NEW TOURIST TRAIL OPENED ON THE RWENZORI MOUNTAINS

In an effort to make the Rwenzori Mountains one of the best tourist destinations in Uganda, Uganda Wildlife Authority has blessed the opening of a new tourist trail to make it easy to access the scenery and the peaks.

The trail was opened officially in the central Rwenzori Mountains National Park in Kasese district with the first batch of tourists guided into the Mountain ranges on Friday.

Five Belgian nationals and one Dutch were the first tourists to trek through the new trail on a bright Friday morning.

Rwenzori Ranges Guides and Escorts Association (RRGEA), experts in mountain climbing on Rwenzori led the expedition of the five foreign tourists.

The first tourist to embark on trekking the new trail included Nina Van De Winkel, Karolien Geusews, Sofie Geusens, Thijs de Haas and Marlies Molemaers.

The coordinator RRGEA Mr. Bernard Masereka told journalists at his office in Kasese town that the association was committed to providing expert guiding to clients in the Rwenzori.
He said that RRGEA guides would provide adequate nature interpretation to clients which he said was lacking to some service providers on the
mountain.
‘’We would like to see that the tourists we guide become our market agents depending on the way we have handled them, it is true nature interpretation is challenge to many guides but ensure persistent
capacity building of our staff,” Mr. Masereka said.

Mr. Masereka He urged all stakeholders in the tourism sector to market the tourist’s attractions in Uganda so as to develop the tourism sector in the country.

The senior warden in-charge Rwenzori Mountains National Park (RMNP) Mr. Fredrick Kiiza, said that UWA was looking at opening more routes on the mountain.

Mr. Kiiza said that the management of the park was creating more routes to provide opportunity to nature lovers who may wish to visit Rwenzori for a short period without reaching the peaks.
He said that Rwenzori was a beautiful unique mountain that has not fully been explored.

Mr. Kiiza however noted that there has not been adequate marketing of Rwenzori attractions, adding that the only attraction that has been marketed are the glaciers and peaks but the national park is blessed with various animal, bird and tree species that have not been marketed in the tourism market.

He said that tourists’ numbers to the Rwenzori have not reached admirable figures compared to other parks in the country.

One of the tourists Nina Van de Winkel said “we expect to get excited when we find out about the beauty of the Rwenzori up there. Hope we enjoy our trekking because this is what most of the people would like to enjoy in their holidays”.