Tourists Shun Mount Elgon over Bududa Landslides

TOURISTS have shunned Mt. Elgon Forest National Park over the March 1 landslides that ravaged Bududa. The park indicated in a report that out of 410 tourists that visited Mt. Elgon from January to May, only 144 were registered in March.

Of the 144 visitors, 122 were local students. This was a drop from the 152 tourists that were registered during the same period last year.

The figure dipped further to only 40 tourists in April although it rose to 92 in May. But this was still lower than the 98 to 190 tourists who visited the park during the same period last year.

The report noted that most of the foreign tourists who comprise nearly 90% of the park’s visitors, kept away. Regular foreign tourists at the park include Britons, Germans, Americans, Dutch, Israelis and Canadians.

March and April each registered only 27 foreign tourists. However, the figure slightly rose to 37 in May. Save for the 13 German tourists, one Dutch and an American who visited the park in March, the Israelis, British, and Canadian visitors kept away during the tragic month.

Similarly, no tourists from the neighbouring Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania of Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya visited the park in March. “Heavy rains characterised with landslides were occurring on various parts of the mountain. The Bududa landslide scared away many tourists,” Stephen Nyadros, the Budadiri entry point information officer, said.

“About 15 foreign tourists expected to hike on Mt. Elgon through the Budadiri trail cancelled their bookings with us in March. “Fortunately, the trend is steadily picking up again,” Nyadros pointed out.

He disclosed that most of the cancelled bookings had been rescheduled for May to September. The park experiences peak periods from June to September, and December to March, statistics show.

Other prominent visitors to the park comprise scouts and students on holiday from Europe and North America. A total of 2,903 tourists visited the park in 2009, down from 3,844 the previous year.

The main tourist attractions for hikers on the mountain include the wildlife, hotsprings, caves, waterfalls and the Wagagai peak that stands at 4,321 metres above sea level. However, after the Bududa tragedy that claimed over 350 people at the Nametsi trading centre, the Government declared Mt. Elgon prone to more landslides and warned residents to evacuate to the temporal camp at Bulucheke.

To allay fears among tourists, a 16-member-team from The Uganda Tourism Board took a four-day hike on Mt. Elgon through the Budadiri trail in Sironko district from June 15 to 18. Molly Mpiriirwe, the board’s senior information officer, narrated that there was no imminent danger to tourists on the mountain.

“We had a thrilling experience on the mountain. “Throughout our journey, we neither saw cracks nor mini-landslides. “We call on more people to come and tour the park to explore its beauty,” Mpiriirwe said.

Tourism, agriculture and forestry are top on the list of the national primary growth areas of the newly-released National Development Plan. In 2008, tourism contributed 9.2% or $1.2b to the gross domestic product (GDP), while in Kenya, it brought in $3.5b or 10.8% to GDP according to the World tourism and Travel Council.

This variation maybe directly linked to the massive investment that Kenya puts into the sector. According to the draft corporate strategy plan 2009-2012, Kenya spends sh27b in marketing.

Tourism arrivals surged from 512,000 in 2004 to 844,000 in 2008; an increase of 65% boosted by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2007.