American actor Terrence Howard and his wife Mira Pak are seemingly happy and grateful about making their maiden visit to Uganda. The couple only arrived in Uganda last week, and they have already fallen in love with the Pearl of Africa.
Forget about Terrence’s desire to introduce the New Hydrogen technology in Uganda, the Empire star is marveled by the different sceneries in Uganda.
Over the weekend, the couple tracked chimpanzees at Kibale National Park.
Accompanied by Minister for Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) Hon. Frank Tumwebaze, Uganda Tourism Board CEO Lilly Ajarova, and other delegates, the couple were amazed by Uganda’s cultural diversity and the chimp tracking experience in Kibale National Park. The excursion came shortly after the commemoration of World Chimpanzee Day on July 14, 2022.
Following the experience at the UWA Offices in Kibale National Park, Howard remarked “I was amazed by the interaction of the primates and its closeness to human behaviour. I implore people from all over the world, especially African Americans to come to Uganda and dive into the amazing touristic adventure for a better understanding and knowledge of our footprints and deeper roots. People need to make their way to Uganda as it’s beautiful and worth visiting”.
He added, ‘’the experience I had was more like those songs that one would hear on Christmas that welcome you home. The nature walks through the park was covered by sweet sound of the birds and the creatures. And the movement of the chimps; felt like something I had deep within my DNA’’.
Tumwebaze lauded Terrence Howard and his team for making time to visit destination Uganda and appreciated UTB for diligently marketing the country. He urged all Ugandans to collaboratively explore and market Uganda as their preferred tourist destination in their networks.
In her remarks, Ajarova, UTB CEO Lilly said, ‘’We are optimistic about increasing international tourist numbers this year given the current surge of visitors here in Kibale National Park. The tourism industry is confident that the visitor numbers will increase back to pre-pandemic levels. Strategic interventions have been laid out to increase the tourism industry’s contribution to Uganda’s social-economic development.
In 2021, Uganda received 7,386 tourists from North America, approximately 1.44% of the total tourism arrivals. 512, 945 visitor arrivals were recorded during the period.