’bulungi Bwansi’ as Niche and Tourism Stimuli in the Exploitation of Lubaga Division’s Potential as a Tourism Destination. Case Study: Lubaga Division Urban Council

Abstract

This study focused at exploring the unique components within “Bulungi Bwansi” (community service) and how they can be streamlined as a niche in an effort to develop Uganda as an attractive tourism destination. The study zeroed down on Lubaga Division, the home of the traditional leadership of Buganda Kingdom as a potential tourism destination. The study attempted to urge interest groups to scrutinize the tourism possibilities beyond the mere sanitation exercise associated with “Bulungi Bwansi” but rather a collection of different humanistic and natural innovative practices that make up “Bulungi Bwansi” such as preservation of nature, food security, health care and traditional sanitation projects among others. Beyond its original goal of community sanitation service in Buganda, “Bulungi Bwansi” can further be developed into an event with a tourism face thus adding to Uganda’s wealth of attractive events and festivals. The sole motivation of this study was from the background that if communities or areas today can identify certain unique hotspots with tourism potentials and then develop them to become attractive then the given area becomes competitive in as far as a tourism destination is concerned.

The study was guided by the overall objective which was; to demonstrate bulungi bwa nsi / community service as niche and tourism stimuli in the exploitation of Lubaga Division’s potential as a tourism destination. To do so, the study adopted a cross sectional design where both quantitative and qualitative tools were used to obtain data from 60 participants consisting of traditional/local leaders, tourism operators, tourists as well as local community. The study sought to obtain three specific objectives, that is; to find out the various indigenous cultural, historical and political tourism products embedded in bulungi bwa nsi event, to determine the effects of niche tourism product on destination development of lubaga Division and to find out the gaps hindering the exploitation of bulungi bwa nsi as a tourism product in destination development.

The researcher employed a couple of sampling techniques; purposive and simple random to collect primary and secondary data through data collection methods such as questionnaires, interview guide which data was analysed to put together the findings in an articulate manner.

To take a peak into the findings, it was discovered that there is a general appreciation of bulungi bwa nsi event but no effort has been given to exploit it as a tourism product that can contribute to the general tourism in Uganda mainly due to constraints such as political unwillingness to adapt and support the event, corruption and financial limitations, information gaps, limited innovation and unreadiness of local community members among others. Various tourism potentials were unveiled which can be tailor made to suit the taste of different persons. It was also found that, in order to innovatively develop “Bulungi Bwansi” as a tourism niche, a number of obstacles ought to be diagnosed thus, several measures and recommendations were proposed in the light to streamlining “Bulungi Bwansi” as a tourism niche towards making Uganda a more attractive tourism destination. Among these were; to give bulungi bwa nsi global media coverage, engage in constructive research about the notion of niche tourism development, and engage in training and skill enhancement workshops to advance this event, to involve the local community mainly in participation and to create a welcoming and friendly environment free from instabilities and conflicts among others.

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