Community based tourism in Uganda
Community Based Tourism is a form of sustainable tourism that allows visitors or travelers to connect closely with the communities they visit. This gives tourists authentic experiences from places they visit while allowing revenue generated by tourism to remain in the often rural, poor, or economically marginalized community. Today Uganda community tourism association (UCOTA) has worked hard to make sure that the local people can also benefit from the development of tourism in their communities, through encouraging the tourism management to provide a percentage of the revenue generated from the tourists who come for safaris in Uganda to the local community so that they can also develop. UCOTA has also done this through encouraging infrastructural development like roads in the communities, and also providing jobs to the local people especially in the hotels, which money helps to improve the lives of the local people. In addition, communities have been encouraged to participate in the development of tourism through encouraging craft making near national parks, museums, heritages among others so that they can be able to earn income to improve their live hoods. Another example is Ruhija which had no previous tourist accommodation and few opportunities for villagers to earn income, today a percentage of profits from gorilla friends tented camp are returned to support other livelihood enhancement initiatives in the village. Through this they have identified and developed local capacity to participate meaningfully in Uganda’s tourism industry.
Community based tourism has helped in promoting tourist attractions in Uganda and thus attracting many tourists/ flows to Uganda. This is evidenced in mainly national parks where community participation has been enhanced by people. An example is Bigodi community which promotes bird watching, primate watching, craft making activities which have helped in improving their lives. The communities run these tourism enterprises that provide services such as village tours, nature walks, performances, and meals on their own initiatives. Community ecotourism is a particular facet of community based tourism, where at least some of the experiences are natural resourced-based. Community ecotourism benefits both environmental conservation and local communities, the former generating financing for the management of the natural resource area.
Another organization is Community based tourism initiative (COBATI) which provides valuable tourism services to Uganda communities including training, mentoring, study tours, establishing micro village enterprises, and building strategic partnerships thus promoting community based tourism.
Why a tourist /visitor should take a Community Tour?
- Visitors enjoy the authentic true Ugandan culture, hospitality and friendliness. Visitors meet people of different ethnic groupings and learn far more about them and their culture. Visitors feel better while the visit genuinely helps host communities.
- It helps to improve standards of living of the host community through a number of initiatives including a child school sponsorship programme, saving projects and conservation project.
- Community based tourism helps in creating local job opportunities and the income which is used to support community projects. At terrain safaris we are proud to arrange your community tour to some of the disadvantaged communities and social groups. We advise and give you a suggested tour itinerary that suits your needs.
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