The Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) has started a four-day media training workshop being held at the Cephas Hotel in Kabale District, to encourage journalists to become tourism and environment conservation defenders.

The workshop that will officially be closed on Thursday is aimed at training journalists on tourism and environment conservation reporting as well as capacity building.

More than 40 journalists and tourism practitioners have gathered to participate in the presentations on a range of tourism experiences and how drawing people in to stories key to promote tourism

The key note presenter and the tourism consultant Dr John Baptist Imokola said there's a need for journalists and the media to change the narrative of doing stories that are only related to politics, entertainment among others but also focus on tourism and conservation like tourism reporting in order to sustainably promote tourism in Uganda.

"Let's invite tourists, give them space, encourage them and promote Uganda as a tourism destination. The media has a big role to play in environment sustainability which is why they have to educate tourists on how to explore our country responsibly so that we can leave something for the generation to come," Dr Imokola said.

During the course of the training, journalists will tour in different tourism destination areas around Kabale District.

Gessa Simplicious, senior public relations officer (UTB), also said that Uganda has a diversity of natural attractions that the media can help market.

Gessa said the similar media trainings will be to held in other regions after Kabale until the set goals are achieved.

Currently, the tourism industry is steadily growing with tourist numbers estimated to have reached 1.5 million per year, contributing 7.7% to GDP.