Warrior Nomad trail promoting cultural tourism Uganda

Warrior Nomad trail promoting cultural tourism Uganda – The Kingdom of The Netherlands in collaboration with Dutch/Ugandan tourism stakeholders have launched a three-year project aimed at increasing the tourist arrivals to Uganda by diversifying the tourism products with the focus on soft-adventure and cultural tourism.

Warrior Nomad trail promoting cultural tourism Uganda

The Warrior Nomad Trail is part of the larger project called ‘Tourism Trails in the Pearl of Africa‘ and is lead by Kara-Tunga Tours. Kara-Tunga Tours is an Ugandan social-enterprise founded by a Ugandan-Dutch family who are spearheading the development of responsible tourism in Uganda’s Northeastern region called Karamoja.

Diversifying

One of the key attractions in this “Pearl of Africa” are the mountain gorillas. About 65% of the total visitors specifically come to this country with an aim of trekking these hard-to find primates.

Social impact

The project will bring improved and new livelihood benefits from tourism to poor households in the Karamoja subregion. Local women and men, will acquire the necessary skills to offer quality tourism services and products to international tourists and to manage basic enterprises. They will also benefit from working relations with tour operators, which will set the foundation for sustaining the initiative in the long term.

In the medium and long term, the project will improve local attitudes to cultural heritage preservation and nature conservation. Project beneficiaries will extend beyond the households as successful approaches are replicated by others and become integrated into standard tourism packages. The way tour operators and national tourism and wildlife authorities view local communities will change, as they are seen as a source of new, quality, tourism experiences that improve the packages they market to their clients. Local people will become active partners in conservation and key to long term sustainable tourism development.