Factors affecting the promotion of local festivals for tourism in Uganda: A case study of Kampala Capital City.

Abstract

In Uganda particularly in Kampala, there are different festivities that take place which attract very many travelers who gather for entertainment purposes as well as leisure satisfaction. However, these festivals are not well documented as there is no information regarding the types of festivals that take place in Kampala and which activities do take place during such festivals thus creating a challenge in promotion and marketing of such festivals. This study aims to identify the different festivals that take place in Kampala. It was guided by objectives; to identify the different festivals taking place in Kampala city, to identify activities carried out during the different festivals in Kampala city and to find out the challenges that affect the promotion of festivals in Kampala city. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collections were used in data collection and as ample of 60 respondents from Nakasero, old Kampala and central divisions were randomly sampled while 5 official from KCCA were purposively sampled. Data was later analyzed using SPSS version 16. The study revealed different festivals around Kampala city which major ones were identified as Kampala city carnival, Rolex festival, cultural my identity, food festival and bakiga nation and most of these festivals happen annually. The study further revealed that people engage in festivals in Kampala city mostly as suppliers of both food staff and crafts to travelers, as revealers as well as the staff of the company organizing the event.it was further revealed that activities such as Selling of products and buying, interacting with friends, marketing of new products and show casing culture. However, the study identified that promotion of such festivals is associated with different challenges which were identified as insufficient funds, Limited marketing strategies, poor infrastructure development, and failure to reach the target market. It was from these findings that the study recommends that the Ministry of Wildlife and Tourism should help in sponsoring and promoting cultural events in an around Kampala city, further its recommended that the Tour operators should incorporate festivities in their packages on their websites and social media platforms as a way of making them known to tourists and lastly destination managers should educate the local people on the contributions of festivities on their local economy and the overall development of the area,