The State Minister for Tourism Mr Martin Mugarra Bahinduka has highlight how it is an important aspect to document the story of tourism through writing and the role of writers in propelling the country’s most rewarding sector.
Minister Mugarra was speaking during the launch of a writing competition that that was launched by a tourism agency called Uganda uncovered, a destination marketing company in Uganda which aims at identifying good travel writers to tell the Ugandan tourism story.
This 4th edition of the competition is themed “harnessing tourism through conservation.”
The state minister for tourism Mr Martin Mugarra said while officiating the event at the Sheraton Kampala hotel said that writing could in the long run play an ambassadorial role that can be able to fill the information gaps in Uganda’s tourism sector.
“Sitting here, I have seen a lot of young people with a huge potential to write and market Uganda. This gives me a lot of hope that the tourism industry has a greater future. Having young people participating in this competition means the industry has diversified platforms to push out content that tells the Ugandan story. I want to encourage you to travel, have the experiences and the fun but also write about it, tell the story of the beauty Uganda is endowed with,” Mugarra said.
He added that there was a need to recruit Ugandan writers to document Ugandan tailored stories to her key source markets which will in turn uphold the destination’s authenticity without distortion and change of the narrative.
This would then help bring in the desired tourism numbers and earnings. According to Allen Namisango, the Team Lead at Uganda uncovered, the choice of this year’s theme was informed by the nature of the country’s tourism sector that still heavily relies on wildlife.
“As we strive to promote tourism as a country, its important that we factor in wildlife protection through writing to make the citizens aware of good conservation practices,” she said.
She added that in this case, Uganda Uncovered set out to equip young travel writers with skills that will enable them skillfully and professionally write impactful stories on the sector.
Mr Julius Luwemba, a team member and editor of the Uganda uncovered magazine said that they have received an over whelming number of articles some of which may not necessarily make it to the top award winning positions but are still very captivating.
Some of these stories, Luwemba added, will be featured in the upcoming issues of the the magazine which gives top priority to material written by Ugandans.
A panel of seasoned writers and editors will be the judges of the competition and will be looking out for the element of uniqueness from the writers, narration, attention to detail and facts.
During the same event, Uganda Uncovered also launched its first travel writing magazine published in partnership with the Uganda publication and printing cooperation (UPPC).
The Public and cooperate affairs manager at UPPC, Ms Rebecca Nyakairu said the partnership lies well within their mandate as UPPC to ensure that they strategically reach different purposed audiences.
“We want to revive the printing school which was shut down after colonialists and when UPPC was handed to government of Uganda, it was put to a halt.
With the school we want to conserve and promote the printing industry,” Nyakairu said.
She added;“ We also wish to revive the printing museum to preserve and conserve the heritage of the printing industry in Uganda. By taking part in such initiatives like the travel writing competition, we want to put a block on the tourism sector in the country.”
