The Ugandan government earned over 200 million US dollars in 2004 from the tourism sector, surpassing 113 million dollars in 2002, because of a remarkable increase of tourist arrivals in the east African country.

While commissioning the new Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) headquarters last Friday, Ugandan Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi said that tourism now is becoming the country's top foreign exchange earner.

According to a recent report issued by the Bank of Uganda, the central bank of the country, tourism arrivals in 2004 were recorded at 512,378, registering an increase of 68 percent over that in 2003. Most tourists were from Britain and the United States. There was also an increasing number of tourists from China, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands and other countries.

Uganda boasts of 10 national parks, 12 wildlife reserves and seven wildlife sanctuaries. Bwindi National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park are home to over 50 percent of the world's 700 endangered mountain gorilla species. Bwindi is best famed for its superb gorilla tracking apart from providing refuge to elephants, chimpanzees, monkeys and antelopes as well as 23 bird species. Mountain gorillas also form the main attraction at Mgahinga. Mgahinga adjoins Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Virunga National Park. Kibaale National Park is notable for its primate population. It is home to man's closest cousins - chimpanzees.

The snow-capped Rwenzori Mountain that spans across the equator is another tourist destination. The source of the Nile River, one of the world's longest rivers, is also in Uganda.

Minister of State for Tourism Jovino Akaki told Xinhua recently that the increase in tourism arrivals has been due to key interventions the government has made as it strives to make the tourism sector one of the major foreign exchange earners.

He said that the government is now heavily investing in the sector. Recently the government set aside two billion shillings (1. 14 million US dollars) as an extra funding to improve tourism and wildlife facilities. The money is an addition to the funds already allocated to the sector in the financial year 2005/06 which started on July 1.

Akaki also said that the government in conjunction with the private investors has started sending some officials to major tourism exhibitions in the world to attract tourists to visit the country.

He noted that from next year, more Chinese tourists are expected to visit Uganda.

In the late 1990's, a number of tourists were killed in Bwindi National Park in southern Uganda. This greatly reduced the number of tourism arrivals.

However, the government has beefed up the security in various tourist destinations. "The brutal murder of tourists in Bwindi reflected negatively on the security situation in the country, but it served a big lesson for us," said Moses Mapesa, the executive director of Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).

According to Chairman of UWA John Nagenda, 650 security personnel made up of UWA and the government soldiers are now on duty in various parks.

However, the government is still facing some challenges in the tourism sector. The long running war in the north continues to scare away tourists. The war has left tens of thousands of people dead and over 1.4 million people displaced from their homes.

The country's infrastructure also needs to be upgraded. Some of the roads to the parks are in a bad condition. The hotel facilities are also not enough to accommodate a huge number of tourists.

Source: Xinhua