Why tourism is not picking up in this beautiful country: Poor investment!

SIR— In your article of 13 December 13, p.35, Word Travel Market says that negative Travel Advices (TA) hurt Uganda’s tourism. I think there are more important factors that are hurting the sector. WTA mentions The Netherlands as one of the countries with negative TA. I am a Dutch resident in Kampala. But I can tell you that few Dutch know about their government’s TA and they would even care less. The Dutch are an adventurous people who like to see new countries and places. A TA is not a prohibition for citizens. Your article wants to put the blame for poor tourism development in Uganda on outside factors and not on the sector itself. The unfortunate fact is that the sector in general does not deliver value for money. Can you, for instance, explain why a Sheraton room in the most expensive quarter of Beijing costs $98 per night and the same type of room in Sheraton Kampala more than twice that amount? Uganda’s tourism cannot compete with say Kenya and many other parts of the world, although nature has given Uganda all kinds of comparative advantages — except for the seashore. This includes the very friendly people throughout the country! My own experience in Uganda refers to at least 12 travels and weekends. Only two of them were really satisfactory in terms of accommodation and food. In two cases, it was so bad that we put in a written complaint: In one case (Ssese Islands), we found a far insufficient accommodation for the price we paid ($60 per night), whereas comparable lodges cost sh40.000. We do not know whether the travel agency cashes the difference but we felt swindled. In a phone call to the agency afterwards, we received some kind words but no compensation whatsoever. The other was a luxury lodge in a national park where we were the only guests (but paid $100 dollar per night anyhow). We gradually got the feeling of being ripped off for everything that was not included in the package: $4 per km transport (which we only discovered when the bill was made); a bottle of a better wine was $24 but it appeared to be sour; they gave us the cheapest bottle as a substitute and we paid the full price of the other. By that time, we were already too tired to complain, as we had decided never to return. Back to Kampala, we wrote our complaint to the owner/operator, who offered us a free weekend for compensation. But this was null and void. Friends have visited us over the years we have been here and gone on to national parks and other sites. They also all came back with the same feelings. Other friends decided not to come. They are experienced mountain climbers and were interested in the Rwenzoris. When they heard of the prices for a tour (tripled since the re-opening), they decided to stay in France where they can climb with detailed maps bringing their own dried food. Others who wanted to go to Bwindi were scared by the price of $1,100 for four nights! As long as Ugandan tourism operators are not prepared to invest properly in accommodation and food and attract people, don’t expect that tourism will take off in this beautiful country. Els Boerma Kampala