Uganda’s publicity campaign on CNN
Oct 06, 2005
THE tourism industry has for long been vocal on the need for government to spend more money on promoting Uganda as a safe and desirable destination, putting more money into the Uganda Tourist Board’s (UTB) campaigns and providing incentive packages for the sector to make it more competitive vis-Ã
Wolfgang Thome
THE tourism industry has for long been vocal on the need for government to spend more money on promoting Uganda as a safe and desirable destination, putting more money into the Uganda Tourist Board’s (UTB) campaigns and providing incentive packages for the sector to make it more competitive vis-à -vis our regional competitors.
But eventually, the tireless lobbying by the private sector paid off and government began to put its money where its mouth was and substituted lip service with cash. In 2003 ‘The Presidential Tour of Uganda’ brought the enchanting beauty of our country through the National Geographic channel into living rooms around the globe and generated fresh interest by travellers to come to Uganda.
A year later, the Africa Travel Association’s Cultural and Eco-tourism Symposium was sponsored by government and brought the cream of African-American travel agents and tour operators from the US and Canada to Kampala. This year, and I should say again in close consultation with the tourism private sector, government is embarking on further publicity to build an image of ‘Uganda Today’ in the global theatre of opinion, where people either know nothing about us or have a wrong opinion.
Therefore, the CNN campaign is not an isolated event, timed and chosen by government to influence perception ahead of the next general elections or in the immediate aftermath of the constitutional changes, which just passed through the parliamentary and referendum process. The CNN campaign is building on the stepping stones of 2003 and 2004 activities and I would speculate that even in 2006 further such campaigns will continue.
Tourism in recent years has seen strong growth in arrivals and for the year 2004, the country received over half a million visitors for the first time in its history and after the first six months of 2005, we recorded a further increase in arrivals to over 300,000 already.
Entebbe International Airport also saw its passenger handling jump the half million mark for the first time in 2004 and utilisation of the facility has now gone above 20%. The methods employed for generating the statistics are of universally accepted nature and derive from agreements with the World Tourism Organisation and the International Civil Aviation Organisation and are therefore neither random nor ‘cooked’ as has of late been suggested. The government campaigns undoubtedly played an important supporting role in achieving such growth.
To catch up with not only our more developed neighbours Kenya and Tanzania, but also make headway vis-à -vis the continental tourism giants Egypt and South Africa, campaigns like the one on CNN will help our sector and our country, to get ‘visible’ in the global market, where we compete with almost every other nation for the precious tourist euros, pounds, yens and dollars.
In addition, visitors coming for the purpose of a holiday are often also catalysts in regard of investment and trade opportunities and the CNN campaign will therefore not only feature our flora and fauna, our mountains, rivers and lakes, but also focus on our friendly people and their culture, our rich agricultural potential, the generous weather and our multiple investment and trade opportunities. This broad campaign will run an initial course of six months and will feature the different ‘faces’ of Uganda for almost 100 minutes every month.
Now, there are those out there, a small but often loud minority, who begrudge government every good move it makes and try to put a negative spin to it. I have overheard comments in recent days, which 20 years ago, when I was living in Kenya, would have landed citizens in court with sedition charges and foreigners would have been unceremoniously bundled on a flight out of the country, not ever to return.
The fact that people, even expatriates, can today speak their mind in such fashion, is a commendable development, even if one disagrees with their sentiments, and I for one, having lived for long in Kenya before coming to Uganda in the early 90s, have always treasured the level of freedom of the media, especially in comparison with the rather darker days of Kenyan politics in the period after 1982.
Of course, Uganda’s government must and will be aware of the impact of day to day politics and politically inspired events in the global media arena and will not get a ‘quid pro quo’ from CNN, when actual news are reported.
So good internal ‘behaviour’ would be very helpful for the campaign to completely succeed, but if something negative is there to report, in balance, I would think the viewers of the ‘Sounds and Sights of Uganda’ will probably still take more of a positive impression about our country with them.
The tourism sector would like to see government undertake additional measures to support us, like passing the pending draft tourism bill at last, which, like the tourism policy before it, seems to be overstaying in cabinet.
This would put into motion a restructuring and reorganisation of the UTB (and the entire industry) and pave the way for the introduction of a tourism development fund levy, from which a range of activities as provided for under the tourism policy and draft bill can be financed with very little government subsidy, just as long as the demand for VAT zero rating is also fulfiled at the same time to keep the new levy cost neutral for such time as the sector needs to be competitive, at least in the region.
We need more resources for vocational training in the sector and human resource development, i.e. land for a new campus for the Crested Crane Hotel and Tourism Training Institute and a new national curriculum and examination standards, a more comprehensive incentive and investment package for the hotel, hospitality, aviation and tour operations sectors, formal recognition as an ‘invisible’ export, a free trade zone around Entebbe International Airport and cost reduction for airport users, including fuel prices and much more.
I have always maintained in my previous articles, that we have a long way to go, but go we must nevertheless and for this campaign it would be in our national interest to have ‘all hands on deck’ and every segment of business and civil society work hand in hand to showcase our country from its sunniest side. Let’s be patriotic and give our detractors no cause for negative publicity.
The writer is the President Uganda Tourism Authority
THE tourism industry has for long been vocal on the need for government to spend more money on promoting Uganda as a safe and desirable destination, putting more money into the Uganda Tourist Board’s (UTB) campaigns and providing incentive packages for the sector to make it more competitive vis-à -vis our regional competitors.
But eventually, the tireless lobbying by the private sector paid off and government began to put its money where its mouth was and substituted lip service with cash. In 2003 ‘The Presidential Tour of Uganda’ brought the enchanting beauty of our country through the National Geographic channel into living rooms around the globe and generated fresh interest by travellers to come to Uganda.
A year later, the Africa Travel Association’s Cultural and Eco-tourism Symposium was sponsored by government and brought the cream of African-American travel agents and tour operators from the US and Canada to Kampala. This year, and I should say again in close consultation with the tourism private sector, government is embarking on further publicity to build an image of ‘Uganda Today’ in the global theatre of opinion, where people either know nothing about us or have a wrong opinion.
Therefore, the CNN campaign is not an isolated event, timed and chosen by government to influence perception ahead of the next general elections or in the immediate aftermath of the constitutional changes, which just passed through the parliamentary and referendum process. The CNN campaign is building on the stepping stones of 2003 and 2004 activities and I would speculate that even in 2006 further such campaigns will continue.
Tourism in recent years has seen strong growth in arrivals and for the year 2004, the country received over half a million visitors for the first time in its history and after the first six months of 2005, we recorded a further increase in arrivals to over 300,000 already.
Entebbe International Airport also saw its passenger handling jump the half million mark for the first time in 2004 and utilisation of the facility has now gone above 20%. The methods employed for generating the statistics are of universally accepted nature and derive from agreements with the World Tourism Organisation and the International Civil Aviation Organisation and are therefore neither random nor ‘cooked’ as has of late been suggested. The government campaigns undoubtedly played an important supporting role in achieving such growth.
To catch up with not only our more developed neighbours Kenya and Tanzania, but also make headway vis-à -vis the continental tourism giants Egypt and South Africa, campaigns like the one on CNN will help our sector and our country, to get ‘visible’ in the global market, where we compete with almost every other nation for the precious tourist euros, pounds, yens and dollars.
In addition, visitors coming for the purpose of a holiday are often also catalysts in regard of investment and trade opportunities and the CNN campaign will therefore not only feature our flora and fauna, our mountains, rivers and lakes, but also focus on our friendly people and their culture, our rich agricultural potential, the generous weather and our multiple investment and trade opportunities. This broad campaign will run an initial course of six months and will feature the different ‘faces’ of Uganda for almost 100 minutes every month.
Now, there are those out there, a small but often loud minority, who begrudge government every good move it makes and try to put a negative spin to it. I have overheard comments in recent days, which 20 years ago, when I was living in Kenya, would have landed citizens in court with sedition charges and foreigners would have been unceremoniously bundled on a flight out of the country, not ever to return.
The fact that people, even expatriates, can today speak their mind in such fashion, is a commendable development, even if one disagrees with their sentiments, and I for one, having lived for long in Kenya before coming to Uganda in the early 90s, have always treasured the level of freedom of the media, especially in comparison with the rather darker days of Kenyan politics in the period after 1982.
Of course, Uganda’s government must and will be aware of the impact of day to day politics and politically inspired events in the global media arena and will not get a ‘quid pro quo’ from CNN, when actual news are reported.
So good internal ‘behaviour’ would be very helpful for the campaign to completely succeed, but if something negative is there to report, in balance, I would think the viewers of the ‘Sounds and Sights of Uganda’ will probably still take more of a positive impression about our country with them.
The tourism sector would like to see government undertake additional measures to support us, like passing the pending draft tourism bill at last, which, like the tourism policy before it, seems to be overstaying in cabinet.
This would put into motion a restructuring and reorganisation of the UTB (and the entire industry) and pave the way for the introduction of a tourism development fund levy, from which a range of activities as provided for under the tourism policy and draft bill can be financed with very little government subsidy, just as long as the demand for VAT zero rating is also fulfiled at the same time to keep the new levy cost neutral for such time as the sector needs to be competitive, at least in the region.
We need more resources for vocational training in the sector and human resource development, i.e. land for a new campus for the Crested Crane Hotel and Tourism Training Institute and a new national curriculum and examination standards, a more comprehensive incentive and investment package for the hotel, hospitality, aviation and tour operations sectors, formal recognition as an ‘invisible’ export, a free trade zone around Entebbe International Airport and cost reduction for airport users, including fuel prices and much more.
I have always maintained in my previous articles, that we have a long way to go, but go we must nevertheless and for this campaign it would be in our national interest to have ‘all hands on deck’ and every segment of business and civil society work hand in hand to showcase our country from its sunniest side. Let’s be patriotic and give our detractors no cause for negative publicity.
The writer is the President Uganda Tourism Authority