Tourism: Time to re brand Uganda

By Geoffrey Baluku

Kampala – Uganda

IN 2007, almost 642,000 tourists visited Uganda compared to 540,000 in 2006. This number is considered the highest Uganda has ever experienced and thus represents an increase of almost 19% over the year before.

Tourism brought $449m into the economy in 2007 compared to $375m in 2006. It is presumed that over all each visitor to Uganda spends about $750 per visit thus the tourism industry’s contribution to the GDP has increased from 1.98% in 2006 to 2.33 % in 2007.

This is an indication that the tourism industry is not only continuing to grow but is also now recognized at the highest level for its significant impact on the Ugandan economy albeit the under-funding.

It is common knowledge that every visitor to Uganda who has a good experience in the country will attract five more to visit. But every visitor who gets a bad experience will discourage 10 people from visiting the country. Thus to attract visitors and keep them coming back, Uganda’s tourism industry must live to its reputation of variety and value as enshrined in its slogan, “The Pearl of Africa”.

The tourism product is more or less a dream. Thus the capability of tourism businesses to deliver what they promise and in a bid to satisfy customer expectations depends upon sound management practices. These can be achieved if we built on our brand name and collectively owned it.

At the moment Uganda has an uncoordinated and fragmented brand identity. Some are now referring to Uganda as “Africa’s friendliest Country” others “Gifted by Nature” while others refer to Uganda as” The Pearl of Africa" which to most of us still stands out from the new coined slogans.

We cannot say that we exclusively own brands such as “Gifted by Nature” or “Africa’s friendliest Country”.

Several countries the world over are friendly and gifted by nature. And in any case this brand “Gifted by Nature” leaves us at risk of losing our most treasured cultures as opposed to a brand name like “The Pearl of Africa” which is all-embracing.

At one of the stakeholders’ meetings called by the Ministry of Tourism to enlighten us on the importance of embracing MICE, the former state minister for tourism Hon. Jovino Akaki, asked if our country should be marketed as “The Pearl of Africa” or “Gifted by Nature”. Which is which? To answer the above, those who came preferred “Gifted by Nature” made one mistake!

They did not do an audit of the brand “The Pearl of Africa”, thus leading to the current confusion. Those who coined the slogan “Gifted by Nature”, did they also plan to change the national anthem? When you listen to the national anthem, the writer must have had “Pearl of Africa” at the back of his mind.

Marketers’ know that a good brand will surely project Uganda’s strengths while recognizing its weaknesses. I strongly feel that re-branding to our original slogan “The Pearl of Africa” will enable us re-position ourselves well on the international market.

However, this will necessitate the government to lead the way in the re-branding process. We all know that media organizations world over can not create a good brand for our country. They always seem to be more interested in “bad news” such as civil strife and disasters. If Ugandans can recall; late last year we hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). The presence of top media organizations was an opportunity for our country to be known globally.

However, when the top media houses (Sky News, CNN) and many others reached here, they headed north and east and started covering the floods and lifestyles of the people in the internally displaced people’s camps! If my memory serves me well, Al Jazeera is one of the few that briefly showcased the CHOGM event.

Focused marketers/planners would have “forced” or given free offers to these top media houses to visit our marvelous nationals parks and cultural sites. To my dismay, the organizers were busy dining with them instead of exploiting the opportunities at hand.

There were good organizing committees having lots of money to spend without prioritizing the expenses. For political mileage, yes CHOGM was a success. But I have reservations to the overall benefit of the event to the tourism industry in Uganda.

In light of the above, there is need for the government of Uganda to re-invest in its brand as well as management and promotion of that brand. Government will need to create a public-private sector partnership if this is to be achieved.

Tour operators, hoteliers, and other small and medium scale tourism enterprises must be involved as this will enable everyone to own the brand thereby naturally promoting it.

What we are having at the moment is those few that are for “Gifted by Nature” while the majority still believe the best brand is “The Pearl of Africa”. We will also need to do more than re-branding if we are to capture the international market.

Any serious government will have to reconsider having a national carrier. Look at successful tourist destinations in Africa. Airline brands complement national brands. For instance Kenya is supplemented by the ‘pride of Africa’ inscribed on all Kenya airways flights; Air Tanzania, ‘the wings of Kilimanjaro’ to mention but a few.

However, now that the tourism bill was passed by parliament and due to be enacted into law, we need to start by restructuring UTB (now re- branded as Tourism Uganda).

As the marketing organ for Uganda’s tourism; emphasis should be on creating/ strengthening the research department. More so, realizing that we are now in a “global village” with the internet as the main mode of communication and marketing; there is need to employ few but well paid staff that not only have knowledge in global tourism trends but also some training/ knowledge in information technology.

This industry is now more of website-based thus marketing through this mode is the most ideal option.

As we reposition ourselves, we also need to ask some questions:

* Which markets are we organizing ourselves to win?

* How do we target them?

* Where will the guests /tourists stay when they visit our national parks?

My focus for now will be on the last question. Most of our national parks are now exclusively operated by a few individuals with lodges. Matters are even made worse by the management agreements Uganda Wildlife Authority has signed with these ‘investors’.

Agreements for exclusivity have been signed covering not only big chunks of the park land but also stretching over periods of over 20 years! If we are to all benefit from our resources, there needs to be equitable use of these resources.

The Government not only needs to increase funding to Tourism Uganda (Formerly UTB) but it should also strengthen the boards’ research department as this will help us understand visitor needs, perceptions as well as obstacles as we plan to market.