiasts who will not feel at ease if they have no trips booked.

They organize short and long trips in and around Uganda, to showcase the country's beauty, through their thrilling photos of the places they visit throughout the year.

Speaking to Nile Post, days after the event, Trip Addicts boss Ibrahim Kayondo said that looking back from when they started, the win in the Janzi Awards “was well deserved.”

“I feel privileged to have won, extremely happy,” Kayondo told this reporter.

Kayondo said that while setting out to operationalize his group, he was tired of travel groups that always made tourism seem “exotic” by charging Ugandans exorbitantly, something he thinks has discouraged many people from domestic tourism.

Kayondo coined a slogan that says; “Everyone must travel”, and he told this website that he has lived up to it since day one.

“Trip Addicts has been innovative in this game, we introduced the kind of entertainment (Silent disco on the bus) that youth would like to have while on a trip, we are also very affordable and consistent, which has earned us people's trust,” Kayondo said.

Looking ahead

With the world now counting down days to the new year, 2022, Kayondo said that his group is now fully focused on hitting even much bigger strides.

“We are looking at purchasing vehicles of our own and promoting tourism in different perspectives,” he said.

Trip Addicts’ last program of the year, which also doubles as the first of 2022 is “Kikutte Ku Murchison”, a three-day thrill ride in the wild.

According to Kayondo, the trip will run from 31, December 2021 to 2, January 2022.

Activities will include cinema in the wild, a game drive, camping, campfire, hiking and of course, silent disco.

Interested individuals will pay Shs 250,000 through the booking line; 0701418288.

Kayondo said that domestic tourism in Uganda is not all rosy, and called for more government support.