In a bid to revive the tourism sector that has for two years running been badly battered by the devastating effects of the corona virus pandemic and its ensuring lockdowns, a group of young Ugandans have launched a travel writing competition that seeks to breathe some air into the sector’s revival.
The competition is being organised by two travel entities notably Uganda Uncovered, a tourism clothing brand that aims at promotion of tourism in Uganda domestically and selling Uganda as a top tourism destination in Africa, together with Karibu Travel Magazine, an online travel media company running travel articles and audio visual content for the promotion of domestic and regional tourism.
This inaugural travel writing competition is aimed at identifying budding tourism and travel writers around the country, expose them to Uganda’s vast destinations, offer them opportunities to get published in major outlets and provide them with mentorship from professionals in the field for the better.
“The competition is set to fill the professional travel writing gap. You cannot talk about promoting domestic tourism and you leave out travel writing. It is one big aspect in which we can promote Uganda’s tourism,” Ms Allen Namisango, the team leader at Uganda Uncovered said.
She added; “The competition is going to be fun and educational at the same time. We are looking at the top 6 travel writers who will be able to promote the country positively in the long run. That is also one way we are going to revive domestic tourism that has been hit by the pandemic now for the whole year.”
Out of 30 entries, a total of the best six finalists will be chosen following a rigorous judgement process and these will win a trip to one of the country’s top destinations.
From this group, three will later be chosen from which then a winner will emerge who will go into the books as the inaugural winner of this travel writing competition.
The top performers will win trips to one of Uganda’s national parks, a chance to write for different top media houses and to work under the mentorship of some of the country’s finest travel writers.
“For people interesting in travel writing, we are going to harness their skills and this will in the long run reduce unemployment rates because they will have writing opportunities with travel magazines, Newspapers, tour companies, UTB, UTA and Personal blogs and this is something one can even do while at home. So I encourage all writers to participate in this competition,” Namisango said.
The competition is realised with help from the Uganda Tourism Association, Uganda Wildlife and Education Centre, Vilakazi Safaris and Uganda Tourism Board.
