Back ground: A press statement from the Ministry of Health in Uganda noted an outbreak of the Corona Virus disease; which was declared by the People’s Republic of China on 31 December 2019. This outbreak has now spread to all continents and over 50 nations are currently affected. This has greatly affected the global tourism and travel industry as this has put a limitation on travel to and from various countries. Following the dark moment in tourism sector, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities decided to suspend Gorilla Tourism and other primate trekking in Uganda until further notes. Below are the rationals why Uganda made a decision to suspend Gorilla tourism:
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The desire to control the spread COVID-19 (Corona Virus) from people to Gorillas – the closure of Entebbe International Airport and other boarder points was aimed at restricting entry of people from outside countries. The Uganda government feared that people coming from highly affected countries could import the virus to Uganda and suddenly to Gorillas and other primates. It should be noted that Gorillas are other primates like chimpanzees, golden monkeys among others are easily caught by the communicable disease including COVID-19.
For Conservation purposes – Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and Mgahinga forest flourish well without tourist. When the forest is visited by many people, some vegetation is destroyed, swamps are affected even gorillas feel disgusted by the presence of people on daily basis which affects their peace.
The closure of Boarders and Entebbe International Airport – it was meaningless and impossible for the Gorilla tourism to go on with closed boarders and the Airport. It should be noted that most of the Gorilla trekkers come from out side Uganda especially from Europe, Australia, United States of America among others. Such total Lock down announced by the president of Uganda couldn’t let Gorilla tourism to move on.
World travel restrictions set by World Health Organization (WHO) after declaring COVID-19 a world Pandemic. Many country embassies advised their citizens not to travel and thus Uganda had to halt Gorilla tourism until further notes since no visitors were ready to go gorilla trekking. Many Tour operators started started making alarm after receiving cancellations and postponements from the clients who had confirmed their Gorilla tourism.
The need to prevent the spread of COVID-19 from person to person, Its should be noted that tour guides/ drivers spend most of their time with tourists in the course of the trip. For that case, the spread of the virus can be accelerated by such social interaction and when back home, the home people can as well be affected. On addition, when tourist and local residents come into contact, the spread of corona virus could be geared hence a need to suspend Gorilla tourism until further notes.
In conclusion, Uganda has lost million shillings/ dollars since Gorilla tourism was suspended. The cost of Uganda Gorilla trekking permit is currently (2020) at US$700 per person per trek. The country is currently (2020) protecting 19 habituated Gorilla groups and each group is visited by a maximum of eight people per day.