Charles M. Mwanguhya
26 September 2005
opinion
The Uganda government and Cable News Network (CNN) have sealed a $1 million (about Shs1.78b) six-month deal to promote the country as a top tourist destination.
According to the deal, Uganda will sponsor the Inside Africa show on CNN, which runs every Saturday, for six months. Spots promoting tourism under the tagline, "Uganda: A Gift of Nature" will run in the 30 minute show, which is repeated every Sunday.
State Minister for Tourism, Trade and Antiquities Jovino Akaki and officials from CNN signed the agreement in Kampala. "On Thursday we met and gave a nod to a team that is supposed to brand Uganda, so very soon you will be seeing on CNN good things about Uganda," Akaki told journalists at Murchison Falls National Park on Friday.
He was speaking as the chief guest during the closing of a one-day workshop on promoting positive coverage of the tourism sector in the local media.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority invited 25 journalists from different local media houses to Murchison Falls National Park in a bid to promote positive reporting on tourism.
Speaking at the closing of the workshop, Akaki blamed local journalists for concentrating on the negative instead of the positive side of what the country offers.
"Promoting tourism is not a responsibility of only the government. It is for every Ugandan from the time a tourist arrives at Entebbe Airport, the journey to Kampala, the taxi driver who brings him and the hotel or restaurant where he eats. all these make an impression," Akaki said.
Positive attention
The UWA Executive Director, Mr Moses Mapesa, said there was need for the media to pay more positive attention to the tourism sector.
The Director of Tourism Business Development and Planning, Mr Damiano Akankwasa, said the industry is fragile and anything that borders on the negative affects it greatly.
"Everyday I have to answer hundreds of emails. I spend half my working day responding to questions and assuring people that everything is okay because they have seen something small in the newspaper," he said.
Akaki said the cost of the programme is little compared to the expected benefits.
"The value of the promotion is unquantifiable. But when you inject a lot of money, you come back with a lot in returns. It could be as much as 200 percent. For every cent you spend on promoting tourism, you get immense returns," he said.
The show
The CNN Inside Africa show reports on the continent's political, economic, social and cultural affairs.
The CNN crew have been in Uganda to shoot key tourist attractions in national parks, cultural dances and promotional interviews for clips to use in the adverts.
In the face of highly fluctuating prices of the traditional exports especially cash crops such as coffee, vanilla and cotton, government is now looking to none traditional exports like tourism to boost its foreign exchange earnings.
The State Minister for Trade, Mr Igeme Nabeta, had earlier told journalists in Kampala that government needed an opportunity to sell what it has.
Nabeta said the foreign media often gives negative coverage of the country, which impelled the government to brand Uganda and sell a different image of the country. The government has in recent months received considerable negative publicity abroad following suspicion that President Yoweri Museveni would seek an extra term in office. But Mr Museveni has not stated categorically that this is his last term.
The CNN effort will mainly concentrate on the tourism sector, but the government has lately engaged other efforts to counter negative publicity and redeem its falling image especially arising from the endemic rebellion in the north and the feared political turmoil following recent changes in the constitution and President Yoweri Museveni's perceived intention to stay in power beyond 2006.
The government has hired a British public relations firm, Hill and Knowlton, at Shs1.6 billion to better the country's image in the international media.
Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa brokered the deal.
The government has also engaged services of international lobbyists like former British Minister Ms Linda Chalker and former US secretary for African Affairs during the Bill Clinton government Ms Rosa Whitaker. The two are mainly for trade promotion.
A local public relations firm, Terp Consult, owned by Mr Odrek Rwabwogo, is also said to be highly involved in the government's image mending agenda.
Other image enhancing efforts include the creation of the Media Centre under the President's Office to coordinate the flow of information from the government to the media and the general public.
Mr Robert Kabushenga, the former New Vision Corporation Secretary, heads the Media Centre.
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