The United States Agency for International development (USAID) has shown its support to the tourism industry after they donated about $20m which is equivalent to sh50m. The tourism industry is in the process f introducing yet another program that might be very profitable to the industry will be made public in a few months time and the amount of money that was donated was mentioned by Virginia M. Blaser the deputy chief of mission at the USA embassy in Uganda.
Virginia also mentioned that this programme would be very productive to the cultural tourism centers for example Igongo Cultural Centre which is located in Mbarara district. She aid all this last Monday after the launch of the three-dimensional map which was sponsored by the embassy at Igongo Cultural Centre and this map cost $10,000,drawn to help guide tourists who may wish to learn about the history of the area. According to Suudi Bamulesewa, who is the team leader of environment and natural resources in USAID Kampala, this programme will be essential in the development of tourism activities related to bio-diversity conservation.
According to Suudi Bamulesewa, they will be concentrating more on Lake Mburo National Park and Karinzu Forest Reserve but Kidepo valley and Murchison Falls national parks are also included in the development plan. At the moment, they are trying to find an organization that will help to execute the project on behalf of USAID and the US government at large.
Bamulesewa also revealed that they had kept some money that they would use to help out those entrepreneurs who may be interested in investing in the tourism sector through projects like building hotels where tourists can stay while on their safaris here. James Tumusiime who is the owner of Igongo Cultural Centre mentioned that his place has promoted research studies, encourages the local people who make handcrafts, musicians as well as singers.
He also encourages all the research and the use of herbal medicine, forestry and any other African cultural related matters. And according to the information that was got, Igongo was set up three years ago at a place where the king of Ankole used to listen to his music from.
Uganda safari news