With innovations like the Miss Tourism Project, Uganda’s tourism industry is expected to increase because these Beauty Queens act as Ambassadors of the region or the country. This project creates awareness of Uganda’s tourism attractions to the outside World. Winners of Miss Tourism attend Conferences and meetings that represent Uganda’s tourism industry across the World hence increasing Uganda Safaris.
It’s sad that most people outside the borders of Uganda are still ignorant about the country’s natural wonders. Many people still don’t know that Uganda is a home to the mountain gorillas and other wildlife species among other interesting attractions. Therefore Miss Tourism pageants promote the image of Uganda, tourism products, activities and services to some targeted stakeholders, members of the public and clients through branding and promotional activities during the pageant activities. Not only that, the winner becomes Uganda’s representative in all International tourism events and festivals including Miss World Tourism.
Most of the promotional activities target the Mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, the Chimpanzees of Kibale Forest National Park and other Wildlife species in other National Parks, the diverse cultures, the Mountains and the spectacular landscapes. These are just a slice of the interesting attractions to draw thousands of visitors who take tours to Uganda.
Introduced in 2012, it attracts a number of Participants from across the country and involves regional and National competitions. Starts with regional competitions where participants are eliminated depending on their regional performance. These regions include Ankole, Busoga, Northern, Buganda, Kigezi, Teso and Bunyoro among others. Regional winners are crowned and then proceed to the National Competitions to get the National Winner (Miss Tourism Uganda).
The Miss Tourism Pageant creates awareness of the tourism attractions within each region and it’s the responsibility of the Miss Tourism winners to market tourism of the area they represent. For instance, the Kigezi region is a home to Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga National Parks hence the representative of the region will be in charge of marketing these wonderful tourist sites. While at these two destinations, both foreign and domestic tourists get the once in a lifetime opportunity to meet face to face with the critically endangered mountain gorillas as well as enjoy other interesting tourist activities such as mountain climbing, nature walks/hiking, birding, the Batwa experience and Golden monkey tracking in Mgahinga National park. Miss Tourism Tooro is in charge of marketing tourism in Fortportal especially chimpanzee tracking as well as Amabere ga Nyina Mwiru caves. Tourism in western Uganda can’t go without mentioning interesting activities such as game drives and launch trips within Queen Elizabeth National Park. All these tourist sites are important in attracting tourists for safaris in Uganda.
Not only that, new tourist products can be developed based on the richness of the region. For instance, Miss Tourism Busoga region 2016/2017 spearheaded the launch of Rolex which has now become a popular street food in Uganda and beyond.
Therefore, Miss Tourism Uganda is an important project that promotes and showcases the natural wonders within Uganda as a way of improving domestic and International tourism and showcasing the wide range of tourism products such as the culture, food, history, flora and fauna among others.
