As Tourism stakeholders in Kasese unite efforts to brand the district as a tourism destination, capacity building is a critical part of ensuring a sustainable future for the travel industry and its role in supporting the global sustainable development goals.
According to Moscardo, (2008b), capacity building for tourism includes components like planning, increasing knowledge and awareness, and implementing plans.
Strengthening the quality of the tourism workforce makes the industry more resilient to face various risks and threats posed by changes in socioeconomic, environmental and geopolitical conditions.
Kasese Tour Operators and Guides Association (KATOGA) in partnership with Kasese Youth in Tourism Association (KAYITA) organised a one day seminar yesterday 14th May, 2023 at Celak Vocational College Main Hall in Kasese Municipality.
The capacity building seminar was addressed to participants committed to the topic and willing to contribute to building a highly interactive and quality tour guiding service with sharing their experiences and learning from each other.
The seminar aimed to build and share the knowledge and know-how of participants on: •The Qualities of a good Tourist guide •Customer care
•Briefing and debriefing of clients, and •Positioning the potential of the Bakonzo culture as a tourism product at Destination Kasese
Exevia Baluku the chairperson KATOGA revealed that similar engagements will be done to contribute to having a professional workforce to handle the tourism traffic resulting from destination marketing being done by Kasese Tourism Investors Forum (KTIF).
“Collaborative grassroots learning and action efforts are ideal for improving the prosperity of a destination. We shall always do this to get the best out of our people,” Baluku said.
Participants during the training
Ruth Biira, a tourist guide attached to Rwenzori Trekking services said she learnt a lot from the training especially positioning culture as a tourism product.
“The knowledge learnt here will enable me to add cultural heritage tourism as a product on my itineraries, I have found it interesting,” She said.
Kameli Zepha Bwambale, a Business Development Specialist and trainer, emphasised that culture and heritage tourism is a fast-growing and high-yielding sector.
“As we grow destination Kasese, our effort has to be directed to cultural heritage tourism as a product because it creates enjoyable opportunities for both local and foreign visitors attracted to the cultural arts, history, and preservation,” he said.
Tourism development in Kasese has been visualized as a development tool not just in promoting tourism growth but also in eradicating rural poverty.