NAIROBI – Kenya is working with its neighbours to come up with a single visa that will enable tourists to visit all the five East African Community member states.

“We are also working on a joint marketing strategy so that as we sell Kenya as a tourist destination, we will also be selling all the attractions that the region has to offer,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said, according to the Daily Nation newspaper.

Uhuru was speaking at Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) when he opened the 3rd edition of the Magical Kenya Travel Expo.

More than 150 companies from all parts of the world were represented at the tourism exposition.

Uhuru underscored the importance of tourism, saying it generates around 12 per cent of Kenya’s gross domestic product and accounts for about 9 per cent of the country’s total formal employment.

He said his administration is focused on enhancing the country’s competitiveness in the sector to increase the number of tourists visiting Kenya every year.

“Specifically, we have committed to promote Kenya as a destination, rather than stop-over, and to attract at least three million tourists annually,” he said.

Uhuru called for additional investment in hotel and other tourism-related infrastructure as Government scales up interconnectivity through port, rail, road and infrastructure.

He singled out the ongoing expansion of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and the opening of the expanded Kisumu Airport as some of the initiatives to increase the country’s capacity to receive more visitors.

TERRORISM
He assured the Kenya tourism Board of increased budgetary allocation to enable it to promote a diversified range of domestic destinations.

The President also said his administration has put in place measures to counter terrorism and other security threats.

He said the Government is vigilant and has embarked on heavy investment in security to ensure the safety of Kenyans and tourists.

“We are vigilant and are effectively countering all security threats to keep Kenya safe. We are investing heavily in our security to protect the whole country,” he said.

President Kenyatta said the Government will continue to mobilise international support to fight terrorism.

He urged international partners to desist from issuing travel advisories which compounded the negative impact of terrorism.

Visits to any of Uganda’s ten national parks will soon be easier as the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) is putting the final touches on the introduction of a cashless smart card based on chip technology, aimed at maximizing revenue collection and improving cash flow as a result of prepaid ‘loading’ of funds on it.

As a first step, gorilla and chimpanzee tracking permit details will be loaded on the available cards, and then used at Bwindi, Murchison Falls, and Kibale national parks, in addition to which they will be accepted at Lake Mburo and Queen Elizabeth national parks. The remaining five other parks like Rwenzori, Mt. Elgon, Mgahinga, Kidepo Valley, and Semliki will be added in due course once the technology has been installed at the various park entrance gates and offices of those parks.

Unlike in other neighbouring countries, where the point of sale is centralized and often inconveniences potential visitors for having to set aside extra time to get an electronic card, UWA intends to have several points of sale beyond the national park headquarters in Kampala, namely at park entrance gates where re-usable temporary cards can be purchased while from the headquarters in Kampala personalized permanent cards can be obtained for regular visitors to the parks, be it Ugandans or foreign residents.

UWA has also benefited from two donated motorcycles, to be used for mobile patrols by game wardens across the park. One of the winners of the motor bike, one Piet de Jong, spontaneously donated the motorbike to UWA when he was given the surprise prize from Toyota Uganda, the agents of Yamaha in the country, while the second bike was, as a result of this gesture, donated by the SAB Miller which had a team participate in the event.

When National Geographic recently named Uganda among the world’s top 20 destinations for tourists in 2013, it may have not been the first time a ranking of its kind was in favour of the country. However, the catch line used to describe Uganda spoke volumes.

Describing Uganda as “Africa’s new frontier” in the rankings, which only had Malawi as the only other African country. National Geographic, one of the world’s largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions, has done a good job blowing Uganda’s trumpet.

It describes the country as “the land [that] mixes savanna, enormous lakes, rain forests, and the glacier-clad Rwenzori mountains, one of Africa’s tallest ranges.” It adds: “Uganda’s parade of animals is amazingly diverse. Hippos graze along the shores of Lake Edward in Bwindi Impenetrable national park, while lions lounge in the trees of Ishasha, in Queen Elizabeth national park.

The star in Bwindi is the mountain gorilla, a species down to about 720 animals visible in their tiny habitat.”

CNN, one of the world’s top news groups, also released its rankings that still favoured Uganda. CNN’s first list of Africa’s 10 best national parks had Kidepo Valley national park, making its debut in the rankings.Kidepo came third after renowned and well-marketed Maasai Mara (Kenya), and Botswana’s Central Kalahari game reserve. Another CNN list of the seven new places ready to be discovered had Uganda in fourth position.

Industry players feel that Uganda’s appearance on these lists is another indication that the country could be the region’s tourism bigwig. Over the last two years, Uganda’s international rating has improved tremendously. Lonely Planet, the world’s leading travel magazine, ranked Uganda in 2011 as the world’s number one tourism destination for 2012, while Mt Rwenzori was voted among the top hiking places in Africa. It was the only mountain in Africa that made it to the top 15 best hiking spots in the world.

Uganda is regarded as Africa’s best destination for birders. The country, which is the size of United Kingdom, boasts of over 1,058 bird species, accounting for 11% of the globe’s total, and half of Africa’s.