Active African Vacations: Challenges to be Faced Within the Tourism Industry

Billy Ssali, Managing Director of Active African Vacations and Founder & CEO of Self Drive Uganda, mentions some of the challenges to be faced within the tourism industry.

“The biggest challenge is that the tourism industry is very sensitive. Any slight political problem that affects Uganda affects us. Competition is obvious because most of our activities are online. There is nothing you can hide. You want people to see you and what packages you are selling which means our competitors can see this also. Another challenge comes from the government. In most cases, tourist activities sell packages to travel agents for a year or more. Sometimes, you find that when the government makes changes to the government or the tourism industry we are also affected. One example is the gorilla permit price. When Rwanda changed the permit price two years ago, we took losses because we had fixed prices. We also have limited government funding in marketing. The government itself must initiate certain things. We do not have a national carrier. There are few direct flights that come into Entebbe. Even now, the government does not allow people to come in with drones, but drones would allow tourists to clearly film the attractions they go to. There is too much bureaucracy. If you come into Entebbe airport but are going to Kigali, you would have to leave your drone at Entebbe Airport. You would have to change your entire travel plan. There are also natural acts of God such as roads being washed away by too much rain. There is also the issue of changes in Google rankings and search engine system optimization. Information expires and you must keep updating. It is a big challenge for us. Training manpower and getting qualified people that can do what you need them to do is difficult. Everyone will say they are capable, but practical is not capable”, says Billy Ssali.

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