Six five-star hotels are to be constructed in six Ugandan national parks in a bid to boost tourism, the tourism state minister, Serapio Rukundo, has said. These national parks include Kidepo National Park, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Murchison Falls National Park, Lake Mburo National Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park would get the planned luxury lodging.

He pointed out that the Ministry of Tourism is negotiations with investors who own Uganda Hotels like Kempinski Hotels, Hilton Hotels, Sheraton Hotels and Serena Hotels to construct these hotels by 2012. Rukundo said this while launching the Pearl of Africa Tree at Akright Kakungulu Satellite City on Entebbe Road.

He said more hotels were needed near game parks to accommodate tourists.

For our tourists to face nature in its virginity, see animals like the  tree climbing lions of Ishasha Queen Elizabeth national park, the endangered mountain gorillas, wild chimpanzees they need comfortable accommodation of world standard in order to relax and enjoy our national parks. Therefore there is need to get improve lodging in all Uganda’s national parks.

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in Uganda, with earnings expected to reach $500m (about sh820b) annually. Last year, over 770,000 people visited Uganda. They included business travelers, visitors for conference and MICE, cross border tourists and participants at the Commonwealth summit.

The state minister for Urban planning in Uganda, Mr. Urban Tibamanya added on that the government was looking for investors to partner with Kampala slum-dwellers to develop the slums. He said the investors would construct storeyed buildings and share floors with the slum-dwellers.

Anatoli Kamugisha, the Akright managing director, asked the Government to enact strong laws to protect rare tree species like the Pearl of Africa Tree.