New Uganda Wildlife Authority tariff plan leaves a bitter taste

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has increased its tariffs on some of the activities and slapped fees on activities that were previously free of charge.

A couple of weeks back, the Uganda Wildlife Authority, a body responsible for managing all protected areas in the country released a new conservation tariff with some changes that will go into effect on  July,1,  2022.

The semi-autonomous body in charge of all the national parks in Uganda posted on its social media accounts on 14th March 2022, “The new Uganda conservation tariff is now available. Grab your free copy now and the link followed. These revised fees go into effect starting 1st July 2022”. It further posted a picture of the conservation fees summary.

To everyone’s surprise, the rates were increased instead of decreasing as many hoped. The organization could have been lenient and considerate to issue out friendly rates so that the tourism industry fully recovers from the covid-19 pandemic crisis.

The major changes

Uganda wildlife Authority introduced a special category for Murchison Falls National Park and for that matter, the tariffs for Murchison falls national park will be totally different from all the other national parks in Uganda.

Park entrance fees at Murchison Falls National Park will change effective 1^st July 2022  to $45 for foreign non-residents, $35 for foreign residents  and shs25000 for East African citizens.

Formerly, park entrances were $40, $30 and shs20,000 respectively whereas annual park entrance passes were $500 for a couple, $700 for a family of four and shs 100,000 for safari guides.

However the annual passes have also been revised to $600, $800 and shs 200,000 respectively.

Besides Murchison Falls NP, the park entrances were charged a little lower by $5 for other savanna parks; Kidepo Valley National Park, located in the extreme north of the country and the Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda, one of the most visited  by tourists.

For the forest parks of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Mgahinga and Kibale Forest, the park entrance remained at $40 for Foreign Non-residents, $30 for East African residents and shs20,000 for East Africa citizens.

UWA also reduced the park entrance fees for Mount Elgon National Park to $35 for Foreign Non-residents, $25 for Foreign residents and shs 15,000 for East Africa citizens.

Hiking fees are $50 for Foreign Non-residents, $40 for Foreign residents and shs 50,000 for East Africa citizens.

Other Park Charges

It will be compulsory to pay for a game drives whether you are opting for a self-guided game drive or a guided game drive. In both cases, you will have to pay.

The self-guided game drive which is very popular among travelers who go on self-guided tours will cost $10 per vehicle and the fees for guided game drives will remain the same $20(day) per day and $30 (Night) per person.

Why Murchison Falls National Park  is now a class apart?

Some sources have it that Murchison falls National Park claimed its class apart from all the other national parks in Uganda due to the newly constructed Paraa Bridge and its roads.

It is also apparently the best national park in Uganda in regard to the road conditions. If you were asked to compare it to Queen Elizabeth national park specifically Ishasha sector, you would definitely consider it an insult.

Murchison Conservation area fees were increased to find some revenue to hasten the payment of the debt that was acquired to fund the construction of the new bridge.

Other sources have it that, they came up with a conservation perspective after noticing an increase in Murchison falls national park visitors. This therefore forced them to revise fees in order to restrict them from putting so much pressure on the fragile natural environment for sustainability purposes.

Primate Activities Tariffs

All the major primate activities’ rates remained the same such as the gorilla trekking fees still at $700 for nonresident foreigners, $600 for foreign residents and shs250,000 for East Africans.

Chimpanzee tracking in Kibale National Park, the primate capital of East Africa also remains at $200 for foreign nonresidents and $150 for foreign residents.

Even habituation activities for both the gorillas and chimpanzees retained their 2020-2022 tariff rates.

It should be noted that the new changes in the UWA conservation tariff plan will go into effect from July, 1, 2022 to 2024.

The old tariffs plan of 2020-2022 is still operational till 30th June 2022.

Reaction from concerned parties 

The changes brought some mixed reactions among the stakeholders.

A one Irene Renewills commented on the Facebook post, “why are you increasing the rates yet tourism is just recovering from covid impact? And so the travellers recovering”. Another by the names of Gihan De Silva wrote, “Annual permits are increased not happy”.

Zanie Baniaz Matovu posted, “But why the hell would you charge park entrance which is also increased for Murchison falls and another $10 to view the waterfalls.

There were some positive comments for instance; Nduhukire Angela commented, “This is great. Viewing top of the falls for wildlife clubs is now free in addition to the discounted entrance fees of shs2000. This will go a long way in motivating the members of the wildlife clubs of Uganda. Miranda Henderson thanked UWA for the information”.

 Uganda Wildlife Authority Reaction

 After seeing so many discontented comments, Uganda Wildlife Authority posted on the following day 15th March 2022 to rejuvenate the disgruntled followers to remind them that gorilla and Chimpanzee permit rates had remained unchanged.

 Tour Operators Reactions

The different tourism associations in Uganda such as the Uganda tourism associations, Association of Uganda Tour operators among others have not yet come out with an official reaction to the changes that were communicated by Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).

However, away from social media, I reached out to a tour operator who requested to remain anonymous to give a comment on the changes of the tariffs.

This is what he had to say, “The future looks blink for us, we were trying to pick ourselves from the covid-19 pandemic havoc, the geopolitical war between Russia and Ukraine comes in, the fuel prices sour and now the increase in the rates of some activities. The few clients that were starting to get interested in visiting Uganda are going to be pushed away”.

Another tour operator who also preferred to remain anonymous had this to say, “The Uganda wildlife Authority has increased park entrances by close to $20 but have distributed it in different places to make it seem like the increase was just by $5. Though I would not welcome the $5 increase, it would have been bearable if only UWA stuck to only the $5 increase without masking other charges in the background for activities such as game drives. At the end of the day, the tariff has increased by close to $20 which is a 50% increase in the tariff.”