Uganda urged to size up efforts to tap into cultural tourism

Cultural tourism has been billed as another area that Uganda can tap into as a supplement to wildlife tourism.

Speaking during the opening ceremony of the sixth cultural exhibition at the Uganda National Cultural Centre (UNCC) in Kampala, Simon Musasizi, the Heritage Trust Programme Manager at the Cross Cultural Foundation Uganda(CCFU) said Uganda is at a great advantage to benefit from cultural tourism, unlike many other destinations.

“Cultural tourism is growing and as country, we need to position ourselves.  A lot of times we have put ourselves on game drives and wildlife tourism yet there is a lot we have as a country. For example, we have about 65 ethnic groups, each with a unique culture, way of dressing, food and many others that we can tap into as a country. We need to position ourselves to ensure we earn from this,” Musaszi said.

He said as CCFU, they promote an appreciation of culture as vital for human development that responds to the country’s diverse identities, noting that there is a lot to benefit from the country’s diverse cultures.

He however said there is a need for capacity building, especially for tour guides on how to maximize the country’s diverse cultures for the benefit of tourists.

“We need to train our guides to package cultural tourism as part of a great experience that someone can enjoy in our country.  For example, we have documented our heritage as cities and many of our guides can take people around them to tell the story. We need to do the same for our different cultures,” Musazizi said.

“There are different stories attached to our products and we are trying to build capacity for our people to produce them in quality but also to ensure they earn from tourism sector. For example, we need to ensure that our guides can ably explain to tourists that if you see a basket, you can tell if it was weaved by a pregnant woman or not. By getting such expertise as tour guides, they can ably sell the Ugandan cultural story to tourists.”

He noted that this way, the country can increase on the number of tourists through product diversification, other than solely depending on the existing products.

The Executive Director of the Uganda National Cultural Centre (UNCC), Francis Peter Ojede underscored the role of preserving and promotion of art, culture and heritage .

“Today, when you go to many of the villages, you don’t see a lot of these cultural aspects yet these define who we are. We need to preserve culture to be transferred to the future generations,” Ojede said.