Birds are
increasingly becoming the main creature flying Uganda's tourism industry high.
Conservationists and tour operators who have monitored the sector for some time
now say birders spend more than gorilla tourists.
The executive director at Nature Uganda
says, on average a birdwatcher spends not less than $4,000 per trip compared to
other travellers whose spending stands at $1,500. Statistics by Nature Uganda
show that in 2008, less than 2,000 birders spent about $6m, nearly twice the
$3.3m spent on gorilla tracking in Uganda - with the average spending for a
birder standing at $3,000 per trip compared to other travellers at $700 per
trip.
The explanation for this high spending
by birders is that whereas both gorillas and birds attract high-end travellers,
birders stay longer in the country. "The best birding itinerary is not
less than 14 days, yet a gorilla tourist spends at most three days in the
country." Of the three days, two are spent on the road to or from Kampala
and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest national park (where gorilla tourism is
currently done), a distance of about 460km from the capital Kampala. In fact
some tourists prefer chartering a plane from Entebbe to Bwindi to track the
gorilla in a single day and catch the next flight back to their country.
That revelation, which is shared by
many tourism players, raises questions as to why the country pays little
attention towards supporting the bird industry. Gorilla tracking is fronted as
the main tourism attraction of the country, proof of this being the
international campaign of 'Friend a Gorilla' in late September 2009, where film
stars flew into the country to grace the occasion.
However, other players say it is
farfetched to claim that birds bring in more money than gorillas. The executive
director of Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), calls it 'politicking.' "Let
them show us figures," Seguya said in a telephone interview. "For me,
the gorilla money I see it and bank it, but I haven't seen that money they
claim birds make," he added. Statistics from UWA show that revenue from
gorilla permits has been increasing over the years from Shs 7.4bn ($2.8m at the
current exchange rate) in 2008/09 to Shs 9.6bn ($3.7m), Shs 11bn ($4.2m) and
15.2bn ($5.8m) in 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2011/12 respectively.
This is income to UWA alone -without
the money spent by gorilla tourists on transport, accommodation, etc, and it
accounts for over 50% of UWA's revenue. This is because a gorilla permit costs
$500 for foreigners during peak season and $350 (slightly above Shs 900,000) in
low season. To Byaruhanga, however, these gorilla figures are only blinding
people to 'focus on small things because they are seeing hard cash', yet the
potential of tourism lies with birds. "We have focused on gorillas as if
it's the best thing that has ever happened to Uganda. We are almost being
called a gorilla country because that is what we have marketed," Byaruhanga
says. "It is not about the hard cash you get from the receipts that
matters a lot. It is not about the money in the bank. We should be able to know
how much money is poured in the economy by each tourism activity," he
adds.
Uganda is regarded as Africa's best
destination for birders and other nature enthusiasts. The country, which is the
size of UK, boasts of over 1,058 bird species, which is 11% of the globe's
total, and 50% of Africa's. This diversity is attributed to its various
habitats, which include arid, semi-desert, savannahs, lowland and montane
rainforests, wetlands, volcanoes and an Afro-alpine zone. The African Bird Club
ranks Uganda as home to two of the top 10 birding sites on the continent -with
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest national park and Murchison Falls national park
among the top ten.
However, despite such rankings and the
diversity of bird species, the country continues to attract a paltry number of
birders. There are about 10 million birders moving around the world annually,
and according to Byaruhanga, if Uganda can attract even 1% (100,000) of these
birders, it is capable of making $4bn ($1.5m) annually from birds.
The communications
officer, USAID Tourism for Biodiversity Programme, also believes birds have the
potential to turn around Uganda's tourism sector. Rwamwiri says that birds,
unlike gorillas, have no limitation on number of tourists that can visit them. "Gorilla
visitation is limited to eight people, yet a single bird can be seen by
unlimited tourists. The birds form a great deal of diversification. They can be
watched even outside protected areas," Rwamwiri told The Observer.
According to a USAID-STAR (Sustainable
Tourism in the Albertine Rift) study of 2010, some 77% of international tour
operators rely on local tour operators to package their trips, meaning that a
significant portion of revenue from birding vacations sold remain within the
country.
