Impact of tourism to local community in national parks in Uganda. A case study of Queen Elizabeth national park.
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Date
2017-05
Authors
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Publisher
Kampala international University, College of Economics and Management
Abstract
The examined the tourism contributions towards livelihoods improvement in Queen Elizabeth Community neighboring Queen Elizabeth National Park. The study was guide by three objectives that is Identifying the tourism activities that take place in and around Queen Elizabeth national park, establishing how these activities have contributed to the improvement of community livelihoods in Queen Elizabeth community and establishing the challenges associated with utilization of tourism resources to enhance community livelihood in Queen Elizabeth community. The study used a cross sectional survey that employed both qualitative and quantitative methods and these included questionnaires, documentary review and interviews that were administered by the researcher. The research used a questionnaire as a data collection technique given to 80 respondents from a population of 100 people neighboring Queen
Elizabeth Park.
The findings revealed a number of tourism activities in Queen Elizabeth National park including, Wild life research tours, Hiking/ nature walk and Cultural wears and dances, Launch trip place at Kanzinga channel, Tucked beneath the shady canopy of Maramagambo forest. It was further established that people in engage in a number of activities including, Livestock farming, Provision of the effective information about different cultural activities. The study also found out that there are challenges affecting people in this area including land conflicts caused by displacements during park expansion is one of the greatest challenges impacting on their lives and stability of their businesses f activities they participate in. Local people also lack proper funding to run our tourism businesses. Language problem is another challenge since most of the tourists use foreign languages because they come from different regions. The results revealed a significant positive relationship between tourism development and local people livelihood.
Tourism can be a source of poverty eradication; therefore the study recommends that if the government focuses on developing areas where these parks are such as infrastructure development, it can help improve businesses development and economic development of such areas.
Description
Research Report Submitted to the College of Economics and Management Science in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Bachelor’s Degree in Tourism and Hotel Management of Kampala International University
Keywords
Tourism, Local community, National parks, Uganda, Queen Elizabeth national park