Females urged to embrace tour guiding

By Sophan Niwamanya

apearlnews.com

Stakeholders in the tourism industry in Kigezi Sub-region have called for deliberate moves aimed at increasing female involvement in tour guiding in the area.

These argue that despite the existing training opportunities in tour guiding, a lot of women have not taken up the profession and this has continued to increase gender disparity in the sector.

According to Dr. Christine Ampumuza, a lecturer of Tourism studies at Kabale University, a number of stereotypes about tour guiding have continued to discourage women from the practice.

With support from GIZ, a German development agency, the stakeholders have launched a move dubbed “Unlocking women’s potential in tourist guiding” that will inspire women to embrace the industry.

Lillian Kamusiime, the Director of Kigezi Biota Tours says that in this initiative, they will look for opportunities for girls who will have trained in tourism.

According to the Uganda Tourism Board database, Out of the 578 registered tour guides in Uganda, 47 are women constituting only 8.1%.