UGANDA: AUTO To Sell Gorilla Permits, UWA To Do Wildlife Conservation

UWA executive director Andrew Seguya (R) exchanges the signed MoU with Ms Barbara Vanhelleputte, the chairperson Association of Uganda Tour Operators in Kampala last week.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has outsourced the selling of gorilla tracking permits to the Association of Uganda Tour Operators (AUTO) in a move meant to increase sales.

Speaking at the launch of the partnership last week, UWA executive director Andrew Seguya said the move will enable UWA concentrate on its conservation mandate to ensure that the gorillas are available while AUTO does the marketing of the product so as to boost gorilla tracking as a tourism product.

Under the new arrangement, which has already taken effect, AUTO will be getting a commission of $600 (about Shs2.2m )for every 30 permits the association sells. This will strengthen the association’s capacity to market Uganda’s tourism potential by organising exhibitions and tourism promotion events.

“For every 30 tickets that AUTO sells as group, we shall offer them a complimentary permit for a non-resident foreign client and we shall be declaring them every quarter on top of the $10 that we give them currently for every permit they sell,” Dr Seguya said.

He added: “We have picked interest in conservation and AUTO is our biggest partner in selling the permits. We want to raise conservation and ensure the park is free of encroachment and other threats.”

AUTO chairperson Barbara Vanhelleputte welcomed the partnership following discussions which have taken some time coupled with the positive media coverage of Uganda as a tourism destination. This has increased the number of tourists coming from Britain, Germany, Netherlands and Europe which are the major tourism source markets.

“We hope this will boost the promotion of Uganda as a tourism destination,” she said.

The gorilla brand
The Mountain Gorillas, with a current population of more than 440, is Uganda’s tourism flag brand. UWA currently has 104 permits available daily to track 13 gorilla families which have been habituated but are under threat because of encroachment on their habitat.

The authority hopes that the new partnership will raise income for UWA, AUTO and the host communities to promote conservation.