Ajarova with some editors
“My favourite is the top of the falls, in Murchison Falls national park. My first trip to Murchison was when I was five years old. They took me to the top of the falls and we had a picnic [there] and for me, everything was overwhelming; it is something that I can’t get out of my head to the extent that it has become a ritual that every year I have to visit. It is an experience that gives me more energy. Of course, because of my work and my village being that side, I may visit it more than once a year, but at least once a year, I have to visit the top of the falls.”
This was the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) CEO Lilly Ajarova’s answer to The Observer’s question about which tourist attraction is her favourite in Uganda.
It is not wonder then that Ajarova has spent her entire career life in tourism – first at Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), then Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary and currently as UTB boss. Last weekend she hosted a group of media editors at Kyangabi Crater Resort in Rubirizi, for a series of activities in neighbouring Queen Elizabeth national park.
The team of more than 20 journalists were hosted by UTB from July 13 to 16; a meeting where editors were allowed to ask the tough questions, and for UTB to answer with their truth.In her presentation, Ajarova said tourists visiting from the USA, Europe and China had dropped from 212,603 in 2019/20 to a paltry 67,252 in 2023/24, admitting that the anti-homosexuality law passed last year had contributed to this drastic fall in numbers.
She said UTB is having to field questions at international expos from foreigners that concede that Uganda is beautiful, but hasten to add that “the country has bad laws”.
This has not been helped by travel advisories in place by countries such as the UK, where as a result, insurance companies are not insuring tourists intending to travel to Uganda.
On the other side, however, Ugandans that visit their tourist attractions including the museums, zoo, parks and more, shot up to 84% in 2023/24, from 28% in 2019/20.
UTB, under its brand Explore Uganda, is determined to flood Uganda with international tourists again by drumming up the country’s unique tourism servings that include the culture, cuisine, health tourism and wildlife, among others.
Ajarova said increasingly tourists from as far as England are flocking into Uganda to take advantage of top-notch dental services and the cancer institute, where huge improvements have happened lately.
When it comes to nature and wildlife, some of the things a tourist can do in Uganda are not found anywhere else in the world. Uganda, for example, is the world’s primate capital, boasting several families of habituated chimpanzees and mountain gorillas, not to mention tens of other primate types.
These, coupled with Queen Elizabeth national park being home to Ishasha’s tree-climbing lions, the world’s only natural channel joining two lakes – Kazinga channel – and Kyambura Gorge, where chimpanzees have been habituated for tracking, only need intentional investment and promotion, for tourism to once again be Uganda’s top foreign exchange earner.
Ajarova said the tourism board is spending most of its insufficient budget on infrastructure, which in the short term includes developments in Mt Rwenzori, the Source of the Nile, and construction of a glass bridge over the top of Murchison falls, to add an oompf factor to the adrenalin rush that comes with visiting the popular site.
The editors also had time to play and network, taking a boat cruise on the Kazinga channel on Sunday afternoon and going for a game drive the following day, to tour Uganda’s second-largest park that is teeming with elephants, buffalo, wild cats, and many more animals that are all easier to spot in Queen Elizabeth compared to the other nine national parks.
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Source: The Observer
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