Desperate to have to deal with the high costs of accommodation, which is one of the reasons as to why many Ugandans find it difficult to tour the country, the government has revoked the monopoly that the Madhvani group had over putting up lodging facilities around Murchison Falls national park, writes SADAB KITATTA KAAYA.
In a bid to promote local tourism, government has ended Madhvani group’s monopoly over lodging facilities in Murchison Falls national park, six years before the expiry of the group’s 30-year agreement.
According to the state minister for Tourism, Godfrey Kiwanda Ssuubi, the decision to review Madhvani’s 30-year concession in Uganda’s biggest wildlife sanctuary was reached about four months ago in order to open up to investors that can come up with facilities favourable to local tourists.
“Ugandans are still discouraged by the high cost of accommodation facilities in the park, and since we are prioritising localisation of our national parks and the tourism industry, we are encouraging communities around the parks to invest in the sector,” Kiwanda told The Observer.
Under its 1993 agreement with the then Uganda National Parks, the Madhvani group was given exclusive zones covering about 30 square kilometres from its Paraa and Chobe safari lodges. These, according to Kiwanda, were awarded as incentives given that Madhvani had risked to invest in the park at a time when the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) reigned supreme in the area, with their warlord Joseph Kony said to be lodging at what is the present-day Chobe.
“Ugandans raised concerns over the high cost of the facilities in the national park. We tried to engage them [Madhvani] to lower the costs which they couldn’t, and it is discouraging tourism. That is why we decided to open up to other investors because cheap accommodation is still a major challenge to local tourism,” Kiwanda said.
Kiwanda spoke to The Observer after a stakeholders’ meeting at Paraa Safari lodge on January 11, where MPs from the six districts around Murchison Falls national park questioned government’s decision to give Madhvani preferential treatment.
The most vocal legislator was Buliisa MP Stephen Birahwa Mukitale who is constructing a 48-bed hotel on the Buliisa side of Uganda’s most visited national park. A guest at Paraa safari lodge has to pay $150 (Shs 540,000) exclusive of the costs a tourist has to pay to enjoy the game drives, nature walks or boat rides along River Nile.
There have been efforts to promote low-cost lodging facilities on the outskirts of the parks, on top of cheaper Ugandan food in order to convince Ugandans to visit tourist sites more. But those efforts appear to be meeting challenges, especially as holidaymakers seek quality facilities.
“We also still have problems convincing the tour companies to appreciate the value and importance of local tourism; many of them are thinking in terms of dollars. You can’t find traditional cuisines in these hotels, which is discouraging,” Kiwanda said.
Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has so far signed concession agreements with three other investors that are going to construct a 40-bed hotel at Karuma, where Madhvani runs Chobe Safari Lodge, a 30-bed hotel at Gabongo forest and another at Butiaba escarpment.
But as UWA invites new investors, former Uganda Railways managing director Enos Tumusiime may lose his concession on Pakuba safari lodge, which he has allegedly failed to redevelop.
Tumusiime signed an agreement with UWA about eight years ago to redevelop the facility which was bombed in 1979 during the war that ousted Idi Amin.
“This hotel is historic. Amin used to spend his weekends here. Given that historic fame, we wanted an investor who would redevelop it but it seems the one we got has failed,” UWA executive director Andrew Sseguya told journalists outside what remains of the hotel.
Tumusiime is currently operating from what used to be the hotel’s staff quarters, leaving the main hotel structure to lions, leopards and hyenas.
THE NUMBERS
The new developments come after Murchison Falls national park registered an increase in the number of tourists visiting it with a notable increase in the number of Ugandans.
According to records at the park, 75,360 tourists had visited last December 31, 2016 as compared to the previous year’s 65,322 tourists. Foreign tourists accounted for 52.4 percent of last year’s visitors to the park while East Africans constituted 32.8 percent, and students 11 percent, resident foreigners at almost four per cent.
“The majority of those classified as East Africans are actually Ugandans. They are classified that way because all East Africans pay the same rates but nearly three quarters of them are Ugandans,” Simplicious Gessa, UWA’s public relations officer, told The Observer.
Kiwanda attributes the improved numbers of Ugandans visiting the national parks to his Tulambule campaign that he launched in August last year.
“I didn’t expect immediate results…by promoting local tourism, we don’t want to reduce the number of foreign tourists but the percentages of local tourists should go up,” Kiwanda said.
An estimated 1.5 million tourists come in every year, with the numbers expected to increase to two million, which Kiwanda says should be only a fraction of the tourists that visit the national parks.
“I want a 50 per cent increase of the local tourists and in this,” Kiwanda said. “I am looking at having Ugandans making up 70 per cent of the visitors to the national parks by 2020.”
sadabkk@observer.ug