Uganda, also referred as “the pearl of Africa” is one of the countries with the World’s youngest population with more than 79% of the total population below the age of 30 years, meaning the future of the country’s tourism industry and overall economy largely lies in their hands.

It is for this reason that the State Minister for Tourism-Hon Godfrey Kiwanda urged the youth to bring forward initiatives and campaigns aimed at promoting Uganda’s numerous and extraordinary tourism attractions. This urgent call was made during the second edition of the Annual Fish festival that took place on Saturday, 5^th May 2017 at the Uganda National Museum.

While speaking at the fun-filled event, Hon Kiwanda also pointed out some of the outstanding events like the cultural tourism festival, Ekkula Awards, Fish festival and the Rolex Festival that were instigated by the youth with the sole purpose of promoting destination Uganda. He further appealed to the others to get more involved in propelling such innovative ideas that will celebrate and market the country’s extraordinary hidden treasures. The Minister in his own word said “the young people have come up with many initiatives like Tourism Awards and Festivals which are challenging but I call upon other Ugandans to diligently support the youth and their innovative ideals as a way of fighting the high rate of unemployment”.

Not only that, the Minister advised the youth to take on every available opportunity provided and the conducive environment that has been created by the Government. The use of Social Media-especially Facebook that has been useful for exposure should be helpful in creatively promoting the country’s tourism potentials. Even in its early stages, the Fish Festival is a success story that made it possible to exhibit the unique species of fish found in the country’s water bodies. Notably, the country is endowed with over 100 fish varieties and yet most people know less than 10 with the common ones being Nile Perch (locally known as Empuuta), mud fish, the Nile and Singidia Tilapia, Eels, Catfish, Lungfish, Silverfish (Mukene), Claris and Sprat among others. Many people don’t even know about extraordinary species like the electric fish found within Lake Albert on the Uganda-Democratic Republic of Congo Border.

The 2018 fish festival that was attended by different stakeholders from tourism agencies as well as the public and private sector involved a lot of activities including fun, exhibition of the different fish species, music and entertainment from some of the talented local artists including Maro, and tasting some of the finger-licking fish food prepared by experienced chefs at affordable prices. This event was however not only about entertainment but was seen as a way of celebrating the diversity of fish species as Ugandans also bear in mind their responsibility in conservation and sustainable supply of fish by saying no to buying and consuming immature fish among other responsibilities.

According to Hon Kiwanda, events involving local foods are very crucial to the Ministry and the entire tourism industry because it’s one way of promoting culinary tourism and celebrating the delicious local cuisines of the country.  Uganda’s fish are toothsome when compared to fish in other places hence the Fish festival is a way of telling Ugandans about the treasure they have so that they can be able to tell the story to other people (especially visitors). He also applauded the Organizers of this wonderful and successful Festival-“Perfect Events”, the Fish Organization of Uganda and also the Uganda Fisheries and Fish Conservation Association for organizing and mobilizing the different fish communities to participate in this year’s Fish Festival.

Conclusively, with the youth being the future of the generation, there is need to involve them in the tourism industry and it’s therefore high time they took a lead in promoting Uganda’s tourism industry and this call was made by the State Minister for Tourism, Hon Godfrey Kiwanda during the 2018 Fish festival (on 5^th May 2018) at Uganda National Museum.