Winston Churchill in his 1908 book, My African Journey wrote beautifully of Uganda and christened it as The Pearl of Africa due to its magnificent beauty.
Fast forward to 2020, The Pearl is evidently still tucked into its oyster as leading American newspaper The New York Times has listed Uganda as the 30th of 52 globally leading tourist destinations to visit before the end of 2020 citing the primate life as one of the leading reasons to visit The Pearl.
Marcus Westberg, the writer points out Uganda having been in the shadows of Tanzania and Kenya as a Safari destination and attributes it to Uganda being a landlocked country.
However, he is quick to point out that thanks to the resurrection of the national carrier, Uganda Airlines; it is going to be easier to access the country since it faces a challenge of being landlocked.
Uganda’s gift of nature continues to be one of its biggest tourism assets, like being a leading primate capital with 15 species, four of which are endangered and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park being an internationally recognized animal sanctuary.
South Western Uganda is home to roughly half the world’s mountain Gorilla’s with the park’s gorilla trekking limiting contact to eight supervisors per day and proceeds from their trekking permits go toward conservation efforts and protecting animals from poachers.
It is evident that Uganda’s biggest export is nature and wildlife therefore we ought to prioritize nature conservation if we are to harness the tourism sector into a bigger revenue stream than it currently is.