The Uganda Wildlife Authority released figures earlier this month showing a continued positive trend of elephant numbers in Queen Elizabeth National Park. The latest game survey puts their population around the 3,000 mark, an increase of more than 500 from the last count in 2004.

One Christmas, when I was about three years old, we went to Hunter’s Lodge in Tsavo National Park. I had been a particularly bad little girl and my parents told me that they weren’t sure that Santa was even going to come that year.

When it came time to go to bed, we discovered that we had forgotten the stocking. Horrors! Not that! Now Santa definitely wasn’t going to come.

Dad came to the rescue and offered up one of his socks. I went to sleep incredulous but hopeful.

Christmas morning came and … Santa had come! All I remember about what he brought was a miniature refrigerator, complete with miniature eggs. Dad would swallow one and miraculously find it behind my ear.

So, why am I reminiscing about an event that happened more than 30 years ago?

In part, to wish those of you who celebrate Christmas a wonderful and merry holiday.

But mostly, because I read this story in eTN: “Uganda welcomes tourism boom over Christmas.”

Apparently, Uganda experienced a 30 percent increase in visitors compared to 2005, according to a published report from Uganda Travel Guide. “The record number of tourists traveling into Uganda this Christmas season is overwhelmingly high,” reported Uganda Travel Guide (UTG), “evidenced by the fully booked flights and sold out hotel rooms in Uganda.”

Mweya and Paraa safari lodges sold out almost a month ago, according to Madhvani group tourism director Mani Khan. He told UTG that this is a peak season compared to last year because the bookings were made in advance. The majority of these tourists, unlike previous years, are from the UK, US, Netherlands and Germany.

“An increase in tourist arrivals is attributed to a combination of factors,” said UTG, “including the improved hotel facilities/services, improved security, efforts to boost Uganda’s image abroad, engagement of public relations agencies, as well as the committed and qualified staff in the hospitality sector.”

Tourism Minister Serapio Rukundo credits the prevailing political stability for the increase. “Our cities are much safer compared to Kenya and South Africa,” he told reporters.

The 4th International Institute of Peace through Tourism (IIPT) African Conference Coming to Uganda in May

Kampala, Uganda, will host the fourth International Institute of Peace through Tourism (IIPT) African Conference May 20-25, 2007.

“We anticipate that this will be our most important and successful African conference to date,” said Louis D’Amore, IIPT Founder and President. “We have spent the past year fostering relationships in support of the conference with the aim of not only debating its theme and goals – but to building partnerships that will act on them.”

The theme of the conference is “Building Strategic Alliances for Sustainable Tourism Development, Peace and Reconciliation on the African Continent.” Among the many goals of the conference is increasing public and government awareness of the role tourism plays in preserving the biodiversity of the African Continent.

According to the IIPT newsletter, the Conference will bring together senior African executives from both the public and private sectors of tourism, as well as NGOs, donor agencies, educators, policy makers, leading practitioners, entrepreneurs, future leaders of the industry, and senior representatives of related sectors including environment, culture and economic development.

The conference will include plenary sessions, workshops, an Educators Forum, a Youth Leadership Forum and a Traditional Leaders Forum, as well as pre-conference training workshops on selected topics.

For more information about the conference, visit iipt.org.

My very first post to this blog mentioned the this was coming. Now it is a reality.

Apolinari Tairo, from eTN Africa, reports that “Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda have launched a common marketing strategy at big international tourism fairs.” This is part of their effort to ” to market East Africa as a single package but with different and unique tourist heritages in each member state.”

The official start of this new campaign will coincide with the International Tourism Exhibition (ITB) in Berlin to be held in March of next year. There, East African tourist boards will present leaflets and banners featuring the regional tourist attractions and inter-state heritages.

In addition to this marketing campaign, the three countries have “also agreed on a common tourist visa and standardization of hotels and other tourist facilities in the region.”

According to Tairo, representatives from the regional tourist boards met at the recently-ended World Travel Market (WTM) in London, and “agreed to harmonize policies and strategies in the tourist sector in the East African Community (EAC) states to involve a broad spectrum of stakeholders.”

The managing director of the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) Peter Mwenguo told eTN Thursday, that they intend to “chat out plans to work out implementation of the EAC council of ministers directive requiring us to foster regional cooperation in tourism.”

Tairo adds, “Wildlife is the leading tourist attraction in East Africa, but each state has its own unique attractions including Mount Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater and Chimpanzee parks (Tanzania), the Maasai-Mara Game Reserve and the Indian Ocean beaches (Kenya) and gorilla heritage and natural scenery (Uganda).”

Despite pressure from Basongora pastoralists returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Yoweri Museveni, has made it clear that no part of any National Park in Uganda will be degazetted.

This is probably due to the immense financial benefit the parks and their wildlife bring to the country. Wildlife is integral to Ugandan tourism, which is a major contributor to the country’s economy.

According to Moses Mapesa, who wrote an opinion piece for Uganda’s leading daily newspaper, The New Vision, a single gorilla in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park brings in $100,000 (US) per year and provides jobs for 30 people.

Increasing human population has caused a lot of political pressure to degazette park lands for human settlement. And, more than 90% of the Ugandan population is rural, requiring lots of land. Compare this to the less than 20% in South Africa and China, where the population is concentrated in cities and the rural areas are set aside for production and conservation of natural resources.

Human encroachment has jeopardized the wild populations, especially carnivores and omnivores, which are often poisoned by the communities. At least five lions were recently found poisoned in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park.

To read more of Mapesa’s article, visit www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/459/515276.