As I write
here in Uganda the country is at
lockdown. By the way is lockdown a new word or it has been created because
of this pandemic. Uganda has been safari destination country in Africa featuring mountain gorilla safarisand primate tours . Uganda has e featured in the best magazine among the
best destination places by CNN that were likely to feature in 2020 -2022
window.
Today as the
world is at bay – stay where your are! Hang
up! No flights and I pity the airline travel industry being the backbone of the
whole tourism industry. Anybody without a back bone cannot stand. Simply the
safari and tourism will not be back until the airlines can again fill up the
skies . In
Africa an increased flights to our airports
from other continents it meant increased number of tourists to that
very country. Say departure of British airlines from some cities in Africa meant decrease of
tourists to that destination loss of revenue and loss of jobs.
As moments of days and nights pass and , flights are not
hovering above Africa means a lot to our
continent. The tourism industry will get shocks of losses in jobs , loss of revenue of foreign exchange and
will see our local currencies getting
devalued. In most of African economies where safari industry has been booming ,
was the leading foreign exchange earner in our case in East Africa for Uganda safaris , Kenya safaris ,
Tanzania and Rwanda tourism was the
top foreign exchange earner. What does that one mean if the country cannot
receive tourists and we don’t know when this will end. No vaccine yet discovered nor cure so far
got. The airline industry most likely to be back in air , there will be when
assurance that you will not fear to sit near Chinese whom you think is still
carrying the covid-19 virus. Even the Trump American is equally to be feared and labeled a carrier as we see lots
of Americans are being effected and dying than other parts of the world. At one
time the virus was referred to be Chinese but now all most all countries of
the world have tested the wrath of the virus.
So who is safe? May be Ugandan
who has not seen single dead body of covid -19. Uganda as it could be in other African
countries not seeing many effected its
because we travel less.
Between
January and February 2020 those
countries that had many nationals booked flights and travelled got more chances for interaction with all other global people that were travelling
from one point to another and hence got exposed to this virus. This increased their chances of getting in contact with those who were
effected without knowing . Who does not know that Americans have the highest
numbers of people booked in flights in the travel industry and who were in air
travelling from different parts of the world around this period. Hence getting
many people dying of this virus. So for Africa we had very few people in
air around this period and less affected . An American
is our tourist, A British is our tourist,
An Italian is our tourist, etc if
these countries are not yet healed, shall then tourism
industry in Africa get healed too. The answer is BIG NO.
Here in
Africa as we if we a wait the world to
get healed and countries to get out of lockdown , local tourism to be explored and promoted. Unfortunately African tourism
was built on white foreigner –MUZUNGU mentality not African tourist citizen. People in tourism
industry need to appreciate that Africans have less income to spend on
travelling and hence travel less. However this is the time now we tour operators in Africa start by taking
fellow country men to places where we take white people. The earlier we re- designed
our itineraries to favor fellow citizens than we shall keep on waiting for
Americans who, yes will come but when will this be? Better adjust early and we
start promoting internal tourism rather than relying on foreign tourists. Let
us turn Ugandans, Kenyans, Rwandans into tourists in their countries in their
regions and overcome the safari covid-19 hang up safari doom. Here at Travel
Hemispheres we are encouraging now the to be Newly weds should not spend a lot
of their money into partying but set it aside and convert that income /funds
into Uganda honeymoon tours that will help them understand their country better
, We have good honeymoon packages for Ugandans . Our tours are educative , informative and
cultural rich to benefit newly weds. We give you a mature old person to guide
you all along your tour who has an experience in Senga and Kojja aspirations that will build
your longtime togetherness of your lifetime marriage.
