Uganda the pearl of Africa has been selected as one of the 10 top international tourist destinations. This happened at the first Global Tourist destination Carnival which was held in Haikou which is the capital of Hainan province in People’s Republic of china. This event was organised by China Travel service, which is a government organization in China and aimed at promotion of tourism in partnership with the Haikou Municipal government and the national Geographical channel, as well as the South Korean subscription television channel.
Many Chinese are looking at East Africa as a preferred tourism destination which has helped at increasing the number of safaris to Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya. Again according to World Bank, china has got a population of about 1.4 billion people which explains that the recognition is another achievement for Uganda as a preferred tourist destination.
Uganda was recognized due to its unique wildlife and nature, culture and security of the country. Uganda also won a silver medal at Indaba which is one of the largest tourism marketing events on the African calendar and one of the three main events of the global calendar. This shows the wide variety of southern Africa’s best tourism products and also attracts international buyers as well as media from across the world. Among the recognitions, CNN also called Uganda one of the 16 global destinations to visit.
The Pearl of Africa was also recognized at the ITB Berlin conference, which is one of the largest tourism convention. The country is home to the mountain gorillas, chimpanzees, birds, cultural diversity, wildlife excursions, friendly people and many more. Uganda was selected within the category of the recommended top international destinations for 2016 alongside Tunisia and Okavango Delta in Botswana in Africa.
This is a very big achievement especially because China today has the most number of travellers to many out bound locations that Uganda is set to tap from. Reports show that Chinese travellers will move to various locations out of china, which means some of these will visit Uganda. Uganda was represented at the event by officials of Uganda Tourism board as well as Uganda embassy in Beijing.
The main tourist attractions to visit while in Uganda include; Murchison falls national park which has many wildlife species like the lions, Rhinos, leopards, tigers and many more, Bwindi impenetrable national park with lots of mountain gorillas, Kibale national park with many primate species including the chimpanzees, Kidepo national park, Mgahinga national park, Ssemliki national park famous for birding and many more attractions.
Uganda tourism Board in collaboration with Uganda Wildlife Authority have put in lots of efforts in marketing the tourism industry, this is also done through participating in international exhibitions were the country is being sold to the outside world which has helped in increasing the number of tourists that are interested in visiting the country, UTB has worked with different embassies in different countries to try and market Uganda the pearl of Africa.
