“When lodges and tour companies lost business, the most effected were tour guides –the backbone of tourism business,”
Recently, a cash donation to the tune of UGX 17.2Million was handed over to the Uganda Tour and Safari Guides Association by friends of tourism. While handing over the cash, Lydia Nandudu, the coordinator of the Tourism Private Sector Task Force, said that the money was meant to help the guides survive the lockdown.
Indeed, experts argue that tourism has been the worst hit by the global lockdown as many lodges and tour companies were forced to close business for months now. Speaking at the beginning of Uganda’s lockdown, tourism enthusiast, Amos Wekesa said that the tour operators were actually laying off up to 70% of their employees. “That means these people are going to be very desperate in the villages and millions of people are going to lose opportunities because tourism is not just lodges and so on and forth,” he said.
According to Nandudu who manages Nkuringo Safaris & Lodges, the lockdown had caused loss of livelihood for the guides who depend on a thriving tourism sector. “When lodges and tour companies lost business, the most effected were tour guides –the backbone of tourism business,” she told online site Africa Tembelea.
At the event, Nandudu was accompanied by the Executive Secretary of the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration (IGCP), Dr. Andrew Seguya, Denis Ntegge of Raft Uganda and Isa Kato from Pristine Tours. Kato said that many tourism businesses had not just lost old bookings but didn’t have a single new booking for when the lockdown would be lifted. On Ntege’s part, he worried that this was only going to get worse as no one knew just how long the lockdown would last.
That said, the money was given to three major tour guide associations: Uganda Safari Guides Association received UGX3.2M, Freelance and Jinja Rafting Guides UGX4.5M and the Tour Guides Forum Uganda (TGFU) UGX 9.5M.
By CivSource Team