Uganda aims to promote tourism through sports

By Patrick Jaramogi

AFTER the land mark Kabale inaugural sports tourism proved successful, the East Africa Sports Tourism Initiative (EASTI) the organizers have announced that the event will be held annually.

The initiative the first of its kind started by Ugandans during the Easter weekend in Kabale the “Switzerland of Africa” attracted over 200 participants.

There is no doubt that Kabale dubbed is the “Switzerland of Africa” is one of the most scenic towns in Africa and is the home of the endangered Mountain Gorilla, and hundreds of bird species and the breath-taking Lake Bunyonyi, among many awesome attractions.

To promote these attractions, Uganda Tourism Board partnered with East Africa Sports Tourism Initiative (EASTI) to organize the 2015 Kabale Sports Tourism Festival.

Aggrey Mwesigwa the Team leader EASTI said Kabale was a starting point. ‘Now that we have proved that it can happen, we shall roll it across the entire country,” he told Vision Sports in an interview. He said the challenge currently is the funding. “We are looking for sponsors and funds to roll out the event and we are receiving good responses so far from leading firms,” he noted.

Mwesigwa noted that funds being in place the events will be held on a rotational basis in all regions of the country. “We intend to have such events in Mbale to cater for Eastern, Nebbi Albertine region to cater for northern and Kasese for western,” he said.

The inaugural Sports Tourism Festival in Kabale that attracted entities such as Bank of Uganda, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Nature Uganda, Voice of Kigezi, Uganda Wildlife Authority, Crown Beverages and Kabale Local Government among others consisted of a series of sports and tourism activities such as football, netball, tug- of-war, marathon, birding race, wrestling, canoe race, cultural extravaganza.

Mwesigwa said another challenge is slated for Independence Day in Jinja as held in and around tourism attractions all over Uganda.